Please take time to read this.....
This is a message I am desperately trying to spread awareness of. I wrote this piece myself and I think the message inside needs to be spread so please read it share it with friends because I just need people to hear what I have to say....
Dear society,
What is wrong with you? I mean seriously what is wrong with you? Why, do you feel the need to tear down kids and stamp on their dreams why do you feel the need to categorise us: nerds, popular, emo etc. What must break for you to treat us like robots forcing us into being people we hate and telling us that we aren’t good enough telling us that we need to be like them and telling them to be like someone else.
I mean is anyone really happy anymore?
No, they aren’t because you drag us down you make us feel like we have to constantly change ourselves to be accepted into you. I don’t speak as one person I speak as a voice. A voice for all of us saying the things no one has the guts to say. First, I speak for us kids, notice how I say kids, not teens because we are kids; we are children who are growing up in such a twisted version of you that our minds are falling apart. You gave us social media; then put a set group on a pedestal and if we are not like these we become outcasts and rejects. We don’t fit the standards so we are left to feel like we are not enough.
Why do you feel the need to tear us down when it is just as easy to lift us up? Why do you choose to destroy any shred of self-worth we have instead of helping us build our character and love ourselves? Forcing us into one set way of acting and looking setting unrealistic body types and shunning us for being anything different. Why is it that if we find our voices you yell over us and drown us out making us feel like we are not good enough?
Teenagers I speak to you directly now. We are a unique generation; one that is finding our voice but if we shout over each other we will never hear anyone’s voice. We have the power to make a real change, to do something worthwhile, reshape society. Reshape it to one where: we don’t have cliques, one where everyone is their own person; one where mental health isn’t a trend, and those that need help can get it from everyone else because it’s not a forbidden topic. We all have so much to say but we don’t dare for fear of being judged.
But what if we stopped it what if we listened to ourselves?
We would soon realise we are more alike than we are different. We all have a voice; we are all affected by the same issues, yet we don’t speak about them because it goes against society's norms. Screw society I know there are so many of us struggling but we don’t know how to help ourselves or others because no one talks about it. We need to work together to save ourselves (if no one else) but we can’t keep going on like this. We shun each other through social media because we want to feel better we want people to hurt as we hurt. We don’t think. A little kindness goes a long way it’s time we started to work together and rebel against what we are ‘supposed to do’.
Adults I speak to you now and as a teenager, it may be biest but here me out. Stop blaming all teens' issues on social media just because you don’t understand it. Yes, social media cause issues but if you took the time to get to know us you would understand there is so much more to the story than that. We struggle because society has made it that way. Society has made it so that we can only talk about the Kardashians or some bullshit instead of the important things such as mental health and how to help each other. I understand that you guys were once teenagers but things have changed we live in a different world to the one you did so giving us a film about suicide prevention isn’t going to solve the world's issues. We have voices. We are people and we are all different. We are not numbers on a test paper. We are real people with real issues and people that can make a real difference.
School looks the same as it did 100 years ago yet so much else has changed: we don’t all learn in the same way and we won’t be inspired by a short film because we have been raised in a society that tells us that if we speak out about these issues then we are odd we don’t fit in. Stop pretending you understand and get to know us to help us to find the answers we all so desperately need, please.
And now back to you society. You’ve messed with our heads for too long we need to stand up to you and you need to change. You need to lift us up and make important topics important again teach us how to love one each other not give us screens to hide behind. You’re a coward and you need to change you need to adjust to us you need to help us understand each other and ourselves not lock us into our minds. I’m done with your crap and believe me when I say change is coming whether your ready or not. I don’t care if I stand alone but I will fight until I die to change how you make us see ourselves and the world.
