Can you remember the last time somebody asked a teenager how they felt, instead of what they’ve achieved?
Sometimes it can feel like society measures a teenager’s worth by their grades and accomplishments, ignoring their complex inner world.
Art is one of the ways that teenagers can express themselves, allowing them to shine beyond layers of imposed expectations.
Adolescence is a time of confusion, isolation, and emotional volatility. Many feel alone, yet art translates emotions words cannot. For me, writing is my voice.
Art challenges, communicates and helps teens reflect on the social obstacles.
The Power and Necessity of Creative Expression
It’s rage without destruction, introspection without retreat, and sadness without shame – a safe space. Treating art as expendable and dismissing creativity harms teenagers who already feel unseen.
It deprives expression from people who need it the most.
Teenagers cannot grow into healthy, resilient adults without self-expression. Some people see the arts as less useful than science or maths, but creativity is what fuels innovation – which is what these subjects rely on.
Teenagers aren’t machines and they shouldn’t be expected to act like them. They’re people. So let them feel, create, let them be messy. Teenagers deserve a chance to grow into the future and into themselves.
Giving them a voice, a brush, a stage, an instrument, is giving us art.
Read more stories from the Sandgate Guide print magazine here:
- Bramble Buzz: Updates from the Community
- Podcast Review: It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton
- Organic Gardening in June
- Harry Potter Forest Experience Casts Spell on Brisbane
- Buying A New Computer
- Fun and Games: Childhood in Early Sandgate
- Tune In To Happiness
- Snapper Chrysophrys auratus
- Shining A Light on Community Art
- Local Rising Star Bound for Broadway
- Final Cheers for Beloved Brighton Hangout
- KSBA Photo Competition
- Former navy diver clears the way for others
- Take The Bloody Long Walk for Mito
