Movie certainly not reflective of my life as a teen, nor my peers.

by daffodil54 » Tue Feb 17 2015
No cutting, no sex, no smoking, no drugs of any kind unless it's coffee.

I'm surprised there are people who have led such terrible lives in first-world nations. While my parents have been too hard at times and showed little love (I was not physically abused in any way) they are not too neglectful and uncaring.


I suppose all the terrible adults I see in the world had similar upbringing as Nikki. They really are effed up. Adolescence can F you up and that is the time when RIGHT support and coaching is needed.

WoW! I'm shocked at the wondering awe of there being teens experimenting with ^^all of the above listed actions/behaviors^^ due to the fact that these particular individuals make up quite a large percentage of the population as a whole. And no, a good majority of those young people who take part in these often times negative actions/behaviors did not come from "terrible lives" with terrible parents that were either/both abusive, neglectful, and/or uncaring.. much, much different is the fact that many of these young people have stable home lives with parents who very much do give a damn about their child/teen, yet still are faced with struggles due to their child's choices/decisions, actions/behaviors.

I certainly came from and was raised in a stable, two-parent household where both parents did nothing wrong, or neglectful in their raising me, nor did I ever believe I had parents who didn't care...just the opposite. Now, I did not suffer from any of the issues that are usually at the core, root of an individual who is found to be "cutting", or in other ways causing themselves actual physical harm.. but I absolutely did make poor choices in many of my actions/behaviors as a teen/college student. my parents did all the "right things"...I was always involved in extra curricular activities, raised in a good church, and attended a private school where I had a tight knit group of friends that I "grew up" with.

Those tight knit, close friends were also raised quite similarly, yet, they too made their plenty, fair share of piss poor choices along the way just as I did..and I can say with certainty that we were far, far, far from being in the minority ratio of adolescents who rebeled, were wild, and/or experimented throughout our teen years... yet we went on to finish college, and lead productive lives with families of our own now. I guess its that personal knowledge and experience that has me speak with such certainty about teens negative actions/behaviors are NOT at all something unique, abnormal, or uncommon..infact the complete, polar opposite is fact, a large percentage of teens/young adults indulging in negative actions/behaviors is absolute commonplace..it was through the mid 90's when I went through those phases, and it still is commonplace here and now, in the present.

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This movie has the same problem as "Kids". Are there many "13-year-old girls" who easily look 17 or 18 (because they're played by a couple unusually attractive 15-year-old Hollywood actresses)? Uh, probably not that many. Are there many "13-year-olds" that engage in this kind of behavior even though they're from a relatively stable middle-class background? Again, no not that many.

So then they combine the two things because you can't have a movie about poor, disenfranchised, or god forbid, unattractive girls (who in real life are much more likely to engage in behavior like this). And they just don't make movies about well-behaved teenagers that respect their parents and DON'T get into trouble (even though that is actually much more common). But now you have a COMBINATION that is REALLY uncommon. OK, but that doesn't mean it's totally unrealistic and you can't make a movie about it, right?

The problem is you don't call the movie "Thirteen" or "Kids" and try to scare parents that this is what ALL their kids or up to. That's just bullsh!t. But at least it might be socially responsible in a misguided way, right? But REAL kids see movies like this and think this is what the "cool kids" are doing. It's basically makes ugly, real-life deviancy look glamorous and normal.

I don't think sending parents a questionable "wake up call" justifies the message a movie like this sends to impressionable teenagers. If this were treated more as a singular, PERSONAL story (like say the more recent "Little Birds" or the French movie "Puppy Love"), I wouldn't dislike it. But it has absolutely no business calling itself "Thirteen"

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Sex and drugs were prominent in my middle school, but I never got involved in either one. I was violently ill when I was a teen, and I didn't want to risk mixing illegal drugs with drugs I was prescribed. On top of that, teenage boys are horrible to people who are sick, even their own.

The cutting? That I saw every day. A lot of my friends cut themselves--one to the point where she was repeatedly hospitalized for it. Probably, I would have done it if I had not needed surgery every year (my teenage tagline: 'I don't need to cut myself. I can pay a surgeon to do it for me.')

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It isn't supposed to be reflective of everyone's adolescence, but no doubt that the movie rings true for many people.

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I'm surprised there are people who have led such terrible lives in first-world nations.I suppose all the terrible adults I see in the world had similar upbringing as Nikki.

Just by reading this, I can see you are a terrible person high on white privilege.

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Even if you grow up in a loving and caring environment, things can get pretty bad especially as a teenager, and don't think parents or other adults will notice, especially if they haven't made similar experiences on their own.

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I was thirteen when I first watched this movie (the irony!) with my then best friend, who was also thirteen. I am from Europe and not from a first-world country, born in a good family, attended public schools, both me and my best friend. While most of the things depicted in this movie seemed a bit exaggerated to me, some of those things do happen if you lead them. My best friend started dyeing her hair at the age of fourteen; she had an older sister who started smoking, getting tattoos and piercings before flying out the nest for college, so my friend followed her path, getting her tongue and belly and upper ears pierced before she finished high-school. I had been in the same class with her since kindergarten until we both graduated high-school. But we stopped being friends in, like, seventh grade, because she became the popular girl - the 'Evie' of my school, everyone wanted to hang out with her, she started dating older guys that she'd met in the neighborhood or through her sister, she made an image for herself. And I did not follow her cult. I remained the geeky girl, who didn't smoke or get piercings or tattoos. Hell, I didn't even have boyfriends. Because of the obvious recent differences between us, I just let her be, and she let me be too, although on occasions she'd voluntarily come to my rescue if I was bullied, which I silently appreciated. We haven't spoken in almost ten years now, but we keep track of each other on facebook. Her parents had a nasty divorce and she moved to a different country with her mother. She'd been through a lot, but she also got rid of her piercings and bad habits when she hit coming of age. We both graduated from college with top marks this year and I wish her the best. So I think seemingly bad people can change too, especially if they display rebellious behavior at a fairly young age, with or without counselling/coaching.

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