FREE ESSAY ON ADOLESCENCE

ADOLESCENCE

Adolescence for me is the period within human life when most of a person's characteristics
are changing from childlike to adultlike. Changes in the body are the most observable
occurring at this stage. Other kinds of developments take place such as, intellectual,
academic. Social and spiritual.
Physical Selves
During the phase of Adolescence, girls body is changing in size, shape, and hormonal
structure. Adolescent girls focus on their changing bodies. They feel, look and act
differently. Absorbing all these changes is very difficult. The preoccupation with bodies
at this age cannot be overstated. Small flaws become obsessions. Just at this point that
their bodies are becoming rounder, girls are told that thin is beautiful, even
imperative. Girls in this stage feel an enormous pressure to be beautiful and are aware
of constant evaluations of their appearance. The movie Welcome to the dollhouse
illustrates this phenomena. Dane had never worried who was popular or attractive, but
with puberty everything changed. Her clssmates suddenly started to tease her because of
how she looked. All of asudden, her looks mattered. Her nickname was dogface, and they
called her like this to her face. She was largely ignored by the other kids. Her
self-esteem started to crumble as she experienced rejections.
At this stage of life, girls who are unpopular, are discriminated. And popular almost
always is tied with being beautiful. In this case, Dane was seen as ugly by her
classmates and worst of all without an identify. This was the reason why she was left out
of social life and missed the developmental experiences adolescents most need at this
stage of their life. Dane was starting to notice the importance of physical appearance in
order to be accepted by people. Even with her parents this was an issue. Her parents were
always paying their undivided attention to their youngest child and not to Dane.
Therefore Dane tied it up as she is pretty that is why they love her, I am ugly, that is
why they don't love me as much, and don't care about me. This issue created Dane a lot of
distress and made her adolescent stage, even more difficult than what it is.
Parental Support
Dane did not receive the parental support an adolescent girl is supposed to receive. Her
parents did not do all they could do, to help her through her adolescence. They did not
encourage Dane to be true to herself. She needed their support and their unconditional
love, in order to overcome the difficulties she was facing in her adolescent stage. Dane
was experiencing pain at this stage, and that pain she blamed on others, her parents,
sister, etc. And eventually that pain that she was feeling was expressed as anger. This
anger was mislabeled by her parents and was seen as rebellion. Her parents did no realize
that her anger was a mask of a severe rejection of herself. Dane lacked both her mother's
and father's guidance and love through this difficult period of her life. For example all
the attention was always given to either her older brother or her youngest sister, but
never to her. Her mother always pointed out that she did not have friends. When her
sister disappeared, she thought she was going to steel the attention her parents gave to
her, but she was wrong. Her parents were too depressed to put any attention on her. Even
when she goes out to look for her sister, and disappears for one day, no one notices nor
cares, because her sister has already appeared and they are very occupied with her.
Adolescence is a time when development and culture put enormous stress on girls. So many
things are happening at once, and therefore it is very important for them, the support,
love and guidance that their parents give them. In the case of Dane, she was in desperate
need of emotional nourishment.
They should have taught Dane about sex, menstruation, birth control, etc., etc.
Sexual Harassment 
During Adolescence girls face two major issues, one is coming to terms with their own
sexuality, defining sexual self.
The other issue concern the dangers girls face of being sexually assaulted.
In the Adolescent stage, many girls complain about sexual harassment in schools. The
content of this harassment's are both sexual and aggressive; rude and controlling. Often
harassment's extend beyond remarks to touching. In the case of the film Welcome to the
Dollhouse where this kid always harasses Dane because he knows he can control her, and
that makes him feel powerful. And because Dane doesn't have a true self, and has no clear
position about sexuality, she is easily pressured to be sexually active before she is
ready. Even though he finally never abuses her, maybe because he feels pity. 
It is obvious that Dane was not emotionally or intellectually ready to handle that
situation. I think that most early sexual activity, is harmful to girls.
There is a lack of information and that is why girls don't have any guidelines for making
descisions about sex. Nowadays girls as Dane in Welcome to the Dollhouse are coerced into
sexual intercourse.
Dealing with First love
Dane felt an immature love for the new member of his brother's band. She based on
fantasies and neediness, making her unable to function in other areas normally. She was
experiencing her first feeling of love. It was an idealized love because it was nor
reciprocate. But because he was very attractive, older than her, popular and at the same
time was nice to her and treated her a little better than other guys, she fantasized with
him. She was trying to find out how she could get him to be with her. She even invites
him to her special people's house and that is the first time she feels his rejection.
Then she starts to be more real about his feelings towards her. It is very tipical for
adolescent girls to fall in love with some unreachable person such as a rock star or some
one much more older than them. 
I can conclude by personal own experience and by watching at the movie  Welcome to the
Dollhouse that during the stage of Adolescence girls need, loving parents, descent
values, useful information, friends, physical safety, freedom to move about
independently, respect for their own uniqueness, and encouragement to grow into
productive adults. In the case of Dane, she lacked almost all of these which made her
developmental stage difficult and painful.