On top of raging hormones that can affect everything from temper to acne breakouts, teenagers are also struggling to define themselves and somehow find their own place in the world. A lot of the time, that just makes for a few difficult years and possibly some bad fashion decisions. Increasingly, however, it's causing serious problems. Ken Jacobsen is a counselor at the University of Northern Iowa's counseling center. He says it begins with society at large, and filters down to individual groups.
Teenagers do the same thing.
Young girls routinely starve themselves to achieve a certain look. Boys have become fussier about their hair and physical appearance than most girls typically become. Children steal, and even commit violent acts, to have the right tennis shoes. Nobody wants to be different, to be out. And in my experience, those standards are getting increasingly narrow.