STATUS: Spent some time on the phone with tech people trying to figure out why I was receiving emails but not able to send. Fun that was not!
What’s playing on the iPod right now? THAT GIRL by Stevie Wonder
On Sunday, I went out to dinner with my husband and a couple of his friends that he’s known since grad school. One of the former school chums brought her 15 year old son to dinner with us (who, by the way, was only 7 last time we saw him—sheesh time flies).
He probably thought I was the biggest dork on the planet but he was very kind when I peppered him with questions about his current teen life.
So this is what I discovered.
He likes hip-hop—be it with graphic lyrics or not.
He plays rugby (they have that sport in high school?) but liked that I play Ultimate Frisbee and he might want to give that a try.
He calls himself “preppy.” ( I hadn’t heard that term in a while!)
His best friend calls himself an “EMO.”
First time I’d ever heard the word but I guess this is quite the rage at the moment in high schools (and yes, I did start feeling a little ancient). “Emo” is short for “emotionals.” According to him (and yes, I understand that one source is hardly scientific), EMOs like to wear tight jeans (really straight leg), color their hair (but they don’t always have to), and like to listen to death metal or something that might be similar (that was a little fuzzy for me and the bands he named weren’t ones I recognized).
I felt like I had been given a peek into a secret world.
Then last night I was reading a partial that I had requested and boom, what did I see in the sample pages? A reference to EMOs.
I felt cool for about 10 seconds.
But I highlight this story to point out one thing. If you write contemporary young adult, you’d better know what’s going on in the young adult world. Teen readers can spot a fake or a preachy adult in a New York minute.
And as an agent who reps YA, I need to know what’s going on in the contemporary YA world too.
So, I see more dinners with my friends’ teenage kids in my future. As for the tween set, my nieces have got my back….
I’ve never posted here before, but I have to crawl out of the woodwork for this one and say Thank You!!! I used the term ‘Emo’ in one of my books and an editor nailed me for it – said she had no clue what it meant. After raising two daughters, one of whom just turned 20, my venacular is maybe a tad bit whacked for a middle-aged woman. LOL!
Anyway, thanks for the props…
Yay! I can actually help with this one.
EMOs: Not really kids that are just “emotional” like drama queens, but kids who look like they’re depressed (and most of the time, they really are). The kids who dye their hair (usually a dark color), wear dark eyeliner, cut their wrists, listen to music with lyrics made to just bring you down, and think that they’re misunderstood. And supposedly, most of them are bisexual too.
Preps: (I only know about the girl version, but you obviously need some insight, lol) They wear Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, American Eagle, and all the other overpriced clothes brands out there (but those are the main three). The girls gossip a lot, they’re usually fake, and have drama going on like every three seconds. They also hang out with different people every year (and that one never fails: they love each other one year, hate each other the next).
Guidos/Guidettes: (This might just be a Jersey thing, but I doubt it, since the term is all over myspace) This is a really new group (only popped up last year, I think). The “guidos” are the Italian wannabes. They haunt teen clubs and they sexually abuse their hair gel. They will also leave you marvelling at how in the world their skin came to be literally one shade away from being pure orange (addiction to fake tanning).
When the trend first popped up, everybody was all of a sudden 100% Italian. All the boys spiked their hair like Europeans and all the girls liked to “frolic” with them (that’s an extremely stupid dance, but a Guido trademark). They also think it’s extremely cool to misspell the f-word as “fcuk” (but it stands for some clothes brand that I’ve never heard of–they dress preppy byt the way) and it’s usually splashed all over their myspace pages.
Anyway, after about four or five months, everybody (except the Guidos, that is) decided that the trend was “gay” and that anybody who followed it “should be stabbed.” So now, only really conceited people (or guys who can’t escape their Italian appearances) admit that they’re guidos/guidettes.
Losers: Includes nerds, emos, goths, outcasts.
All the other labels are the same as they’ve always been.
Oh–and emos write poetry too. In fact, it seems like anybody who says they write poetry for fun gets labeled as an “emo.”
That sounds like emo fashion all right, but death metal =/= emo. Death metal may have its flaws, but whinyness isn’t usually one of them.
Kristin, I would be happy to rent you my two teenagers – all you have to do is feed them!
Emo has been around for quite a while now. They’re not Goths, but it’s kind of a close distinction. Nerds and Geeks are still around, too, and my older son and I actually had an interesting conversation about the difference between the two the other day. In his opinion, he’s a nerd – prefers indoorsy, computer/video game related activities. Geeks are Nerds but with math & science skills.
And my boys really only read graphic novels, in case you’re wondering about the reading habits of teenaged boys. They spend a ton of money on Manga every month (Japanese Graphic Novels).
Emos are the new goth. They have all the same woe-is-me symptoms that goths used to have, leaving the goths to pick up the slack punk left behind (i.e. rage louder and angrier about the woe that is them).
One thing that remains the same, teens like labels. And if writers are feeling intimidated by the trend du jour, they can always make up their own niche and be ahead of the pack.
Oh, and FCUK? It’s huge where I live, especially amongst older teens/college kids. I love their t-shirts (e.g. ‘What the fcuk?’). But I never claimed to have contracted maturity…
Teenager here. Everyone pretty much hit everything right on, although one thing to add. Not every teenager likes labels. In fact, most (or, at least, teenagers I am acquainted with, can’t speak for everyone) do not like them at all. Though it’s usually simple to lump them in a category (walk into any cafeteria and you can single out the goths, preps, emos, etc.) you’d be hard pressed to walk up to a kid and ask them what their label is and have them willingly tell you. Even if it’s easy to tell who’s who, we still like to pretend we’re all original 😉
I’ve never heard of “EMO”. Huh. But I do have the best job to find out about the kids I write for. Substitute teacher.
Yeah. You get to hang out and observe kids in their natural environment AND get paid for it, but you don’t have all the pesky responsibilities of a real teacher.
It’s like going to the zoo. I had a three day assignment with some great kids, and I really connected with them. It was cool. Any MG or YA writer who is not a teacher should make it a point to do something like this. Subbing is fun and rewarding. And you get prep periods to write or read. But I will warn you, a day in elementary school WILL wear you out.
Ok, so I asked my teenage son (15) if he knew what an EMO was…Uh, what? Oh I think it might be a type of a person, I’m not sure.
So is this regional, or is my sone just out of the loop?
I don’t think that authors should really worry about the labels too much. The only thing I have a problem with is the way that some writers have their teens talking.
With God as my witness, the next YA book I read that has a characters saying something along the lines of “Oh gosh, isn’t this like totally fab?” I’m going to come after the guilty author in the middle of the night and forcefully make them browse myspace until they get it right.
Nobody says “fab” unless they’re being funny, and even the preppiest girls don’t say “like” after literally every other word. Oh, and “gosh”? Nobody says that anymore. We say either “hell,” “damn,” or “God” now. And yeah, that includes the nice kids.
Also, “emo” doesn’t need to be written in all caps. It’s not an acronym for anything; it’s just short for “emotional.” It came about as a way to describe music (and it’s still used that way — i.e. emo kids listen to emo), but then started being used to describe a whole lifestyle. Kathy, I don’t know if it’s a regional thing, but I’m sure it’s easier to turn yourself into an emo kid in a city or a suburb rather than a small town or rural area. Emo kids need a.) certain clothes, and b.) places to see live music.
Miss Guzzums, I agree that it’s very, very easy to pick out phony teenage dialogue in books. I’m in my 20s, but I read a lot of YA, and dialogue that doesn’t ring true might as well be printed in bright red.
I think the way kids talk is pretty regional as well.
One reason not to use trendy slang (“cool” is fine) or something that may be too regionally specific.
On the other hand, certain regional terms can help ground your character and her background. My main character is from Ohio, so she says things like “pop” and “tree lawn” and I get fanmail all the time from Midwesterners saying that Amy sounds like she’s from Shaker Heights. (Whereas my copy editor says, “what’s a tree lawn?”
We called Emos “goth” (Ok, we called them other things too, but goth was the nicest.) They listened to The Cure.
Preps – wore button down shirts, khaki pants, and the girls seemed to have the sole ambition of wearing as many pairs of socks as their shoes would allow – all color coordinated to their outfits. Their wardrobes were by Izod and anything from the Limited. They listened to Wham! in jr high, by high school, only George Michael.
Burnouts – self-explanatory. I don’t think they listened to anything – they just stared at the walls a lot.
Motorhead – see burnouts, only they could fix anything with a motor. Big Ozzy fans. Also listened, ironically enough, to Motorhead.
Metalheads – a distant cousin of the burnout, these guys played Metallica until their ears bled so they could learn to play guitar. They all had their own bands.
Jocks – self explanatory – all they listened to was Queen’s “We Will Rock You”. Actually, I’m sure there was other stuff, but this was their favorite even though my high school’s football team stunk.
Nerds – a lot like preps, only their khakis were about three inches above their ankles. And they had pocket protectors. Can’t forget the pocket protector. Everyone else works for them now.
That was high school – of course, each group had it’s subgenres, of course. And you had the Leftovers – who didn’t really fit in anywhere.
I wonder how everything has changed…
Wow – now I do feel old 🙂
You got the Emos right–at least in my part of the world. So glad neither of my kids are Emos. Miss Guzzums has it about right, according to my kids.
Cindy
FCUK was used in ads as a cool acronym for French Connection UK. Some people kicked up a storm over it, but it stayed. Sounds like it’s going global.
It is important to stay on top of current trends in youth culture. Being in my early 20’s, I’m not that far away from the generation gap.
In any case, not everyone likes to be called emo. It’s usually considered a derogatory term and even some bands that fit into that genre of music don’t even like to be associated with the genre emo because it has strayed so much from the 1980s Washington D.C. scene where it originally stemmed from with bands like Sunny Day Real Estate.
The mainstream view of what defines emo is skewed. Although I’m no longer a teenager, I still enjoy going to local venues for hardcore or metal shows and what people refer to as emo in the mainstream sense is what we refer to as “scene” kids. Those are the kids that show up to for the fashion, they don’t join in on the mosh pits, and they are typically seen as elitist.
But that’s just one girl’s two cents on the scene that she thrives in. Emo to us is what poser goths were to “real” goths back in the day.
I thought this was a wonderful update. Good job! It was entertaining to me, and gave a nice bit of information at the end.
In addition to the groups mentioned, there’s still another group at my kids’ schools here in the Pacific Northwest. They’re the PacSun/Zumiez crowd. I guess you’d call them the snowboarder/alternative group. They listen to a lot of alternative music and go to music festivals like Bumbershoot and Sasquatch.
I think the hard thing about YA is how fast these groups pop up and change. And also, how fast the slang morphs and changes.
What bugs me most about would-be Young Adult writers? Assumptions and stereotypes! Few writers can truly relive the thoughts and feelings of adolescense to adequately write for that age group. Likewise, if you don’t enjoy hanging out with teenagers, it will show in your writing.
Anyone visiting certain parts of Stockholm last night could have witnessed throngs of emo-kids forming a line stretching for several blocks waiting for the Fall Out Boy concert. And yes, I have one of them (an emo-kid that is, not a Fall Out Boy) living under my roof. Don’t know about the cutting of wrists though. Maybe I should go look…!
I second what Christine said about substitute teaching. I sub at a Jr. High School. The first thing I noticed was how out of touch I am with the middle school world. I’m 23 and have younger siblings, so I thought I was still young enough to remember what it was like – but apparently not!
In my region, emos are in a different category from goths. And they definitely don’t listen to death metal. When I think of emo music, I think of Linkin Park.
I have three teenagers, all readers. I don’t write YA, but have tried to buy it for them in the past. Doesn’t happen any more. They’d go through the books, read a passage aloud and smirk. They have very specific tastes, and are very turned off by some authors who are “confused about their age.” In other words, the writer is an adult, and they were turned off not necessarily by the writing, but by the promotion, the author’s “look at me I’m hip” coolness factor.
I’ve sworn never to try and be cool.
My kids read a lot of fantasy and historical novels.
“First time I’d ever heard the word but I guess this is quite the rage at the moment in high schools (and yes, I did start feeling a little ancient). “Emo” is short for “emotionals.” According to him (and yes, I understand that one source is hardly scientific), EMOs like to wear tight jeans (really straight leg), color their hair (but they don’t always have to), and like to listen to death metal or something that might be similar (that was a little fuzzy for me and the bands he named weren’t ones I recognized).”
Ha! I loved this post. I teach high school and went through the same thing earlier this year. What in the heck is an EMO? One of those ostrich-looking things? Thanks for the laugh…
Just a few things…
The first thing I noticed was how out of touch I am with the middle school world. I’m 23 and have younger siblings, so I thought I was still young enough to remember what it was like – but apparently not!
Exactly! I’m 23, too, and the first time I heard the word emo and had to be informed what it was, I felt so old. Oh, and I was also like, “You mean the bird?”
Also, yes, some people (me) do use the word “gosh,” and I don’t think it’s fair to say that emos are the kids who go around cutting themselves. People used to believe that about all my goth friends, and it annoyed the crap out of me. Only one of my friends cut herself; meanwhile one of my cheerleader relatives, the last person you’d accuse of that, cut herself, too. You just can’t judge people with a stereotype like that.
Literary Equivalent of EMO: Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. 2 parts angst, 1 part self-depracating humor.
Question: Because of the nature of slang and how it is so easily outdated, do you think that YA writer’s ought to leave it out? By the time a YA book gets thrugh editing, and on shelves it’s very likely to lose relevance. Thoughts?
Anonymous said…
Question: Because of the nature of slang and how it is so easily outdated, do you think that YA writer’s ought to leave it out? By the time a YA book gets thrugh editing, and on shelves it’s very likely to lose relevance. Thoughts?
I agree completely. And not only lose relevance, but also appear dated and jaded, which tends to make the author look pathetic and small townish, or worse yet: trying too hard. Those of us who write in the gay genre have to keep up with trends that change constantly (from fashion to locations…one year it’s the Hamptons the next it’s Provincetown…South Beach is done, etc…) and the best way to handle it is usually with a tongue-in-cheek voice (even sarcastic) so that the reader realizes these are just trends that pass quickly and no one should take them seriously.
Just as an aside, there’s a song by Adam & Andrew called “Emo Kid” that pokes fun at the stereotypical emo set. It might be worth the $0.99 to hear.
And I have to ask–what IS a “tree lawn”?
Mother of teenage boys here.
My older son, listens to punk and metal, and has explained emo to me. Mostly there are emo girls in this area, who listen to music that is more whiny then metal: depresed boy singers with tight pants and too much hair.
But for true fun? Go watch the “Hope is Emo” podcast. In one episode, Hope realizes that chalk dust is the ashes of dead words.
So she goes around school, and collects it in an urn (except from the chemistry lab, because that’s locked).
The clothes and music may have changed in 30 years. But sensitive high school girls have not.
You know, maybe I’m wrong, but Kristin’s post and the subsequent comments are the first and only places I’ve seen emo used as a noun. I’ve only ever heard it as an adjective.
In my experience, you wouldn’t say, “he’s an emo.” You’d say “he’s emo” or “he’s an emo kid” or maybe “oh, god, that’s so emo.”
The only thing approaching noun usage would be in reference to emo music. You could say “I listen to emo” just like you could say “I listen to country” rock, rap, classical, whatever. Anything that could be put before the word “music.” Emo music is sub category of rock music.
Emo kids are related to hipsters. They’re cool and alternative and ironic but in addition to all that they are also SAD. So, so, so sad. And they listen to similar music as hipsters, but mostly just the kind with sad, whiny, poor me lyrics. NOT death metal–emo’s much softer in tone. There’s also sort of a difference between strict emo and what you might casually refer to as emo. There’s an entry for emo in Wikipedia if you want to know more. There’s also a separate entry for emo (slang) which talks a bit more about the fashion, etc. And the haircut is unmistakeable.
Teenagers these days often refer to “scenes,” which are kind of like cliques or stereotypes as we know them (goths, burnouts, etc) but closely related to the specific music you listen to. But it’s mostly pejorative, as many teenagers like to say they don’t fall into a particular scene (or, “I’m not scene”) even though they do. Just like a traditional stereotype. Someone would call you emo, and you’d say “I’m not emo!” even though you pretty much are. The thing is that everyone’s different so you can always say “I don’t do x thing that emo kids do” and therefore claim you’re not emo even if you do many of the other things emo kids do.
The wife’s a long time HS teacher, and whenever I see EMO kids, I automatically think “sexual confusion”– most of the time it’s the boys who seem confused. They tend to wear girls’ pants, in black, and are painfully thin, unwashed and depressed looking. Ten years ago these would have been Goth kids.
I don’t think they listen to death metal… what I get from pop culture is that they listen to anything depressing, whether it’s a ballad from twenty years ago or whatever band is pretending to be Depeche Mode now.
Miss Guzzums: Guidos, really? Are you seriously a fifteen year old? I’m in my late thirties, from Long Island fer chrissakes, and I haven’t heard anyone called a Guido since IROCs cruised Hempstead Turnpike to the pulsing beats of Rob Bass’s “It Takes Two To Make A Thing Go Right.”
Yes, I’d say that using certain types of slang and/or pop culture references will date your writing. (JMHO). Certain slang – ‘cool’, ‘awesome’, and ‘this sucks’, are pretty timeless though, and you can probabaly get away with them.
Or you could invent your own slang, a la Clueless “He’s such a Baldwin/Barney”, which, if well done, can be fun.
Since I have a four year old, when I saw Emo, I thought she was asking about Elmo. So there. LOL
Ahhh, the teen years. My daughter has taught me all about emos, emogoths, romanticgoths, poseurs, glamourgoths, clingons…….the caste system sure has expanded since it was geek or not.:D
I don’t think it’s fair to say that emos are the kids who go around cutting themselves. People used to believe that about all my goth friends, and it annoyed the crap out of me. Only one of my friends cut herself; meanwhile one of my cheerleader relatives, the last person you’d accuse of that, cut herself, too. You just can’t judge people with a stereotype like that.
What Katie said. Be careful with those kinds of stereotypes because while there is sometimes validity to it, it’s a much more common occurrence than you’d think. Not all emo kids will cut and far from all kids who cut would be described as emo or goth. Before incorporating something like that into writing, do some serious research. That’s a very delicate subject.
Wow, lots of discussion about emo.
Emo has actually been around since the late nineties, only then it was kids listening to bands like The Posies. I graduated in 1999 and I remember the freshman (and my little bro, who is two years younger than I am) talking about being emo. Johnny (little bro) was mad about the term because he liked the music but didn’t identify as being “emo.”
I worked for three years at a Starbucks that backed up to a high school, and so we were always swamped with teenagers during lunch and after school. I’ve never once heard them say “emo-kid,” though and, honestly, that smacks of adults trying to use teenage slang (no offense, I’m really trying to help and not offend, and I apologize if that was phrased inappropriately).
Watch “Mean Girls” for the best run-down of high school cliques. Most of the groups mentioned here are discussed in the movie but with tons of humor.
Some of the more interesting teen developments I’ve noticed lately: Virginity Balls. Girls go to a big ball with their Dad and he gives them a chastity ring, which symbolizes the girl’s commitment to abstinence. All of the girls then pledge that they will remain abstinent until marriage.
High school dress codes have gone very lax since the late nineties. When I graduated, we couldn’t wear clothes that revealed our midriff, and skirts that didn’t pass the finger test (clamp your arms down the sides of your body and if your skirt is shorter than where your middle finger touches your thigh, then it’s too short).
When I was at Starbucks, I learned that girls can now dress like sluts in high school. Midriff-baring tops are fine, as are showing off what cleavage they have, and wearing skirts that barely cover their privates.
There are also the kids who go to school in their pajamas. A lot.
Basically, I suggest reading a lot of non-fiction, like the somewhat outdated “Reviving Ophelia,” and “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” which was the basis for the “Mean Girls” movie. Find a Starbucks near a high school and camp out there for a few weeks after school and listen to what the kids are talking about (they are always talking VERY LOUDLY, so you don’t even have to eavesdrop because everyone in the place can here them).
Watch ‘tween shows like “One Tree Hill,” and anything on the NOGN (“noggin”) network.
While getting teen slang down is crucial to a YA book, it’s also equally important to have the tech stuff down. Teen texting short-hand is one example. That special cell phone ring that supposedly only teenagers can hear. Video game knowledge (cool new systems like the Nintendo Wii and X-Box 360, cool new handhelds like the Nintendo DS Lite and PSP, along with the cool games for them–which might surprise you because it’s not all “Grand Theft Auto”) you can glean from watching G4 if you have cable/satellite. Or reading “Electronic Gaming Monthly.”
That’s another thing. Buy “Seventeen,” and other teen girl mags to read the stories sent in by readers. That’s a GREAT way to pick up teen slang. Teen blogs are an obvious help because they write the way they talk.
Incorporating things like MySpace and other internet ‘tween hot spots in to YA books lends them teen credibility. Especially as a cautionary tale about what NOT to put on your public MySpace page.
Wow. This was really long. Sorry about that.
As I teenager in college, “emo” gets thrown around a lot. I’ve seen everyone from preps to goths to geeks to punks (yes, more labels) use this to describe themselves. Usually, though, I see emos as artsy teens who like to write poetry and usually follow some sort of dress code (a preppy goth, anyone?). But whatever it is, emo always means something more than emotional–if “emotional” was the only definition, then every teenager with raging hormones is going to fit in that category.
“Miss Guzzums: Guidos, really? Are you seriously a fifteen year old? I’m in my late thirties, from Long Island fer chrissakes, and I haven’t heard anyone called a Guido since IROCs cruised Hempstead Turnpike to the pulsing beats of Rob Bass’s “It Takes Two To Make A Thing Go Right.”
Really? Didn’t know that! I thought it was a completely new thing. It was all the rage last year, and I think there was a whole “True Life” segment on MTV about it.
No joke. In the eighties, “guidos” cruised the roads of Long Island and northern Jersey, accompanied by bad dance music, shiny leather jackets and customary clouds of Drakkar cologne. Bensonhurst was full of them, and probably where the breed originated (it was somewhere in Brooklyn, I know that much). “Guidos” traditionally accosted women with way too much gusto, preceded most words of their limited vocabulary with “f**king”, and kept hair care product producers in business.
This is not to disparrage Italian folks. There were other groups who participated in the fad (you had to have lots of dark hair and an olive complexion to pull it off, though), but the originators were Italian.
My son is part of the “Nerd Herd,” but he has talked about friends who are emo here in suburban Colorado.
Katie, I was just a tad behind you in school, and I base my info mostly on my younger sister, who has been a total scenester-in-denial since around 2002 (Jimmy Eat World was her favorite band during their heyday, to give you an idea). She and her friends do call each other “kids,” “emo kids,” “x kids,” etc. But hey, maybe it’s a regional difference.
No joke. In the eighties, “guidos” cruised the roads of Long Island and northern Jersey, accompanied by bad dance music, shiny leather jackets and customary clouds of Drakkar cologne. Bensonhurst was full of them, and probably where the breed originated (it was somewhere in Brooklyn, I know that much). “Guidos” traditionally accosted women with way too much gusto, preceded most words of their limited vocabulary with “f**king”, and kept hair care product producers in business.
LOL. Oh yes, and all the girls had big crunchy hair. My generation, responsible for the hole in the ozone with all their aerosol hairspray. Yikes.
The Wedding Singer brings it all back, every time I see it.
No joke. In the eighties, “guidos” cruised the roads of Long Island and northern Jersey, accompanied by bad dance music, shiny leather jackets and customary clouds of Drakkar cologne. Bensonhurst was full of them, and probably where the breed originated (it was somewhere in Brooklyn, I know that much). “Guidos” traditionally accosted women with way too much gusto, preceded most words of their limited vocabulary with “f**king”, and kept hair care product producers in business.
This wasn’t limited to Long Island – Central Jersey had their sect as well. And don’t forget Seaside Park at the shore – the hole in ozone layer is a direct result of the 1980s down there 🙂
from Matt’s Typecast Book of Teenage Cliques, Chapter 8: Groups Valuing Nonconformity
Emo = Kinda a pop/punk hybrid. Imagine if the Sex Pistols talked about their emotions. They play Greenday songs on the Fenders dad bought them after the divorce.
Goth = anyone willing to wear dark makeup. There is some crossover. Most goths are also emo. Their dad is still around, but he’s a workaholic. They listen to Jethro Tull to show they’re quirky even though they don’t really like it.
Both groups are widely found in the American suburbs. They are sometimes willing to cross associate and some switch between the two roles often.
There are also pockets of hippies, though these are typically a modified emo with a heightened need to recycle and/or join PETA. Really enjoy shopping at Goodwill.
Punks: Punks kick over trashcans.
Dorks: Nerds who substituted a portion of their math/computer science skills for a small amount of social skill… but not enough.
Nerds: Dorks who substituted the majority of their social skills for a Calculus and the computer game World of Warcraft (which they only refer to as WoW).
Ska: Defunct group. Used to be popular in the early 90s. Listened to the Urge, Mighty Mighty Bostones, etc. Wore zoot suits to prom. Mostly merged with emos or dorks.
Grunge: Nearly defunct. Emo kids who don’t bathe. Listen solely to Nirvana and Alice in Chains.
I could go on, but I shouldn’t.
Re: self injury (which is not just “cutting,” but is made up of many different behaviors that could be classified as self harm):
” ~Typically, the self-injurer is female, in her mid-20s to early 30s, and has been hurting herself since her teens. She tends to be middle- or upper-middle-class, intelligent, well-educated, and from a background of physical and/or sexual abuse or from a home with at least one alcoholic parent. Eating disorders were often reported.”
From the following site-
Lots and lots of good links on the side.
Self injury occurs at about the same rate as eating disorders, and does not discriminate among social groups at school.
Also, boys do self injure although they may chose “tougher” methods such as burning, bruising etc.
The other thing I wanted to say is my impression was that the word “emo” is pejorative.
oops I hadn’t finished–
This is by far the best site I have ever found on self injury.
They have a section which a person could go to for immediate help if they thought they might self injure and did not want to.
This is a topic in my book and I would be remiss in not pointing out where the help is in case someone might want to know. xx
Emo is all that these days. I have high schoolers, and though my kids aren’t, they have friends who are. Emo has kind of become an image (like goth used to be) more than the self-destructive behaviors, at least here … but the trademarks appear to be, in boys, wearing their little sister’s jeans, odd piercings (tongue, lip, eyebrow, ear cartilage), dyed black hair, usually half covering his face, with a funky short cut in the back and occasionally a barette, eye make up (lots), and a generally morose disposition. They appear to like tacos (don’t ask me why)
Emo girls tend to have chains on their black jeans, wear almost exclusively black, have black hair, pale faces, extremes in eye make up of either way too much black or hardly any at all. Ditto on the morose.
One of my voice students has a favorite t-shirt she wears to lessons, it’s a picture of Nemo from Finding Nemo and he has black hair hanging in his face and a lip ring … the caption is “Finding Emo.” *LOL* I laugh every time she wears it. This week she came wearing all black, a My Chemical Romance t-shirt, and (I’m not kidding) white, fuzzy bunny ears.
I see no one here has mentioned scene. Not scenes like emo, goth, etc., but just plain “scene.”
They’re a little harder to classify, I suppose just because their label isn’t nearly as self-explanatory. Scene kids usually listen to eclectic indie rock and are overly-pseudo-intellectual. They pretend to know a lot more than they actually do–they have to, primarly because indie rock tends to have lots of obscure literary allusions in it. Scene kids have haircuts similar to emo kids, but usually don’t dye their hair black. Some former skas (as previously mentioned by matt) went scene. (My girlfriend was ska and is a little scene, but fortunately she defies most labels now.) Usual dress is a faded band shirt and sports jacket. Shoes include Converse or dress shoes, and the girls wear flat shoes.
Oh, and I’m seventeen. I hate labels. With a passion.
My then-15-year-old wrote a ‘Teen Taxonomy’ for an assignment last year. It’s quite funny, and was fairly accurate for teens in our area (although it’s obviously a bit out of date, being a year old), so if curious you might want to check it out:
http://ravenseggs.blogspot.com/2006/07/teen-taxonomy.html
That teen taxonomy was pretty accurate. And this is coming from a highschool teenager btw.
Geek/Nerd: Mostly boys. Social outcasts who care more about academics than their social lives. Often good at math/science subjects and use free time reading, doing extra homework, and/or using a computer. Subcategories include Computer Nerd, Gaming Geek, Math Club Nerd, [insert fandom here] Geek. See: White and Nerdy by Weird Al.
The difference: Nerds are generally academically smart whereas Geeks are only geeky in a specific subject.
Emo: Short for emotional. Started as a music genre (Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, Hawthorne Heights) for music with emotional lyrics and now has become a way of life. Even the music genre has evolved (Compare “Vindicated”, “Ohio is for Lovers”, and “I Write Sins not Tragedies”). Depressed, usually clinically and not just the emotion. Many times claim to be bi, gay, misunderstood, etc. Perform self-harm, usually cutting wrists or legs or even burning their skin. Dark clothes, dark hair. Dark makeup and nailpaint on boys and girls. The “emo fringe” with bangs covering one eye. Ratty shoes, usually converse, sometimes checkered Vans slip ons, writes dark “deep” poetry or art. Hot topic (store). Chains on pants or skirts. Studded jewelry and belts.
On boys- girl’s pants, band shirts or just tight shirts with designs, usually plays bass or guitar, sometimes is only emo because girls claim to like sensetive guys, hair short and choppy with emo fringe.
On girls- skinny jeans, studded belts/bracelets/choker, ponytail with emo fringe, band shirts, fangirls over various members (usually lead singer) of boy bands (usually of the emo genre. keep in mind most to all emo music is boy bands who look good but can’t sing, so they have many to choose from), many times can play guitar herself. See: Emo Kid (a song, don’t know the artist) and Ohio is for Lovers by Hawthorne Heights.
Goths: Very different from emo. As someone I know once said “Emos hate and want to hurt themselves. Goths hate and want to hurt the world.” This is not entirely true. Emos keep to themselves while Goths are very showy. They come off as brutal and quite scary. Enemies of Preps. Metallica and Marilyn Manson.
Punk: Where I live, these are cross between Emo and Prep. Always listening to music and wear similar things to emo, only no studs or chains and more color (no white). Dye their hair bright colors. Used to be rebels but not where I live. Lip and/or nose piercings. Colorful makeup. Colors not always matchy-matchy (orange, green, and purple).
Preps: Usually most popular. Normal jeans or khakis and button downs, polos, or plain colored tees on guys. Skirts, jeans, and various shirts (from tees and tanks to halter and tube). Color varies from bright to soft pastels. Girls are girly, boys are jocks. Very gossip-y and lots of drama. Steryotypically listen to pop but in reality, listen to whatevers popular (nowadays that’s emo and hip hop). Girls are shopaholics. Usually shop and American Eagle, Abercrombie, Holister, etc and love brand names, whether real of fake. See: the plastics in Mean Girls
Jocks: Usually males and usually play football, soccer, or volleyball. Steryotypically not very smart, but Jock-Nerd crosses are more commom lately. Often popular and a subgroup of Preps (except for Jock-Nerds).
Gangsta: Baggy clothing, “graffiti is art”, gelled hair, girls wear eyeliner and mascara, rap music, RIP Tupac, listen to music too loud, boys sag their pants, girls have piercings on ears, sometimes upper ear and nose too. Wear “bling”. Here in the bay, this group os going through what they call the hyphy movements (“grillz”, “ghost riding”, etc. See urbandictionary.com for more info).
See: Gangsta Paridise (song), any Tupac or rap song.
Scene: A genre recently popped up. From my perspective, cross between punk and prep. Basically mix punk and prep clothing, add vans, emo hair, and a myspace page full of pictures of themself (usually photoshopped to look cool). Goes to concerts a lot. Speaks in 1337 (Leet, language of numbers and symbols) and chatspeak. Likes ninjas, pokemon, dinosaurs, polka dots, headbands, childish things, colors, guns (because they’re cool. it has nothing to do with what they are and what they do), bows, band pins, rings, pearls (usually fake), makeup (lots), uses lots of acronyms, sometimes vegetarian or vegan but that’s rare where I live, likes robots, on myspace has more myspace friends than real life friends.
Now guess which one I am. 😉
Kidding.
If you want to know anything about modern slang, use urban dictionary.com just… beware.
Wow, very informative – except for text language and whatever the hell 1337 is, it doesn’t really sound like things have changed too much.
Yes, kids of all ages, guidos have been around forever – I first heard of them in Montreal in 1986, in University. They were usually Italian, but not always. Too much hair gel and Drakkar or Bandolino. Liked to show off expensive items. We also had “zoomers”, which were very similar, guys who were kinda Miami Vice – trendy but not truly cool, trying too hard, the guys who would use pick-up lines even though disco was long dead. (Zoomer could also apply to a middle-aged dude hanging out at the bar thinking he had a chance with girls young enough to be his daughter). There were also “artfags”, who were rarely gay but liked to talk art a lot and considered any non-artist not worth talking to – a sure sign: if you tell someone they’re homophobic bc. they used the term “artfag”, you’re an artfag. Generally interesting, non-threatening, but a bit pretentious, and sometimes a bit too PC. These were closely linked to “posers”, though this was a term mainly reserved for rockers faking angst, musical ability, ie. musicians who didn’t have “feel”, but wanted the lifestyle. Preppies were in high school, a bit earlier in the 80’s – pastels, plaid skirts, argyle socks, sweater-vests for boys, hairbands, and lots of labels. The kind of person who wore their sweaters around the shoulders in such a way that you could read the label. New Wavers, Punks, and Goths were all labelled as freaks in rural high schools, punks and goths also in the cities – yes, Kim, I remember “the unnice things we called goths”; I hope more is being done to discourage verbal bullying these days, or the future will be at least as tragic as the present. I remember very few of the punks or goths I met to be scary – usually, they were quite creative, though the goths were more depressive and pretentious, while the punks were more rebellious and working class. The former listened to Bauhaus, the latter to the Clash and Sex Pistols (though my theory is, no one ever really enjoyed the Sex Pistols, it was just good for pissing people off, one of teendom’s perpetual thrills), and both listened to Siouxie and the Banshees. Very different from what is called punk now, but in real life, the preps and jocks were way scarier. Oh, and burnouts were just kids who’d done too much weed and/or hash and laid around a lot. But they did listen to music. They listened to Floyd. There was a lot of crossover between the metalheads and the hard rock kids, though the hardcore metalheads tended to diss pop-rock like Bon Jovi and Poison. Cutters were often anorexic or bulimic girls who were actually smart and possibly sexually traumatized in some way – cutting themselves so they’d feel something. I only knew about two of them. Emos have always been around, though I don’t know that we had a specific name for them! Oh, and the New Romantics listened to Duran Duran. Vegetarians liked the Smiths and Morrissey, unbearably pretentious and preachy – Morrissey is the poser prototype (not the god 80’s vegans would have you think), and if not for Johnny Marr’s great guitar playing, it would’ve been all too much…
I think there were a lot more, too. Most people kinda chose bits and pieces of different looks, and it didn’t take much to be labelled (ex.) as a Madonna Wanna-be – a pair of fingerless gloves would do it, even though half the recording industry was already wearing them!
I’m sure there were lots of regional variations, though…
Hi.
I came across this topic purely by accident and wouldn’t normally have read on or posted but I just felt I had to put my oar in.
I’m British so forgive me if I take things the wrong way but I felt I had to comment.
As authors you guys have a responsibility to help kids. I grew up what in the UK we call alternative. This covers punk, metal, goth, emo basically whatever isn’t the ‘norm’ I suppose what you guys call jocks or preppy kids?
By trying to define these labels and titles you are only creating more segregation and seperation.
As a child and now as an adult I had many friends with different interests to mine, different dress sense, different musical tastes and I believe that as adults we have a responsibility to teach our children that we shouldn’t judge people by which group or caste they belong to but by what they can bring to our lives and what we can bring to theirs.
Coming on to the topic of self-harming. This is fundamentally why I campaign in the UK to drop these labels. Not all emo kids self harm, not all popular kids don’t.
The reason our children feel the need to do this is because they don’t feel free or able to express themselves for fear of rejection or mickey taking.
If a child felt able to discuss things with people (adults and other teens) outside their ‘groups’ everyones understanding of one other would be greatly improved.
We have a responsibility to try to provide safe places and ways for our kids to voice their opinions without them fearing a negative response because of stereotyping.
I am aware that I may sound as though I am taking this topic too seriously and it may be because my background is drastically different but if my daughters grow up to be artistic, creative people who aren’t afraid to express themselves through what they do and the clothes they wear I will be very proud of them.
Please be aware when you are writing that almost all American literature is sold in the UK and read by British teens as well.
It is hard enough for them to break down their own walls without us adding additional ones.