Representations of 15-20 year olds in TV drama

We (Amelia and I) looked at the representations of people aged 15-20 in:

• Waterloo Road
• Skins
• Shameless
• Hollyoaks
• Gossip Girl
• The OC
• The Inbetweeners
• Gilmore Girls
• Coronation Street
• Sabrina

Many of these are set in school environments because that is where kids spend most of their time. Some of them are lowerclass (Coronation Street and Shameless) whereas some are uppermiddle class (Gossip Girl and The OC).

Here is a playlist we made on youtube with clips of representations of youths.

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?pi=0&ps=20&sf=&sa=0&sq=&dm=0&p=6D5105AAF146B716

The stereotypes of young people being aggressive and out of line are portrayed in some of these such as in Skins, where all the teenagers do is party, have sex, and break the rules. This has parallels with Gossip Girl but also has many differences. In Gossip Girl the youths are much more sophisticated and mature, however they still break the rules and involve themselves in scandals.

Their struggles are about getting into Yale, whereas in Skins their struggles are about "getting laid" and trying to get their hands on new drugs.

Being in that age category, we feel a bit misrepresented by some programs because not all of us are crazy drug addicts who hate their parents (although obviously some are), so it is nice to see a diverse range of representations.