Volume 1 (1999/2000)
Issue 1 (March 1999)
Issue 2 (Nov. 1999)
Issue 3 (Dec. 1999)
Issue 4 (Feb. 2000)
Issue 5 (March 2000)
Issue 6 (April 2000)
Issue 7 (May 2000)

Volume 2 (2000/2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2000)
Issue 2 (Oct. 2000)
Issue 3 (Jan. 2001)
Issue 4 (March 2001)
Issue 5 (April 2001)
Issue 6 (May 2001)

Volume 3 (2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2001)
Issue 2 (Nov. 2001)

Categories
Sport: 1 2 3
Lifestyles: 1 2 3
Commentary: 1 2 3
Review: 1 2 3
Writing: 1 2 3
Event: 1 2 3

I have become a cartoon character

Grace O'Connor
Avondale CC, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow

Here we are in the 21st Century, the year 2001, and still there are prejudices, stereotypes, and ridiculous attitudes towards things or people that we don't understand.

I wish I could say I was about to astound you with new facts and views on the lack of equality between the sexes, or amaze you with a modern solution to racism and racist-fuelled violence, but I'm not.

No, what I'm going to astonish you with is a truthful, selfish (because it's in my own interest and good to write this) and probably fairly biased account of how almost everyone over thirty perceives anyone older than twelve but younger than twenty, otherwise known as 'teenagers'.

It seems as though the human race took all its faults and problems and labelled it 'adolescence'. This includes selfishness (okay I confess to that one), temper tantrums, eating disorders, drug abuse, and most recently binge drinking. (Thank you Michael Martin - on top of the wonderful name we already have we really needed that!)

It seems as though somebody saw fit to collect all the traits or problems I outlined and create a character.

This character is messy, burns money, and is susceptible to a dangerous condition known as 'peer pressure'. This causes a lack of individuality and wild irrational behaviour usually involving narcotics of some description. Our character wears baggy trousers and a huge loose shirt (or in the case of girls, a skin-tight belly-top with the essential ring and chain showing), and of course has a mobile phone. However, we don't use the phones to talk. Oh no, they serve only one very important purpose, our communication via 'txt msg' (text message), and we girls giggle, gossip and constantly text each other about the opposite sex or skimpy clothes we bought. (Oh my God-like you soooo can't wear that girl, its not your shade!)

Has the adult world forgotten what it was like for them as the younger generation? Do we reach thirty and fall victim to wilful amnesia?
Or is it jealousy?
Is the little green monster hiding behind this barrage of criticism?
Do our mothers disapprove of our clothes because they know they couldn't get an arm into that skirt let alone their bodies?
Perhaps?

I suppose the big question is will somebody kill off this cartoon character in time to save young people's reputation and sanity.

Teenagers, adolescents, juveniles, call us what you want, but could we please be portrayed differently. Not as manipulative scheming minds hidden behind a blotchy face, but as the younger generation, interested in daily happenings and normality as most adults are, albeit fronted by a blotchy face.

This typecasting can be stopped, this character forgotten, and it's creator taken out and shot, otherwise we continue to endure the consequences, until the time comes for us to emerge from our cocoon, (roll on twentieth birthday!) as a wonderful butterfly of adulthood, stepping into the white light of perfection.

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