Teenagers

Teenagers have a lot to say for themselves but are not always heard. During 1987, I set out to find out how teenagers see their lives - what they worry about, what they like, what annoys them and what they think about the future.
I talked to about 300 teenagers over a period of five months and the results of those interviews have been turned into a book, to be published later this year or early 1989 by Allen and Unwin. This article draws together themes that reappear throughout the book and illustrates them with quotes from the teenagers themselves.
The research is suggestive rather than conclusive. My sample was not random in the statistical sense, and I did not collect quantitative data, and certainly I cannot generalise to all teenagers. However, I did cover a wide cross-section of people and gathered an extensive variety of opinions and experiences.