07 Oct 2020

Ah, our teenage years. A time of roaring house parties, perfect skin and bods, glamorous clothes and Romeo and Juliet like love stories… Wait, what? Yep, you’ve been pranked by prank patrol! Teenage life is pretty far from all that glitz and glamour.

Here are five things movies got oh so wrong about teenage years.

1. Teens never have acne

Excuse me, but on a regular basis I would rock up to school with green pimple cream still splattered over my face from the night before. But in the movies, flawless skin is apparently the norm for every teenager…

I mean, what pimple cream were they using? I thought mine was pretty good (tea-tree oil and all).

Not to mention their perfect figure-8 bods, immaculate hair and rock-hard abs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen awkward tan lines on the silver screen either?! Lies I tell you, it’s far from the realities of us today.

2. Everyone has school spirit

We’ve got spirit yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you? Yeah nah mate, I’m good hey.

In the movies, high school life is abundant in school chants, mascots, cheerleaders, football teams, tournaments, matches, spelling bees and math teams.

Maybe these are all true for American teenagers with their lockers and cafeterias but for the most part, in the land down under, we are severely lacking in the school spirit department – and that’s not a bad thing either.

I don’t think I ever knew what school sports team I was in… I think it was blue. The point is, for most of us, school carnivals were just a sweet day away from the classroom to pretend to peg discuses at our mates or enter the 50m swimming contest just to get in the water since it’s a 40-degree day.

3. There are house parties on the reg

How boujee are parties on the big screen? Hundreds of teens frolicking around a mansion, most definitely with a pool, drinking from red cups and kegs without a parental guardian in sight.

There were a handful of parties from high school and they mostly involved pathetic games of goon of fortune, awkward hook-ups and parents going off at someone for vomiting on the carpet.

4. They dress like models

Mate, if I wasn’t in my school or work uniform, I wore the same Led Zeppelin shirt every day (and night). My hair perpetually resembled a birds nest, I had awkward tan lines for days and a massive gut from too many cupcakes.

Even for my Year 12 formal, I didn’t look as put-together and perfect as teens in the movies - in fact, I ended up resembling Honey Boo Boo Child but that’s a whole other story for another time.

Why do teens in movies look drop dead gorgeous every day, looking like they just stepped out for Fashion Week? Well, I guess they have what we don’t – makeup artists and costume designers.

5. Teenagers look suspiciously… old

The funny thing is, growing up as a teenager, I thought I was supposed to look older. Then I realised that was because teenagers on screen are hardly ever real teenagers!

Are you ready for me to blow your mind? Rachel McAdams (Regina George) in Mean Girls was 25. Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye) in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was 30. Stacey Dash (Dionne Davenport) in Clueless was 28. I’m at uni and I still look like an infant.

Just because movies have been portraying teenage life savagely wrong for a while now, that doesn’t mean that it has to stay like this forever! In fact, if you’re keen to enter the movie biz either in front or behind the camera, we’ve paired with our mates over at Academy of Film, Theatre and Television (AFTT) to run a gnarly competition where you get to tell us what movie project you would’ve loved to work on.

A competition where I tell you my favourite movie? How do I enter?!

All you have to do is head here and answer in 100-150 words:

  • What your dream job in the film industry would be
  • What would've been your dream project - whether that be a specific film, theatre production or even music video

What can I win?!

First of all, AFTT need to be on your radar if you dream to perform, produce, direct, sing, dance or design. They have an array of courses and just recently launched their first-ever Bachelor of Acting! Get ready to win an Oscar, hey!

But if you enter, you go in the running to win a pair of AirPods Pro and a mentorship with an industry expert.

I know you didn’t ask, but I’m a movie buff! For me personally, my dream job in the film industry would have been directing the classic teen movie, Dazed and Confused. That looks like it would have been a hoot and a half to work on and it’s one of the only teen movies that really gets teen life right!

Make sure to suss out more about AFTT here and jump over here to enter this unreal competition. And don't forget to check out all the T's & C's here.