Freedom for the teenagers

I would like to change how much freedom teenagers get, because having to wait until you're 18 to be able to completely be yourself is way too long. I know that most of the time it is about safety, but there are safer ways to give teenagers more freedom.

I think that more youth groups for different types of people should be set up with free entry across the country. I think that there should be less homework so that students can have some more time to themselves and their own lives.

Being a teenager and handling all of the changes going on in your life in your friends and in yourself is difficult on it's own. The fact that we don't have any time for that due to school and homework doesn't help, and neither does the fact that there isn't really any sanctuary.

There's pressure coming from all sides, from school to study hard and be an academic whizz, from parents to be successful and always where they can check up on you, from friends to put them first and go out with them every now and then, and from yourself to figure out who the hell you actually are.

I am nearly fifteen now and have been struggling with self harm and depression for nearly a year. I have lost count of my suicide attempts and up until a couple of months ago, I was trying to kill myself and in a position where I was about to do it every other day. Then I got sent back to the GP and she told me that I would love life so much more when I leave home, and go to uni and get some freedom. then with the promise that it would get better the suicidal stuff went away.

But now, realising that I have four whole years to make it through before I get that freedom, it's all coming back again, and I'm giving up. I don't think I can stay OK mentally without enough freedom, or places where I can just be a teenager instead of model daughter, or wannabe straight A student.

Published on 19-Sep-2016

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