Do USA teens really act like the characters of the stories?

Hi there!
I’m a new guy here and I hope you people are nice!

I’ve never been in USA and also I haven’t got any friends from this country, but of course I saw a lot of Hollywood movies about american teens. The characters were sooo different from my classmates!
I spent two years at the uni studying social anthropology and ethnology. The theme of my studying was ‘The concept of beauty in modern culture’. I like modern cultures more than classic (as maori, for example), that’s why I’m seriously interested in this question.
Do you have queens and kings of the High School? Are sporty guys really SO popular? Do you really have some ‘caste’ of nerd guys and no one support or like them? How do you make relationships in the school?
You shouldn’t be an anthropologist, just tell me a story about your school (without names and titles, if you want)!
I know it must be some grotesque in the stories like The K*ss List but stereotypes don’t appear out of nowhere… or they do?

I don’t mean to insult someone, I just want to know more about your life.

Deinie <3

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I mean, some are. But everyone is different. You can’t expect everyone to be classified under one single stereotype. Some teens are great people while others are complete a-holes. But as for the people in my school:

I guess there are more popular ones, but they don’t treat anyone different than they would treat any other human being.

Not at my school. Let’s be honest, guys who play sports aren’t necessarily the popular jocks who bully people, they aren’t the boyfriends of the mean girls, they’re just GUYS WHO PLAY SPORTS. Nothing more, nothing less.

Well yeah, we do have some “nerds” who are smart and more introverted, but at the end of the day they’re just smarter than everyone else so whoever treats them wrong does it out of jelousy.

I’m honestly SO sick of people saying that they’re “high school sweethearts” or “met in first grade”. School is for studying, not writing love stories.


What I’m basically saying is that movies fake a lot of things. Not just about the USA, other countries too. And people should NOT judge a country from a movie without even going there. I’ve met some of the nicest people ever in countries that are considered to be full of “bad people” because movies portay them wrongly. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

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Im not from USA but here in Bulgaria - some schools have something like a " The most famous person "

I personally avoid them because its cringy and not useful at all

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Well I have to say it’s kinda sad other countries see us as that way but I have to be honest.
America isn’t the best when it comes to social aspects. (and a lot of other things)
Though some stereotype movies like “Mean Girls” make you think it’s that bad, it’s really not. In my high school people can definitely be mean but what can I say, you can’t change someones actions. I’ve personally never seen someone being made fun of for being a “nerd”. What I’m trying to say is that basically yes the stereotypes had to have come from somewhere and that place is people being outcasts for not being considered “popular” or “known” but it’s not as bad as movies portray it to be. Although bullies really do exist and nobody really knows their motives :woman_shrugging: .

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It is not really like that
Last year I thought it was gonna be like that

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Do you have queens and kings of the High School?
No, but there are popular people.

Are sporty guys really SO popular?
Most of the guys that are popular play soccer/basketball.

Do you really have some ‘caste’ of nerd guys and no one support or like them?
No, that’s just cruel and there is no “standard” nerd.

How do you make relationships in the school?
You just talk to people. idk.

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:joy::joy::joy::joy::joy: Yup that is all we do

It depends on where you grow up.

Everyone’s high school is different so there’ll be different experiences of these things. When I went to high school, there weren’t really any jocks or the nerds. But there were some popular kids and class clowns, I think I was a mix of both. There were rivalries mostly between girls. But most times high school was fun, not everything portrayed in the stories or movies, is actually what high schoolers deal with.

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Are you in school

You’re absolutely right. I don’t know why you felt the need to write me that no one should judge people from pop-culture’s representation 'cause I literally wrote I don’t want to insult someone, it’s just a scientific interest.
Of course I know that people are different and there are no one size fits all but if something repeats from one school to another it’s the part of the culture. I’m happy to know that american school system is more soft that TV tells us.
Anyway, thank you for your answer.

I think the bully’s motives are obvious: it’s something about self-confidence or assertion themselves. Mostly, of course, not for everyone. Unfortunately, other people get hurt because of it.
Thank you for answer! I expected there’re some grotesque and exaggeration on TV but I needed proofs.

There aren’t necessarily “kings and queens” of the school here, but there definitely is some kind of social hierarchy that has sub-hierarchies within each tier. At my school, jocks were popular (especially the baseball guys), but the extent of popularity usually depended on how good the team was.

But the stereotypes you see in movies like Mean Girls with the three “It Girls” is totally bogus.

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Did you really say ‘nerds are well-liked’? I wish I was in your school, haha. (Classic bullied nerd is here, hello)
Thank you for answer!

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Me? Nope, I finished it (nasty place, uni is better, imo)

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I forgot to ask, where are you from? When you say, Uni, that’s usually what Asian cultures say. Or I could be mistaken…

Omg lol I wondered too. Here in Israel the teens are really different. I’m sixteen and I never had a boyfriend. And people here really care about studying. We do have popular students but they’re pretty much nice lol unlike the movies and the episode stories. My friend moved to USA few days ago and she said the people there are actually really nice and when I asked her about stereotypes she said they don’t have any of these nerds or bad boys stuff. Maybe cuz she goes to a private school ;^;

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Yeah. America is fucked up. Being an American citizen, I tend to like way more british music, (Mumford and Sons, Beatles, Etc) and more british youtubers (I don’t have cable) Americans are real wierd. To be fair, at my school all the kids who are popular do play sports and there are nerd cliches, but we aren’t mean to anyone. The popular girls most of the time are super nice, but they are popular cause they are nice and pretty. If your just nice and your not what people define as “pretty” your just an average kid.

Hope this explains more!

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I think a lot of it depends on what area of the U.S you are in because it really differs state to state.

For example, I grew up in a small town and went to a really small school. So we didn’t have “kings and queens” of the school. Sure, some people were more popular but it was pretty chill over all and there were no strict social groups.
Baseball was popular at my school so those guys tended to have more attention from girls, but my High School wasn’t super good at sports so no one cared that much. But if a school is really good in a certain sport the people that play tend to be really popular.

I don’t remember a group of nerds that no one really liked. There was an odd person here or there that didn’t seem to fit in.

I think shows play on those sterotypes a lot because it’s easier to make it dramatic when its portrayed that way.

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I think there is obviously a generalization here. Now, are ALL teens in America spoiled, oblivious, naive, and self centered brats… nope. However, can they be…sure.

The thing is, I do believe that many teens are oblivious to what most would consider “real” problems, because the fact is, compared to most other countries in the world, teens in America don’t have any “real problems”. The teens in America “for the most part” do not have to worry about things like starvation, bombings, terror attacks, being forced from their homes , separated from their families, or human rights violations in regards to sex, religion, freedom of speech etc… In America, children have more rights than in any other country that I can think of off the top of my head. I think American Teens are extremely lucky compared to most other places on earth, and its really hard for them to comprehend why teens from other countries might think teens here are “spoiled” and “naive.” and “complain to much.”

On the flip-side, American Teens DO have problems, its just hard for Teens from other countries to understand why Teens in American complain at all when they compare their problems to the average American Teens problems. Does this give them a right to dismiss an American Teens problems, just because the problem is not as “severe as yours?” Not really.

A great example of a conversation Teens might have to display the lack of perspective:

American Teen: Ugh! I hate school!

Teen From Country A: How can you complain about school?! I don’t even have a school in my town! If I wanted to go to school I would have to walk 2 miles and pay for it!! I would LOVE to go to school!

Teen From Country B: Americans have great schools! Why are you complaining?! Our schools are crap compared to yours! If I lived in America I wouldn’t be complaining about the schools!

(Notice that Teen from Country A and Teen From Country B didn’t even bother to ask the American Teen WHY they hated school, and automatically dismissed them? Maybe The American Teen does have a genuine problem, but no one was willing to listen. Rather, they automatically assumed they were just “complaining” because they would only see their own perspective. Notice how American Teen ALSO did not take the other teens sensitive matters ito consideration either? Perhaps, if they had worded their “complaint” in a more sensitive way, the other teens would have been more open to listening.)

I think this is all just a matter of perspective and lack of understanding from either side of the fence. Perhaps, American Teens could be more thankful and recognize that they do actually have a much better life (in general) than most others their age in other parts of the world rather than complain about every minuscule detail and make sure that when they do complain, its actually worth complaining about. American Teens have SO MUCH to be thankful for! Also, perhaps teens from other countries should stop assuming that teens in America are “spoiled thankless brats” and stop dismissing every problem they do have just because their problems are not as severe in comparison and be happy for them rather than use it as a reason to lash out at them or despise them.

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