OPINIONS OF A TEENAGER
Using spare time from online education during Covid-19 pandemic, a class nine
Delhi student Shreyas Kumar, 13, has written his a book “Opinions of a Teenager”. A student of Amity International School, Kumar’s parents are former army doctors; father Dr (Col) Gaurav Kumar is a paediatric cardiac surgeon and mother Dr (Col) Rakhee Goyal is a paediatricanaesthetist. The kid author says that parents generally tell growing children: “Don’t behave like a kid! Don’t watch this on Netflix, it is only for adults! You should not go out so late!” In Kumar’s opinion, teenagers are neither kids nor adults. Nothing is designed for them—clothes, too small or too big; TV shows—cartoons for kids, rest for adults; books—oh, don’t even ask! “I am not surprised why teenagers have no voice…nobody hears them. They are just hanging around in the school (now home!) as just an appendage, with awful pimples, pointy moustache, uncertain beard and much more like that,” says Kumar, adding “the last 18 months have been worse—time concentrated in the confines of household, probably in the same shapeless T-shirt and loose shorts.” “Whose fault is it anyways?” wonders Kumar. “Nobody chose to be a teenager. Everyone wants to be a big adult and all that. So, why shouldn’t teenagers be heard? Why can’t they express themselves, un-edited? “May be this brings the ‘already adults’ some insight and can help the young minds pave a better future for themselves. It will give them immense confidence in themselves… something that they really need.” The author told that adults should not get offended if some child tells them where they were wrong.