Since the start of middle school, we have been wrongfully exposed to an overexaggerated version of high school. The reason? TV shows, movies, and in general, the media. 

We are a generation fueled by high expectations, and our idea of high school is no exception. That being said, movies like Grease, Mean Girls, and even High School Musical have misled us into believing high school is a ball pit full of fighting, dancing, and constant romance. It is no wonder we expected something completely different going into our high school years. 

Three years in, and I have yet to be hit in the face by mashed potatoes at lunch. Anytime I climb on tables to dance, it results in a lot of yelling. Maybe this is not how every school works, but at Rockbridge, we tend to keep to ourselves. No one shoves freshmen against lockers or breaks into the school for pool parties (Serena Van Der Woodsen, I am looking at you). So how did the shows get it so wrong? 

To start, TV shows and movies use actors in their 20s, occasionally even in their 30s. 

For example, Outer Banks star Chase Stokes is 28 years old, and his co-star Madelyn Cline is 23 years old. While they are great actors, seeing people with flawless skin, perfect bodies, and great hair that are supposed to portray teenagers can hurt high schoolers’ self-esteem. Rachel McAdams who plays Regina George in Mean Girls was 25 years old during the movie. Jason Earles who played Jackson Stewart in Hannah Montana was 29 years old at the time. All this to say, our view of what we should look like in high school is skewed by the shows we watched or even the shows we watch now.

Another thing these shows and movies do is over-exaggerate everything. Sure, it is to make things more entertaining, but it tends to give many people the wrong concept of what high school looks like. For starters, rarely do students at Rockbridge break into song and dance in the cafeteria as they do in High School Musical. Sure, we dance in the cafeteria, but it never looks that put together. In the Disney show Girl Meets World, the students would rant, argue, and fall in love right in class, and while that might seem really cool, it is quite inaccurate, just like stereotypes.

Yes, high school stereotypes exist but not to the level they do in the media. Every coming- of-age movie is based on the nerd or the girl who does band or paints in her free time. I doubt you will find a movie based on high school football that does not reek of the stereotypical football team. Maybe it is just Rockbridge, but stereotypes seem to define us way less than they do in the media. If there is a ‘popular table’ or bullying due to other students’ passions, I have missed it. At Rockbridge, athletes can be nice, girls can wear whatever they want without being judged by a so-called ‘fashion police,’ and students can be interested in what they want to be interested in. The media makes high school seem like it is full of unfair assumptions and some crazy rigorous social ladder we all have to live by.

So, why do movies and TV shows make high school look the way they do? Good question. Maybe it is simply to make things more entertaining, or maybe they think we have utterly failed to make high school as great as it should be. Either way, there are a lot of old guys somewhere that have it all wrong.