Teen TV And The Elimination Of Tweens

Tween is a transitional phase between the ages of 8-14, it is the threshold between childhood and teen years. This phase is detrimental to healthy development, and it is better known as the "middle school" phase.

Nowadays, due to the influence of tv and media, tweens are becoming a rarer phenomenon, as they are encouraged to grow faster and shed the layers of their childish selves like never before.

To start off, one of the issues which tweens face is that there isn't much media out there that is relatable to them, most streaming companies aren't working on media that is appropriate for their age, nor healthy for their developing minds. If you were asked to name any popular tv shows made for tweens/teens, you would probably mention, Gossip Girl, Riverdale, Euphoria...etc. All of which depict 14-16-year-olds leading very different lives from the audience watching at home. Even though the stories in these tv shows are meant to be about teens, the cast is adults who have left the rough teen years behind, therefore, these "teenagers" are depicted as beautiful, tall, fashionable, and acne-free individuals, which leads the younger audience to have feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem. Not to mention, in many of these shows, teens are shown to engage in underage drinking, sex, and drugs, which could lead to a negative influence on their impressionable minds.

Consequently, one sees many tweens these days doing their best to appear like adults, by resorting to makeup and adult fashion. Most 14-year-olds these days can pass for being in their early 20s. which begs the question, how did we get here?

This is the direct result of the sexualization of young girls, which has been happening for as long as the media became a thing, from the sexualization of teen stars such as Britney Spears to the countdown of the Olsen twins' 18th birthday, TV and media have dedicated much of their entertainment resources to sexualizing young girls.

It is very important to note that there are tv shows which depict the tween/teen experience accurately and are made for the teen demographic, tv shows such as Degrassi, Nerwegan Skam, and Sex Education. These shows tackle everyday issues faced by tweens/teens as they navigate friendships and crushes, and they do so without glamourizing darker and more adult issues or sexualizing young girls.

Every phase one goes through in the process of growing up is important, and comes with its unique set of issues, the encouragement of young girls to grow past their teen years and skip ahead into adulthood would ultimately result in them lacking certain experiences down the line.