Over the decades, films have typically represented teenagers using a few common stereotypes such as the jock, nerd, princess, bad boy, and social outcast. Films from the 1970s like Grease and 1980s films from John Hughes relied heavily on these stereotypes. More modern films like The DUFF are still largely defined by these tropes, though some like 13 Reasons Why show more diversity. The presentation analyzes how teenage representations have changed little over time but may be improving with new media formats exploring more variety in characters.

1. Adam Picton
An Exploration Into the Evolution of Teenage Representations in Film
Over The Decades
Screen (Slide 1): First slide showing title
Speaker: Film is a form of media that’s far older than anybody currently
alive. Since the very first film in 1880’s, it has become a globally
accepted part of the world of entertainment. It’s also become an
unwritten rule that character tropes are a fast and easy way to present
a character in a short time. These character tropes are nearly as old as
film itself and reflect real life social expectations and norms. But how
have they changed over the near century and a half long lifespan of
film?
Screen (slide 2): The Five Key Teenage Stereotypes
Speaker: There are an uncountable amount of stereotypes and character
tropes but specifically in High School movies, these are some of the
most common. The Jock, the Nerd, the Princess, the Bad-boy and the
Social Outcast.
Screen (slide 3): Grease
Speaker: Grease is by far one of the most popular films in pop culture
today. Ever since it’s release in the seventies, modern day
entertainment can’t seem to leave it alone with constant references. It
focuses around a relationship between a stereotypical ‘Bad-boy’ and a
stereotypical ‘Princess’ and how they interact with each other in the
judgemental environment of High School. One scene in particular that can
be used to portray the ‘Bad-boy’ stereotype that all the T-birds seem to
fit to a T (Pause for bad joke), is the scene where Kenickie asks Danny
to be his co-pilot and once they realize they’re under a watchful eye,
immediately cease showing affection.
Screen (slide 4): The Breakfast Club
Speaker: The Breakfast Club is a film by John Hughes during his prime
‘teen angst’ era where he ruled the 80’s with his relatable insight into
the daily life of teenagers. It’s a social commentary that includes all
five of the stereotypes I mentioned in it’s main cast. It’s a near
perfect film to study for this topic as it tears down the social
constructs of modern society (at that time, although it still applies to
today) and forced the teenage population to look itself in the mirror
and examine themselves and their own social boundaries. The picture
itself already gives us some insight into the characters, such as the
social outcast being the only one sitting down, simultaneously in the
shadows but standing out as unique and slightly strange.
Screen (slide 5): 10 Things I Hate About You
Speaker: Similar to Grease, this film also focuses on the ‘Bad-boy’
stereotype and his relationships to those around him. The difference
lies in his significant other and the focus being more on how false the
stereotypes of the character’s are and there’s more than meets the eye.
It’s not nearly as socially aware as The Breakfast Club but clearly

2. Adam Picton
knows of it’s own dependence on the stereotypes and how they affect
teenagers. It’s a twist on the classic Shakespearean tale of ‘The Taming
of the Shrew’ and includes another classic character trope: The ‘Bad-
girl’ as well as the Princess, the Nerd and many other tropes. Even in
this photo, we see how exasperated the male looks in comparison to the
aggressive and vindictive look of the female which is a good
representation of their relationship’s narrative.
Screen (Slide 6): The DUFF
Speaker: A much more modern teen drama which is similar to some of John
Hughes works in that it’s painfully aware of it’s own usage of
stereotypes. This movie can be used to look at how the representations
have changed from the 70’s to current day and it appears not much. This
movie opens with the protagonist listing all of the stereotypes we’ve
already covered and how much she believed they were things of the past.
Yet, throughout the entire movie, social groups and labels are thrown
around just as casually and globally accepted as they were 30 years ago.
The Jock’s, the nerd’s, the basket cases/outcasts. It’s just more of the
same. It’s certainly worth mentioning that this movie does seem to show
a light at the end of the tunnel by showing insight into some of the
stereotypes, such as the truly kind-hearted Jock who ends up with the
socially embarrassing ‘basket-case’. However the main antagonist is
still an extremely stereotypical ‘Princess’ which shows little to no
humanity and exists only to step on others in her journey to the top of
the social food chain. Still, it’s a start to being rid of the
unoriginal teenage representations.
Screen (Slide 7): Journal of Children and Media: Yes Another Teen Movie:
Three decades of physical violence in films aimed at adolescents
Speaker: Sarah M. Coyne is a Psychologist that focuses on the media and
it’s effects on developing minds. This means many of her journal’s are
perfect for this study. This one in particular excellently highlights
the ‘Bad-boy’ trope and why masculinity is so fragile in reality and how
film plays a part in this.
Screen (Slide 8): The Screen Image of Youth: Movies About Children and
Adolescents
Speaker: It’s useful to take a look at how the 80’s viewed their own
social constructs and how self-aware they were of the topics covered by
these films having yet to experience most of them. This allows us to
view the impact on audiences socially-aware movies such as The Breakfast
Club has, as this book was released in 1980.
Screen (Slide 9): Angry Young Woman: The Emergence of the "Tough Girl"
in American Teen Film
Speaker: Considering one of my main focuses is the film 10 Things I Hate
About You, which features the ‘Tough Girl’ stereotype who happens to be
the sister of a classic ‘Princess’ and their interactions with one

3. Adam Picton
another and how the judge each other, despite being sisters, shows just
how private people keep themselves to protect their image.
Screen (Slide 10): Journal of Film and Video: Riot in Girls Town:
Remaking, Revising and Redressing the Teenpic
Speaker: Another Journal that focuses moreso on the female character
tropes and their effects on the adolescent female population of modern
day society. Released in 2007, it’s a useful comparative study to use
the feminist issues of ten years ago compared to today in relation to
the media.
Screen (Slide 11): You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack,
John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation
Speaker: John Hughes was, and still is, a big name in the film industry,
specifically for the teenage audience. He was perhaps one of the first
directors to truly focus on a positive, first-person viewpoint of
teenagers and was certainly the best to do it. This book covers many of
his works, including Pretty In Pink, which also starred Molly Ringwald
(the ‘Princess’ character from The Breakfast Club) and how the current
generation of that time reacted.
Screen (Slide 12): Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to ‘80s Teen Movies
Speaker: Released in 2016, this book is one of the most modern piece’s
to analytically study the 80’s and it’s nearly impossible to do this
without focusing on John Hughes works. This book in particular is more
centralized around the settings of such movies but also features
interviews with many influential writers, directors and actors.
Screen (Slide 13): Life Moves Pretty Fast: The lessons we learned from
eighties movies (and why we don't learn them from movies any more)
Speaker: Born in the late 1970s, Hadley Freeman grew up on a well-
rounded diet of these movies, her entire view of the world, adult
relations and expectations of what her life might hold was forged by
these cult classics. She considers how the changes between movies then
and movies today say so much about pop culture’s and society’s changing
expectations of women, young people and art, and explains why Pretty in
Pink should be put on school syllabuses immediately.
Screen (Slide 14): 13 Reasons Why
Speaker: This T.V Series has spurred a lot of discussion recently for
its representation of mental illness (or lack thereof) but it still
includes many of the classic film character tropes, showing that the
stereotypes have even become so common as to transverse media formats.
Based on a book by the same name, we can see that not just film features
these overused, broad personality check-lists. To it’s credit, 13
Reasons Why does include a lot more diversity and variety to the
stereotypes, such as the gay ‘Bad-boy’ character who drives a muscle
car, wear’s a leather jacket but happens to be quite a kind and

4. Adam Picton
relatable character who doesn’t appear to commit any crimes like his
appearance would have us believe so perhaps T.V has moved past Film in
terms of it’s diversity.
Speaker: This has been my presentation to showcase how lacking in
variety the representation of teenager’s is in media and how it has done
little to evolve past the same characters just with a different name,
face and circumstance. Perhaps the future contains some hope, as other
forms of media appear to be taking the reigns on what new possibilities
there are in terms of teenage representation with more teenagers than
ever watching web series such as Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, as well as
film reluctantly following suite with films such as The Duff.