Have you ever been stressed out about tests, friends, looks or clubs? Of course you have! Today, there is so much pressure on teenagers to look a certain way and be friends with certain people, all while maintaining good grades and participating in extracurricular activities. First, let’s address college. For some of us, college is years away and for others it’s just around the corner. Our whole lives have been spent in preparation for what happens during and after college. No pressure there. Being as we’re in high school, I would hope that everyone knows about the SAT, ACT and other standardized tests. Some juniors, and definitely seniors, have likely already taken these examinations. The SAT and its peers play a huge role in determining where a person goes to college and, as we are so often told, what he or she does later on in life. Most teenagers will probably feel nervous after reading this, and with good reason. On average, college tuition over $31,000 per year. Students are up all hours of the night studying, while spending their days participating in often strenuous extracurricular activities. A survey from The American Psychological Association shows that on a ten-point scale, teenagers rated their stress levels at a 5.8 versus a 5.1 for adults. According to this survey, most teens report that their stress has gotten worse, rather than better, as time passes.

Now that we’ve addressed college, we can move onto friends and appearances. Society pushes teenagers out into the world with an idea of what they are supposed to look like and whom they should hang out with. This drastically affects teenagers, influencing what they buy and how they act. Even as little kids, we’re taught about the stereotypical cliques: the “jocks,” “popular girls,” “nerds,” “outsiders” and so on. There is so much pressure to fit in with these groups and to look “perfect.” Girls all over the world buy makeup, face treatments, and certain styles of clothes to fit in and look the way they are expected to. Guys wear the “coolest shoes,” play sports, and listen to popular music. And of course, many of these kids do happen to genuinely like sports, music, and certain trends. But would they still like these things if they weren’t so popular? Fitting into stereotypes can seem so important nowadays, but it can also make one feel like he or she doesn’t belong.

A few of our classmates have been kind enough to share their thoughts on the stress and pressure put on teenagers. “There are so many people who we, as teenagers, look up to who might look a certain way that we feel we have to [imitate]. There is so much stress that  if we don’t fit into the so-called ‘popular group,’ we feel like outcasts,” said one Whitman freshman. Another freshman stated, “When my brother was in his junior year of high school, he didn’t stop working until one o’clock in the morning each night. We barely saw him. The amount of stress [placed] on him and all the work he had to do kind of scared me.” A sophomore commented that, “The amount of stress [associated with] applying for college is huge, and even though I’m only in my sophomore year, I know upperclassmen who tell me how much work they have to do to [prepare for higher education].”

The stress caused by applying to college and personal appearance also exceptionally benefits the economy—from ACT and SAT prep classes to makeup and expensive clothing. ACT and SAT prep, for example, can cost as much as $2,000—you are basically paying to study. And as teens, we are also extremely concerned with how we look. We buy face creams for acne redness and other insecurities. We buy these products to feel more confident in our own skin. The economy feeds off of this constantly, adding more and more anxiety and pressure to our generation. When will teenagers really be allowed to act their age?