Adolescent Struggle Quotes

I read 'The Bell Jar' as an adolescent and, like most teenagers, had no problem identifying with a young woman who had everything going for her - looks, talent, opportunity, with her 'whole life ahead of her,' yadda, yadda, yadda - yet was spiraling into misery.

I think, for many teens, a fundamental fact of the teenage experience is that you're in between this childlike state, in which you're told you're completely unqualified for just about anything in the adult world, and this adult world, where you're being told you have to be responsible, and you're just trying to figure out where you stand.

When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values[...].

I was mortified by my parents - what they did, who they were, everything. I hated who I was. I hated everything, and I would live in a fantasy world and try to be different. But that's not a lot different, I think, than a lot of kids.

The first time I wore a head scarf, I was 16. I looked and felt like a nun. I missed the wind in my hair. For me, it was not a comfortable thing to wear.

Since age twelve, I've felt like I'm someone else,'cause I hung my original self from the top bunk with a belt.

I was 12 years old when I first moved to New York, and at that age, you're trying to find yourself. It was hard being so different from everyone I was around, and I felt that nobody could really understand me because everyone was American, and I was this little English girl with an accent.

My mother did all she could to control me, but at age 14 she sent me to a military school.

Each generation needs a 'Spider-Man' to mirror their angst.

Make no mistake, adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed.

From the moment I was six I felt sexy. And let me tell you it was hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it.

I was a gay kid who didn't know I was a gay kid, which was really challenging because you think there is something wrong with you until you understand what it is.

At the age of 11 I was about 6 ft. tall and my voice had completely broken. That caused problems. I was this gangly, spotty, very unattractive kid. I wasn't cool and I wasn't a nerd. I didn't even want to fit in with anyone.

If there's anything worse than being 16, it's having parents visibly reliving their own teenage years in your anguished presence.

Once I took a bus from my home in Maryland to Philadelphia to live on the streets with some musicians for a few weeks, and then my parents sent me to boarding school at Andover to shape me up.

I wrote my first song at 12 and remember someone asking, 'What were you going through at 12 that you could write about?' I get what you're saying, but 11, 12, 13 were the hardest years of my life. You learn everything. You learn how horrible things feel.

High school is a pit of despair. It's a swirling tornado of insecurities and there's really nothing good about it. It's at the time where everybody is waking up with different opinions every day, and you're on this learning curve of who you are and who you want to be, and you're comparing yourself with every other male and female around you. There's no sense to it.

There was a point when I was 15 or 16 that I realized that my father wanted me to be a loner. I decided, 'It's okay to be an introvert, but I don't want to be a loner. I want a few other people in my life.'

My mom would say I'm a good kid… but I put them through a lot. I was rejecting religion and, not permanently, also kind of rejecting the things that they'd taught me, and just trying to think for myself.

At 19, I was in the streets making money. I was surviving.

...I'm thirteen years old, and I think I'm at the crossroads of my life. I've got to make good between now and the time I'm twenty, and I have only seven years to do it in. Besides, I'm the father of my family and I've got to earn all the money I can.

Adolescence is a kind of slavery cleverly disguised as freedom.

When I was trying out for my first Olympics at 16, my family and coaches tried to regulate what I ate. But the stricter they got, the more I rebelled.

By the time I was 16, I was someone to reckon with. I was so eager to repudiate any connection with any immigrant race, I would go above and beyond. I was desperate to belong to something. That was my drive as a teenager.

I don't write about adolescence. I write about war. For adolescents.