The World Is So Hostile To Tweens.....

The world is so hostile to tweens.....

Like we joke about how our schools growing up would ban the latest toy trends, but that reality genuinely horrific when you think about it. Like maybe 1% of the bans were based on safety, but the rest cited reasoning like

-"kids were bartering for collectibles" (kids learning about economics and product value)

-"kids were wearing them and the colors were too flashy" (kids experimenting with self expression and fashion)

-"kids were playing with them during lunch and recess instead of using our rusted safety hazard playground" (kids utilizing their free time to do what helps *them* unwind).

Play areas specifically geared towards children and especially towards teens are constantly being shut down. "Oh kids today are always on their phones!" Maybe because

-there are barely any arcades left and even less arcades that aren't adult-oriented,

-public pools and gyms are underfunded and shut down,

-"no loitering" laws prevent kids and teens from just hanging out,

-movie theatres only play the latest films and ticket prices are only rising,

-parks and playgrounds are either neglected or replaced with gear only directed at toddlers and unsuitable for anyone older

-genuine children's and young teen media is being phased out in favour of media directed only at very small children or older teens and adults.

-suburbs and even cities are becoming more and more hostile to pedestrians, it's just not safe for kids to walk to or ride their bikes to their friends' houses or other play destinations

Children's agency is hardly ever respected. Kids between the ages of 9-13 are either treated as babies or as full-grown adults, with no in-between. When they ask to be given more independence, they are either scoffed at or given more responsibilities than are reasonable for a child their age.

This is even evident in the fashion scene.

Clothing stores and brands like Justice and Gap are either closing or rebranding to either exclusively adult clothing or young children's clothes, with no middle ground for tweens. Tweens have to choose between clothes designed for adults that are too large and/or too mature for their age and bodies, or more clothes they feel are far too childish. For tween girls especially it's either a frilly pinafore dress with pigtails or a woman's size dress with cleavage. No wonder tween girls these days dress like they're older, it's because their other option is little girl clothes and they don't want to feel childish.

And then when tweens go to school, the books they want to read aren't available because they cover "mature" topics (read: oh no two people kissed and they weren't straight or oh no menstruation was mentioned or oh no a religion other than Christianity is depicted), so kids are left with books for way below their reading level. No wonder kids today are struggling with literacy, it's because they can't exercise and expand their reading skills with age-appropriate books. Readers need to be challenged with new words and concepts in order to grow in their skills, only letting tween read Dr. Seuss and nursery rhymes doesn't let them learn.

Discussions about substance use, reproduction, and sexuality aren't taught at an age-appropriate level in school or even by children's parents, so they either grow up ignorant and more vulnerable to abuse, or they seek out information elsewhere that is delivered in a less-than-age-appropriate manner. It shouldn't be a coin-toss between "I didn't know what sex was until I was 18 and in college" or "my first exposure to sex as a tween was through porn" or "I didn't know what sex was so I didn't know I was being sexually abused as a kid."

Tweenhood is already such a volatile and confusing time for kids, their bodies are changing and they're transitioning from elementary to middle to high school. It's hard enough for them in this stage, but it's made worse by how society devalues and fails them.

We talk about the disappearance of teenagehood, and maybe that's gonna happen in the future, but the erasure of tweenhood is happing in real time, and it's having and going to have major consequences for next generation's adults.

Hey everyone! It’s Blue Strawberry!

A lot happened today, and we needed to kinda… restart stuff.

There is something I want to address:

We have done some really shitty things. Stuff I was completely unaware of as the host of our system. But I want to make sure that people know we are remorseful and trying to get the help we need to be better people.

We also deleted our old account and started a fresh one because we just kinda needed a clean slate of sorts.

We are sorry for anything we had done to hurt people, and I want to make sure that we get better.

We won’t be posting for a long time though as we try and improve ourselves.

Gonna still lurk around this tag because obsession is real and it’s a major comfort for us.

Love you all,

Blue

Hello! I decided to write a fable type story to explain a difficult concept to one of our littles, Lily. I actually quite liked writing this! I might go in to writing children’s books! Blue already offered to illustrate them! ^^

The Ghost and the Bunny

On a warm autumn’s day, a bunny hopped along outside of the haunted forest. She was very upset. The black cat and the red wolf had done something to anger some of the villagers in the nearby village everyone would go visit.

These villagers were mad at everyone for what the cat and wolf had done. The cat had said something mean that he didn’t mean, and the wolf acted really mean to people after someone had hurt her and woke her up from a very nice long nap.

The bunny was very upset about this. She just wanted the forest and village to get along. She always wanted to be kind to people, especially the people in the village, but she also loved her friends in the haunted forest as well.

The bunny sat on a hill, looking over the village as she cried. All she could think about was how the villagers the cat and wolf hurt were treating everyone in the forest. Of course, it didn’t help that all of them shared the forest.

Along came a ghost. He was doing his best to try and keep everyone in the forest safe. They’d all been very sad lately, and he wanted to make sure they didn’t get too sad. He saw his bunny friend sitting and watching the village and decided to go talk to her.

“What’s wrong, Bunny?” the ghost asked.

“The village hates us,” she said as she tried not to cry.

“What makes you say that?”

“The villagers that Cat and Wolf hurt are upset with the whole forest. I just want everyone to be friends.”

The ghost nodded. “Is everyone in the village upset?”

The bunny shook her head.

“Are you afraid those hurt villagers will make everyone hate us?”

She nodded.

“Well, why does it matter what the villagers think?”

“Because we go to the village,” she said. “We go to the village a lot.”

“Well then why not tell the villagers about what happened? That the cat and wolf are sorry and have been trying to fix what they did?”

“They don’t care,” the bunny said sadly. “Some villagers are building a fence to keep all of us out. What if the whole village does it? You didn’t say the bad things cat said. You didn’t hurt people like wolf did. Why can’t you go to the village and have fun with the friends who now hate us?”

“Because we’re all the forest,” the ghost said. He looked up at the sky sadly. “They can’t keep the cat and wolf out without keeping us all out. That’s just how it works.”

“I just wish everyone could be friends.”

“But that’s not how it works.” The ghost looked back down at his bunny friend. “Cat and Wolf may be trying to fix what they did, but no one is able to force forgiveness. I just want Cat and Wolf to forgive themselves.”

The bunny laid in the grass, continuing to watch the village. “What if the villagers Cat and Wolf didn’t hurt get mad and build fences?”

“We don’t need them,” the ghost said. “We go to the village for food and to talk to the villagers. But there are other villages. Villages that will understand that Cat and Wolf are getting better. They won’t build fences.”

The bunny looked up at the ghost. “You really think that?”

The ghost smiled down at his bunny friend. “I don’t think. I know.”

The ghost and the bunny then walked back into the forest together, finding their friends Cat and Wolf, who were both happily talking about the birds nests they fixed and the friends in the forest that they helped.

Bunny just had to search for a new village, but they still stayed friends with the nice villagers from the other one.

I don’t know… tell me what you think! I could use the criticism on my writing skills ^^’

- Johnny Toast

Something I find funny:

I see a lot of positive shit and then I look around me and people do my follow that advice.

Not talking about my headmates. Talking about some other people irl. Wanna punch them in the face with these positive memes and shit in a sense of “I will smother you in love and affection if you don’t stop being mean to yourself rn. This is a threat.”

- Johnny Ghost

Dear Taleblr, question:

I’m curious, honestly.

- Ghost🩶👻