Youth

"With the social and ethical context of the transformations of adolescence as the centrepiece of her chapter, Amanda Howell in "Coming of Age, With Vampires" gives voice to the figure of teenager as the Other in society. Comparing three cinematic and television productions (Lost Boys, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Let the Right One In, and engaging with the metaphor of threshold crossings, the author stresses the role of the vampire trope in negotiating the cultural angst and challenges associated with puberty. Of particular interest to this discussion is how adolescent protagonists face an untested freedom and unaccustomed responsibility for the self which entails the challenge of consent."

"I'll tell you what would really age me fast: if I had a teenaged daughter. I don't think I could handle that. Because that would mean teenaged boys would be coming around to my house. "Hi, Mr. Barry!" they'd say, with their cheerful, innocent young voices. "We're here to have sex with your daughter!" No, of course they wouldn't come out and say that, but I know that's what they'd be thinking, because I was a teenaged boy once, and I was basically a walking hormone storm. I'm sure modern boys are no different. So if I had a teenaged daughter, and a boy came to my house, after somehow picking his way through the land mines in the lawn, I'd probably lunge through the screen door and strangle him right there ("Hi, Mr. Barry! Is Jennifer heAAAAAAAWWWWK"). You think I'm exaggerating, but I have male friends whose daughters are approaching puberty at speeds upwards of 700 miles per hour, and when you say the word "dating," my friends get a look in their eyes that makes Charles Manson look like Captain Kangaroo."

"I make movies for teenage boys. Oh, dear, what a crime."

"Dr. David Wheeler: ...easiest thing in the world, being a teenager: you get up, you go to school, you come home, and you do your homework. How do you mess that up? Yet all of you did, in one way or another ― and now I have to clean up that mess!"

"Every young adult has the potential power to help the entire world. He just needs the right guidance and support. A garden with different flowers becomes beautiful when it blossoms. Similarly, if parents learn how to be a ‘gardener’ and are able to recognize their child's personality and nourish it, then their ‘garden’ will become fragrant! This is what positive parenting is all about!"

"But nope, teenage humans. The worst, most ill-conceived creatures in the universe. “Other than turkeys, right?” Yes, nothing beats those morons."

"Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars."

"Betty, who substituted at the middle school, like to say that there was really no such thing as a thirteen-year-old, but inside every eighth grader were a ten-year-old and a sixteen-year-old locked in mortal combat. Given enough time, the big kid would win and ask to borrow the car. Meanwhile, according to Betty, the best Faith could do was to silently chant the mother’s mantra: “It’s only a phase, it’s only a phase.”"

"As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you."

"Education conceived as preparation for life locks the learning process within a vicious circle. Youth educated in terms of adult ideas and taught to think of learning as a process which ends when real life begins will make no better use of intelligence than the elders who prescribe the system. Brief and rebellious moments occur when youth sees this fallacy clearly, but alas, the pressure of adult civilization is too great; in the end young people fit into the pattern, succumb to the tradition of their elders—indeed, become elderly-minded before their time. Education within the vicious circle becomes not a joyous enterprise but rather something to be endured because it leads to a satisfying end. But there can be no genuine joy in the end if means are irritating, painful."

"And I decided that if motherhood turned a "young American beauty" into that unhappy woman, then motherhood wasn't for me, either. That youthful, emotional decision (ill-formed and made for the wrong reasons) kept me from too much early sexual experimentation, and probably turned me into a bit of a tease. I'd "neck" but only go so far, because . . . well, I because I was going to be a writer, "free and unhampered." At the very least. I wasn't going to get pregnant in my teens."

"Even if teen-age children aren't making a sound, it's quieter when they're gone. They put a boiling in the air around them.[…] No wonder poltergeists only infest houses with adolescent children."

"I'd always, you see, even in my early teens, had these problems — problems of suddenly waking up in the middle of the night and having this horrifying vision that life is completely meaningless. You know — just thinking about something like the depths of space, and realizing it's got to come to an end somewhere, but apparently it doesn't, and then suddenly getting this terrible feeling that maybe life is a total delusion. G. K. Chesterton once said that in his teens he saw hell, and I really think I did too. I went through extreme depressions, glooms. There was one occasion on which I decided actually to commit suicide. I'd got into this state — I was working as a lab assistant at the school, and what would happen was that I'd make tremendous efforts to push myself up to a level of optimism. I'd do it in the evenings by reading poetry, thinking, writing in my journals, then I'd go back to the school the next day and blaaahhh, right down to the bottom again. This was the feeling of The Mind Parasites — there's something that waits until you've got lots of energy and just sucks you dry like a vampire. This sudden feeling that God was making fun of me made me feel one day, "For God's sake, let's not have any more of this nonsense. I'm damned if I'll be played about with like this. Let me kill myself." And immediately I felt this, I felt a curious sense of inner strength. So I went off to night school quite determined that what I was going to do was to take down the bottle of potassium cyanide from the reagent shelves and drink it. I knew that cyanide burns a hole in the bottom of the stomach and kills you within seconds. Well, I went into the classroom quite determined. There was a group gathered around the professor at the desk. I went over to the reagent shelves, I took down the bottle of potassium cyanide, I uncorked it, and as I started raising this to my lips I suddenly had an extremely clear vision of myself in a few seconds' time with an agonizing pain in the pit of my stomach, and at the same time I suddenly turned into two people. I don't mean that literally, but I mean that there was I, and there beside me was this silly, bloody little idiot called Colin Wilson who was in a state of self-pity and about to kill himself, and I didn't give a damn whether the fool killed himself or not. The trouble was, if he killed himself he'd kill me too. And quite suddenly a terrific sense of overwhelming happiness came over me. I corked up the bottle, put it on the shelf, and for the next few days was in total control of my emotions and everything else. I realized suddenly that you can achieve these states of control, provided that you put yourself in a crisis situation. And that's why throughout The Outsider I keep saying the outsider's salvation lies in extremes."

"When I was in my teens, I invented a term to describe them. I call it 'holiday consciousness' . . . because I often experienced this sense of optimism and wide-awakeness when setting out on a journey or a holiday. It was always the feeling that the world is self-evidently complex and beautiful, and that life is so obviously good that man's boredom and defeat is an absurdity . . . And then I used to ask: Why do mean forget this so easily? And the answer seemed obvious: because the human will is so flabby and weak. Instead of being self-controlled, self-driven creatures, most men are little more than leaves on a stream, they drift along hoping for the best. I once wrote that men are like grandfather clocks driven by watchsprings."

"Young men soon give and soon forget affronts; Old age is slow in both."

"I pray for no more youth perish before its prime; That Revenge and iron-heated War May fade with all that has gone before Into the night of time."

"Youth are diamonds in the sun, diamonds are forever."

"Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing."

"For rigorous teachers seized my youth, And purged its faith, and trimm’d its fire, Show’d me the high white star of Truth, There bade me gaze, and there aspire."

"Young men are fitter to invent, than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business;… Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that, which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them, like an unruly horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success."

"Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it."

"We are beginning to feel at home in our childhood, which the present wants to teach us to forget. ... We will steadfastly rely on young people who will find or create the forms for the time between childhood and adulthood. We are sill living in this period without these forms, without mutual support — in short: alone."

"Nothing is so hateful to the philistine as the "dreams of his youth." ... For what appeared to him in his dreams was the voice of the spirit, calling him once, as it does everyone. It is of this that youth always reminds him, eternally and ominously. That is why he is antagonistic toward youth."

"YOUTH, n. The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor of endowing a living Homer."

"[sighs] You know the problem with the youth nowadays? They're YOUNG!"

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We will remember them."

"How shall I describe Youth, the time of contradictions and anomalies The fiercest radicalisms, the most dogged conservatisms, irrepressible gayety, bitter melancholy,—all these moods are equally part of that showery spring-time of life."

"In this conflict between youth and its elders, youth is the incarnation of reason pitted against the rigidity of tradition. Youth puts the remorseless questions to everything that is old and established,—Why? What is this thing good for? And when it gets the mumbled, evasive answers of the elders, it applies its own fresh, clean spirit of reason to the institutions, customs, and ideas, and finding them stupid, inane, or poisonous, turns instinctively to overthrow them and build in their place the things with which its visions teem. … Youth is the leaven that keeps all these questioning, testing attitudes fermenting in the world. If it were not for this troublesome activity of youth, with its hatred of sophisms and glosses, its insistence on things as they are, society would die from sheer decay. It is the policy of the older generation as it gets adjusted to the world to hide away the unpleasant things where it can, or preserve a conspiracy of silence and an elaborate pretense that they do not exist. But meanwhile the sores go on festering just the same. Youth is the drastic antiseptic. It will not let the elders cry peace, where there is no peace. By its fierce sarcasms it keeps issues alive in the world until they are settled right. It drags skeletons from closets and insists that they be explained. No wonder the older generation fears and distrusts the younger. Youth is the avenging Nemesis on its trail."

"Our elders are always optimistic in their views of the present, pessimistic in their views of the future; youth is pessimistic toward the present and gloriously hopeful for the future. And it is this hope which is the lever of progress—one might say, the only lever of progress."

"The secret of life is then that this fine youthful spirit should never be lost. Out of the turbulence of youth should come this fine precipitate—a sane, strong, aggressive spirit of daring and doing. It must be a flexible, growing spirit, with a hospitality to new ideas, and a keen insight into experience. To keep one’s reactions warm and true, is to have found the secret of perpetual youth, and perpetual youth is salvation."

"Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! There's none of these so lonely and poor of old, But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold. These laid the world away: poured out the red Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene That men call age, and those who would have been Their sons, they gave their immortality."

"Every street has two sides, the shady side and the sunny. When two men shake hands and part, mark which of the two takes the sunny side; he will be the younger man of the two."

"We must encourage our youth, listen to them and help them to resolve youth issues. After all, they are our future."

"His early dreams of good outstripp'd the truth, And troubled manhood follow'd baffled youth."

"Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy!"

"Her years Were ripe, they might make six-and-twenty springs; But there are forms which Time to touch forbears, And turns aside his scythe to vulgar things."

"Sweet scene of my youth! Seat of Friendship and Truth, Where Love chas'd each fast-fleeting year; Loth to leave thee, I mourn'd, For a last look I turn'd, But thy spire was scarce seen through a Tear."

"Prima commendiato proficiscitur a modestia tum pietate in parentes, tum in suos benevolentia."

"When a man of forty marries a girl of twenty, it isn't her youth he's seeking but his own."

"Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes."

"I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more — the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort — to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires — and expires, too soon — too soon before life itself."

"We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it!"

"Young people have taken part in remarkable political mobilisation in the last year. They have participated in global climate change strikes and demonstrations and protests against ruling elites, corruption and inequality in countries such as Algeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Iraq and Libya. However, my research shows that they can be excluded from decision-making and processes. In particular, young people frequently think that their messages are devalued or ignored. Young people are often perceived as vulnerable and in need of protection. Yet they can be simultaneously viewed as dangerous, violent and uncontrollable. These views have long dominated attitudes towards youth. Moreover, popular beliefs about young people’s lack of experience and has meant that many people are ignorant about their contribution to political debate. This has also led to a failure by political leaders to acknowledge young people’s potential to bring about political change."

"Although countries are hesitant to include youth in politics, young people find alternative ways to cope with marginalisation and amplify their voices. This is apparent in the youth-led protests around the world. Young people are demanding to be leaders today, rather wait their turn in an elusive future."

"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;"

"Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books."

"Whoso neglects learning in his youth, Loses the past and is dead for the future."

"The youth of humanity all around our planet are intuitively revolting from all sovereignties and political ideologies. The youth of Earth are moving intuitively toward an utterly classless, raceless, omnicooperative, omniworld humanity. Children freed of the ignorantly founded educational traditions and exposed only to their spontaneously summoned, computer-stored and -distributed outflow of reliable-opinion-purged, experimentally verified data, shall indeed lead society to its happy egress from all misinformedly conceived, fearfully and legally imposed, and physically enforced customs of yesterday. They can lead all humanity into omnisuccessful survival as well as entrance into an utterly new era of human experience in an as-yet and ever-will-be fundamentally mysterious Universe."

"Jugend ist Trunkenheit ohne Wein."

"Even if the world progresses generally, youth will always begin at the beginning, and the epochs of the world's cultivation will be repeated in the individual."

"As I traveled, talking about these issues, I met so many young people who had lost hope. Some were depressed; some were apathetic; some were angry and violent. And when I talked to them, they all more or less felt this way because we had compromised their future and the world of tomorrow was not going to sustain their great-grandchildren."

"It is desperately hard these days for an average child to grow up to be a man, for our present organized system does not want men. They are not safe."

"Some of the bravest political work in this country and around the world has happened because people often too young to grasp their own mortality stick their necks out. The job of the rest of us is to rise to the occasion of their bravery. The young inspire the middle-aged and old with courage, and they project our vision where it belongs, into the future."

"Younger people actually understand how it works. They don't just take what they are fed according to their preferences; they go look at other things."

"Youth around the globe saw the world being squeezed by two equal and unsavory forces. American youth had learned that it was important to stand up to both the communists and the anticommunists. The Port Huron Statement recognized that communism should be opposed: “The Soviet Union, as a system, rests on the total repression of organized opposition, as well as a vision of the future in the name of which much human life had been sacrificed, and numerous small and large denials of human dignity rationalized.” But according to the Port Huron Statement, anticommunist forces in America were more harmful than helpful. The statement cautions that “an unreasoning anti-Communism has become a major social problem.” This first started to be expressed in the 1950s with the film characters portrayed by James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley, and the beat generation writings of Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. But the feeling grew in the 1960s. The young invested hope in John Kennedy, largely because he too was relatively young—the second youngest president in history replacing Eisenhower, who at the time was the oldest. The inauguration of Kennedy in 1961 was the largest change of age ever at the White House, with almost thirty years’ difference between the exiting and entering presidents. But even under Kennedy, young Americans experienced the Cuban missile crisis as a terrifying experience and one that taught that people in power play with human life even if they are young and have a good sense of humor. Most of the people who arrived at college campuses in the mid-1960s had a deep resentment and distrust of any kind of authority. People in positions of authority anywhere on the political spectrum were not to be trusted. That is why there were no absolute leaders. The moment a Savio or Hayden declared himself leader, he would have lost all credibility."

"A young ticket should never be envied, they queue for the bus the same as us."

"The course of life is like the child's game – “here we go round by the rule of contrary” -- and youth, above all others, is the season of united opposites, with all its freshness and buoyancy. At no period of our existence is depression of the spirit more common or more painful. As we advance in life our duties become defined ; we act more from necessity and less from impulse ; custom takes the place of energy, and feelings, no longer powerfully excited, are proportionably quiet in re-action. But youth, balancing itself upon hope, is for ever in extremes; its expectations are continually aroused only to be baffled ; and disappointment, like a summer shower, is violent in proportion to its brevity."

"Hard are life's early steps; and but that youth is buoyant, confident, and strong in hope, men would behold its threshold, and despair."

"Youth comes but once in a lifetime."

"We are jointly responsible for the care and raising of the young, since that they be raised is a function, ultimately, of the species."

"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded."

"It is very natural that clever young men should be rather odious. They are conscious of gifts that they do not know how to use. They are exasperated with the world that will not recognize their merit. They have something to give, and no hand is stretched out to receive it. They are impatient for the fame they regard as their due."

"For the more paart, youthe is rebel, Un-to reson & hatith her doctryne."

"Generations do not age. Every youth of any period, any civilization, has the same possibilities as always."

"We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so."

"If it is true that the implosion of meaning and perspective characterises the current third age of capitalism, which has not only won against social and artistic criticism, but has won too much, then young people are the first victims. Young people live on meaning and perspective. This was said very well by the Romantics, and by Fichte in particular. The transformation of young people into a consumerist generational group is indeed a worrying historical novelty. If teachers around the world are noticing a decline in students' logical abilities, this is due to the fact that the capitalist general intellect has now reached such a level of anonymous incorporation of knowledge that there is less and less need for a family where people talk and a school where people reason. The youth issue is therefore historical and philosophical, not psychological and pedagogical. Young people must regain meaning and perspective. Then, we will immediately see them magically recover their logical, expressive and emotional abilities."

"Nature has done well and wisely, in not permitting a man to live forever and in bringing into the world ever new generations. An old person is a used-up machine [... He] has too many dogmas to [...] easily [...] believe in a new truth [...]; too many sympathies and antipathies [...] for him to come to love something unfamiliar; [...] too many habits to be able to settle on new ways. Let us add suspiciousness — the fruit of bitter experiences; a pessimism inseparable from all manner of disappointments; and finally, a general decline of powers from exhaustion [...]."

"Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young... and I seem to have forgotten lately."

"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth."

"My salad days; When I was green in judgment."

"The spirit of a youth That means to be of note, begins betimes."

"The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon; Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes. The canker galls the infants of the spring, Too oft before their buttons be disclosed; And in the morn and liquid dew of youth, Contagious blastments are most imminent."

"For youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables, and his weeds Importing health and graveness."

"Is in the very May-morn of his youth, Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises."

"He that is more than a youth, is not for me, and he that is less than man, I am not for him."

"Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing."

"O brave youth, how good for thee it were couldst thou be made to understand how infinitely precious are thy school years—years when thou hast leisure to grow, when new worlds break in upon thee, and thou fashionest thy being in the light of the ideals of truth and goodness and beauty! If now thou dost not fit thyself to become free and whole, thou shalt, when the doors of this fair mother-house of the mind, close behind thee, be driven into ways that lead to bondage, be compelled to do that which cripples and dwarfs; for the work whereby men gain a livelihood involves mental and moral mutilation, unless it be done in the spirit of religion and culture. Ah! well for thee, canst thou learn while yet there is time that it will profit thee nothing to become the possessor of millions, if the price thou payest is thy manhood."

"At first it had been youth's ideal of what youth should be, a pattern woven of fanatical loyalty, irresponsible gaiety, comradeship, physical gusto, and not a little pure devilry."

"Older people are most beautiful when they have what is lacking in the young: poise, , wisdom, , and this post-heroic absence of agitation."

"The pleasure and sadness of youth is that the speed of its passing is never thought about; and so you say that you will do this or that in a year, in five years, only to wake up one morning to realize that what you thought was infinitely prolonged has ended."

"What is that to him that reaps not harvest of his youthful joys, Though the deep heart of existence beat forever like a boy's?"

"Newborn lifeforms – babies, puppies, kittens, lambs, and so on... are fragile, delicate, not yet firmly established in materiality. An innocence, a sweetness and beauty that are not of this world still shine through them. They delight even relatively insensitive humans."

"'There was a time,' Nikolai Artemyevitch resumed, 'when daughters did not allow themselves to look down on their parents—when the parental authority forced the disobedient to tremble. That time has passed, unhappily: so at least many persons imagine; but let me tell you, there are still laws which do not permit—do not permit—in fact there are still laws. I beg you to mark that: there are still laws——'"

"Youth is not a time of life—it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a tempermental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair—these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being's heart a love of wonder; the sweet amazement at the stars and starlike things and thoughts; the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what comes next, and the joy in the game of life. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, grandeur, courage, and power from the earth, from men and from the Infinite—so long are you young. When the wires are all down and the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then are you grown old, indeed!"

"If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulses of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavor is to subdue our children’s spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life."

"Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis."

"On one of our regular Friday night visits to the Seventy-third Street public library, my father encourage me to borrow 's celebrated 1926 book, Microbe Hunters. In it were fascinating stories of how infectious diseases were being conquered by scientists who went after bad germs with the same tenacity as Sherlock Holmes pursuing the evil Dr. Moriarity. Some months later I brought home Arrowsmith, in which Sinclair Lewis, helped by Paul de Kruif as expert consultant, relates the never-realized hope of his hero to save victims from by treating then with bacteria-killing viruses. The 's youth gripped me and made me realize that science could be like : a young man's game whose stars made their mark in their early twenties."

"In several educational institutions during the last few years manifestation of student activity in riots has been exciting the country. To the conservative mind, these riots bode no good. As a matter of fact student riots of one sort or another, protests against the order that is, kicks against college and university management indicate a healthy growth and a normal functioning of the academic mind. Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily—certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn't enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay. If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow."

"Being young don’t earn you a damn thing in my book."

"Adolescents are simply those people who haven't as yet chosen between childhood and adulthood. For as long as anyone tries to hold on to the advantages of childhood—the freedom from responsibility, principally—while seeking to lay claim to the best parts of adulthood, such as independence, he is an adolescent. ... Eventually most people choose to be adults, or are forced into it. A very few retreat into childhood and never leave it again. A large number remain adolescents for life."

"Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor; Part with it as with money, sparing; pay No moment but in purchase of its worth, And what it's worth, ask death-beds; they can tell."

"Youth dreams a bliss on this side death. It dreams a rest, if not more deep, More grateful than this marble sleep; It hears a voice within it tell: Calm's not life's crown, though calm is well. 'Tis all perhaps which man acquires, But 'tis not what our youth desires."

"Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business."

"I was between A man and a boy, A hobble-de-hoy, A fat, little, punchy concern of sixteen."

"Smiling always with a never fading serenity of countenance, and flourishing in an immortal youth."

"Our youth we can have but to-day; We may always find time to grow old."

"Young fellows will be young fellows."

"And both were young, and one was beautiful."

"Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes."

"As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind."

"Teneris, heu, lubrica moribus ætas!"

"Life went a-Maying With Nature, Hope, and Poesy; * When I was young! When I was young?—Ah, woful when!"

"A young Apollo, golden haired, Stands dreaming on the verge of strife, Magnificently unprepared For the long littleness of life."

"Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none."

"Youth, what man's age is like to be, doth show; We may our ends by our beginnings know."

"Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly."

"Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas below, Which always find us young, And always keep us so."

"Angelicus juvenis senibus satanizat in annis."

"Si jeunesse savoit, si vieillesse pouvoit."

"Youth holds no society with grief."

"O happy unown'd youths! your limbs can bear The scorching dog-star and the winter's air, While the rich infant, nurs'd with care and pain, Thirsts with each heat and coughs with every rain!"

"Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly rising o'er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm."

"The insect-youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honied spring, And float amid the liquid noon!"

"Over the trackless past, somewhere, Lie the lost days of our tropic youth, Only regained by faith and prayer, Only recalled by prayer and plaint, Each lost day has its patron saint!"

"There is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals."

"Ah, youth! forever dear, forever kind."

"Youth! youth! how buoyant are thy hopes! they turn, Like marigolds, toward the sunny side."

"All the world's a mass of folly, Youth is gay, age melancholy: Youth is spending, age is thrifty, Mad at twenty, cold at fifty; Man is nought but folly's slave, From the cradle to the grave."

"Towering in confidence of twenty-one."

"When all the world is young, lad, And all the trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen; Then hey, for boot and horse, lad, And round the world away; Young blood must have its course, lad, And every dog his day."

"Our youth began with tears and sighs, With seeking what we could not find; We sought and knew not what we sought; We marvel, now we look behind: Life's more amusing than we thought."

"Flos juvenum (Flos juventutis)."

"Standing with reluctant feet, Where the brook and river meet, Womanhood and childhood fleet!"

"How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams With its illusions, aspirations, dreams! Book of Beginnings, Story without End, Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!"

"In its sublime audacity of faith, "Be thou removed!" it to the mountain saith, And with ambitious feet, secure and proud, Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud!"

"Youth, that pursuest with such eager pace Thy even way, Thou pantest on to win a mournful race: Then stay! oh, stay! Pause and luxuriate in thy sunny plain; Loiter,—enjoy: Once past, Thou never wilt come back again, A second Boy."

"'Tis now the summer of your youth: time has not cropped the roses from your cheek, though sorrow long has washed them."

"The smiles, the tears Of boyhood's years, The words of love then spoken."

"Dissimiles hic vir, et ille puer."

"The atrocious crime of being a young man."

"When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one."

"De jeune hermite, vieil diable."

"Crabbed age and youth cannot live together; Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee; youth I do adore thee."

"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime: So thou through windows of thine age shall see, Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time."

"Hail, blooming Youth! May all your virtues with your years improve, Till in consummate worth you shine the pride Of these our days, and succeeding times A bright example."

"Age may have one side, but assuredly Youth has the other. There is nothing more certain than that both are right, except perhaps that both are wrong."

"For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself."

"Youth is wholly experimental."

"Youth should be a savings-bank."

"What unjust judges fathers are, when in regard to us they hold That even in our boyish days we ought in conduct to be old, Nor taste at all the very things that youth and only youth requires; They rule us by their present wants not by their past long-lost desires."

"The next, keep under Sir Hobbard de Hoy: The next, a man, no longer a boy."

"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very Heaven!"

"A youth to whom was given So much of earth, so much of heaven."

"The greatest part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miserable."

"Use thy youth so that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof. Use it as the spring-time which soon departeth, and wherein thou oughtest to plant and sow all provisions for a long and happy life."

"Every stage of life has its own set of manners, that is suited to it, and best becomes it. Each is beautiful in its season; and you might as well quarrel with the child's rattle, and advance him directly to the boy's top and span-farthing, as expect from diffident youth the manly confidence of riper age."

"A youth thoughtless! when the career of all his days depends on the opportunity of a moment! A youth thoughtless! when all the happiness of his home forever depends on the chances or the passions of an hour! A youth thoughtless! when his every act is a foundation-stone of future conduct, and every imagination a fountain of life or death! Be thoughtless in any after years, rather than now — though indeed there is only one place where a man may be nobly thoughtless — his death-bed. No thinking should be ever left to be done there."

"Oh thou corrupter of youth! I would not take thy death, for all the pleasures of thy guilty life, a thousand fold. Thou shalt draw near to the shadow of death. To the Christian these shades are the golden haze which heaven's light makes, when it meets the earth and mingles with its shadows. But to thee, these shall be shadows full of phantom-shapes. Images of terror in the Future shall dimly rise and beckon: — the ghastly deeds of the Past shall stretch out their skinny hands to push thee forward! Thou shalt not die unattended! Despair shall mock thee. Agony shall tender to thy parched lips her fiery cup. Remorse shall feel for thy heart and rend it open. Good men shall breathe freer at thy death, and utter thanksgiving when thou art gone."

"When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over."

"I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg."

"Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation."

"The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; "they will both fall into the ditch"."

"Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be content with things as they are…. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations."

"We have all seen with a sense of nausea the abject, squalid, shameless avowal made in the Oxford Union. We are told that we ought not to treat it seriously. The Times talked of "the children's hour". I disagree. It is a very disquieting and disgusting symptom. One can almost feel the curl of contempt upon the lips of the manhood of Germany, Italy, and France when they read the message sent out by Oxford University in the name of Young England. Let them be assured that it is not the last word. But before they blame, as blame they should, these callow ill-tutored youths, they must be sure that they have not been set a bad example by people much older and much higher up."

"That we may live to see England once more possess a free Monarchy and a privileged and prosperous People, is my Prayer; that these great consequences can only be brought about by the energy and devotion of our Youth is my persuasion. We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity."

"Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing."

"Thou know'st the o'er-eager vehemence of youth, How quick in temper, and in judgement weak."

"Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again."

"It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge."

"Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement of danger. It demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease."

"Nothing matters more to the future of this Nation than insuring that our young men and women learn to believe in themselves and believe in their dreams, and that they develop this capacity—that you develop this capacity, so that you keep it all of your lives…. I believe one of America's most priceless assets is the idealism which motivates the young people of America. My generation has invested all that it has, not only its love but its hope and faith, in yours."

"Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children."

"The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life."

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. -- misattributed to Socrates"

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint. -- misattributed to Hesiod (See Hesiod#Misattributed)"

"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control."

"Everyone who achieves strives for totality, and the value of his achievement lies in that totality—that is, in the fact that the whole, undivided nature of a human being should be expressed in his achievement. But when determined by our society, as we see it today, achievement does not express a totality; it is completely fragmented and derivative. It is not uncommon for the community to be the site where a joint and covert struggle is waged against higher ambitions and more personal goals. ... A more profoundly organic individual development is obscured. The socially relevant achievement of the average person serves in the vast majority of cases to repress the original and nonderivative, inner aspirations of the human being."

"Three years ago you were a kid. You didn't have a single feeling worth having—cocky and shallow. Like most kids. Then you got picked up by the scruff of your neck and dumped into life. You actually did things you didn't want to do, because they were right. You learned how to feel other people's pain—and finally the Lord faced you with pain of your own. Someday you're gonna stop cringing in front of it. you'll pick it up and carry it with you, and you'll be a man for the rest of your life; with a hurt hid inside you—but it'll make your joy all the richer."

"When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: "Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in middle age they all break up like clouds, and one comes down to a belief in practical politics, to using the machinery one has and getting on with the world as it is." Thus, at least, venerable and philanthropic old men now in their honoured graves used to talk to me when I was a boy. But since then I have grown up and have discovered that these philanthropic old men were telling lies. What has really happened is exactly the opposite of what they said would happen. They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics."

"Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question."

"A child is protected by the limit of feebleness against emotions which are too complex. He sees the fact, and little else beside. The difficulty of being satisfied by half-ideas does not exist for him. It is not until later that experience comes, with its brief, to conduct the lawsuit of life. Then he confronts groups of facts which have crossed his path; the understanding, cultivated and enlarged, draws comparisons; the memories of youth reappear under the passions, like the traces of a palimpsest under the erasure; these memories form the bases of logic, and that which was a vision in the child's brain becomes a syllogism in the man's."

"We confound loss of naiveté (a developmental change) with loss of innocence (a spiritual failing). While each person is fated to lose naiveté, no person loses innocence by developmental necessity. Each person loses innocence by his or her own hand."

"It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me. The guardians who have so benevolently taken over the supervision of men have carefully seen to it that the far greatest part of them (including the entire fair sex) regard taking the step to maturity as very dangerous, not to mention difficult. Having first made their domestic livestock dumb, and having carefully made sure that these docile creatures will not take a single step without the go-cart to which they are harnessed, these guardians then show them the danger that threatens them, should they attempt to walk alone. Now this danger is not actually so great, for after falling a few times they would in the end certainly learn to walk; but an example of this kind makes men timid and usually frightens them out of all further attempts."

"Maturity consists in having rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play."

"As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little to do with who we really are, expectations held by people who are not trying to discern our selfhood but to fit us into slots. In families, schools, workplaces, and religious communities, we are trained away from true self toward images of acceptability; under social pressures ... our original shape is deformed beyond recognition; and we ourselves, driven by fear, too often betray true self to gain the approval of others."

"The law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian."

"As long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."

"It is not in the nature of man—nor of any living entity—to start out by giving up, by spitting in one’s own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption, whose rapidity differs from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one’s mind; security, of abandoning one’s values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man’s nature and of life’s potential."

"Who is there that has never, more or less consciously, noticed that our whole education is calculated to produce feelings in us, i.e. impart them to us, instead of leaving their production to ourselves however they may turn out? If we hear the name of God, we are to feel veneration; if we hear that of the prince’s majesty, it is to be received with reverence, deference, submission; if we hear that of morality, we are to think that we hear something inviolable; if we hear of the Evil One or evil ones, we are to shudder; etc. The intention is directed to these feelings, and he who e. g. should hear with pleasure the deeds of the “bad “ would have to be “taught what’s what” with the rod of discipline. Thus stuffed with imparted feelings, we appear before the bar of majority and are “pronounced of age.” Our equipment consists of “elevating feelings, lofty thoughts, inspiring maxims, eternal principles,” etc. The young are of age when they twitter like the old; they are driven through school to learn the old song, and, when they have this by heart, they are declared of age."

"It is generally supposed that conservatives are usually old people, and that those in favor of change are the young. This is not quite correct. Many conservatives are young people: those who want to live but who do not think about how to live, and have not time to think, and therefore take as a model for themselves a way of life they have seen."

"Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness."

"Middle-class blacks are far more likely than middle-class whites to live in areas with significant amounts of poverty. Among today’s cohort of middle- and upper-class blacks, about half were raised in neighborhoods of at least 20 percent poverty. Only 1 percent of today’s middle- and upper-class whites can say the same. In short, if you took two children—one white, one black—and gave them parents with similar jobs, similar educations, and similar values, the black child would be much more likely to grow up in a neighborhood with higher poverty, worse schools, and more violence."

"All of which raises an obvious question: Why do blacks have a hard time leaving impoverished neighborhoods? [...] Once you grasp the staggering differences between black and white neighborhoods, it becomes much easier to explain a whole realm of phenomena. Take the achievement gap between middle-class black students and their white peers. It’s easy to look at this and jump to cultural explanations—that this is a function of black culture and not income or wealth. But, when we say middle-class black kids are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods, what we’re also saying is that they’re less likely to have s with professionals, and more likely to be exposed to violence and crime. This can have serious consequences. Youthful experimentation for a white teenager in a suburb might be smoking a joint in a friend’s attic. Youthful experimentation for a black teenager might be hanging out with gang members."

"One in five American children live in poverty, even as s tout employment highs."

"The plight of impoverished children anywhere should evoke sympathy, exemplifying as it does the suffering of the innocent and defenseless. Poverty among children in a wealthy country like the United States, however, should summon shame and outrage as well. Unlike poor countries (sometimes run by leaders more interested in lining their pockets than anything else), what excuse does the United States have for its striking levels of child poverty? After all, it has the world’s 10th highest per capita income at $62,795 and an unrivalled gross domestic product (GDP) of $21.3 trillion. Despite that, in 2020, an estimated 11.9 million American kids—16.2 percent of the total—live below the official poverty line, which is a paltry $25,701 for a family of four with two kids. Put another way, according to the Children’s Defense Fund, kids now constitute one-third of the 38.1 million Americans classified as poor and 70 percent of them have at least one —so poverty can’t be chalked up to parental indolence."

"The conservative response to all this remains predictable: You can’t solve complex social problems like child poverty by throwing money at them. Besides, government antipoverty programs only foster dependence and create bloated bureaucracies without solving the problem. It matters little that the success of American social programs proves this claim to be flat-out false."

"Imagine, for a moment, this scenario: a 200-meter footrace in which the starting blocks of some competitors are placed 75 meters behind the others. Barring an Olympic-caliber runner, those who started way in front will naturally win. Now, think of that as an analogy for the predicament that American kids born in poverty face through no fault of their own. They may be smart and diligent, their parents may do their best to care for them, but they begin life with a huge handicap. As a start, the nutrition of poor children will generally be inferior to that of other kids. No surprise there, but here’s what’s not common knowledge: A childhood nutritional deficit matters for years afterwards, possibly for life."

"Our national opioid problem also affects the well-being of children in a striking fashion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 2008 and 2012, a third of women in their childbearing years filled -based medication prescriptions in pharmacies and an estimated 14 percent–22 percent of them were pregnant. The result: an alarming increase in the number of babies exposed to opioids in utero and experiencing withdrawal symptoms at birth, which is also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, in medical lingo. [...] (Given the ongoing opioid crisis, it’s unlikely that things have improved in recent years.) And the complications attributable to NAS don’t stop with birth. Though the research remains at an early stage—the opioid crisis only began in the early 1990s—it suggests that the ill effects of NAS extend well beyond infancy and include impaired cognitive and s, respiratory ailments, , difficulty maintaining intellectual focus, and behavioral traits that make productive with others harder. At this point, you won’t be surprised to learn that NAS and child poverty are connected. Prescription opioid use rates are much higher for women on , who are more likely to be poor than those with private insurance. Moreover, the abuse of, and overdose deaths from, opioids (whether obtained through prescriptions or illegally) have been far more widespread among the poor."

"Here’s a fact that may not surprise you: the children of the rich perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families. [...] Whether you think it deeply unjust, lamentable but inevitable, or obvious and unproblematic, this is hardly news. It is true in most societies and has been true in the United States for at least as long as we have thought to ask the question and had sufficient data to verify the answer."

"What is news is that in the United States over the last few decades these differences in educational success between high- and lower-income students have grown substantially. We are still talking about this despite decades of clucking about the crisis in American education and wave after wave of school reform. Whatever we’ve been doing in our schools, it hasn’t reduced educational inequality between children from upper- and lower-income families. Part of knowing what we should do about this is understanding how and why these educational disparities are growing."

"Money helps families provide cognitively stimulating experiences for their young children because it provides more stable home environments, more time for parents to read to their children, access to higher-quality child care and preschool and — in places like New York City, where 4-year-old children take tests to determine entry into gifted and talented programs — access to preschool test preparation tutors or the time to serve as tutors themselves."

"[N]ot only are the children of the rich doing better in school than even the children of the middle class, but the changing economy means that school success is increasingly necessary to future economic success, a worrisome mutual reinforcement of trends that is making our society more socially and economically immobile."

"Investments in early-childhood education pay very high societal s. That means investing in developing high-quality child care and preschool that is available to poor and middle-class children. It also means recruiting and training a cadre of skilled preschool teachers and child care providers. These are not new ideas, but we have to stop talking about how expensive and difficult they are to implement and just get on with it."

"The more we do to ensure that all children have similar cognitively stimulating early childhood experiences, the less we will have to worry about failing schools. This in turn will enable us to let our schools focus on teaching the skills — how to solve complex problems, how to think critically and how to collaborate — essential to a growing economy and a lively democracy."

"13 million children are hungry in America. Yet most politicians do not even talk about it. Children aren’t old enough to vote, nor old enough to work therefore they have no financial leverage. They’re not old enough to advocate for themselves. That’s our job. The political establishment has simply normalized the despair of millions of American children who are chronically traumatized by poverty, hunger, and all manner of violence. This is what happens when government becomes more an instrument of corporate profits then of conscience. The vulnerabilities, challenges and chronic trauma of millions of American children should be recognized as a social justice issue. An economic system with no particular use for children - or for older people - has left both groups underserved. This country shouldn’t be run like a business, it should be run like a family. First we should take care of our children & older people, making sure they have everything they need to thrive. Everything else would then heal itself from there. Moral repair precedes societal repair."

"A record 14 million children in America are not getting enough to eat... even before the pandemic, in the richest nation in the world, about 13 million children went to school hungry every day. A report from January found more than 1.5 million public school students were experiencing homelessness, the highest number in over a dozen years. Millions of children attend classrooms where there aren't adequate means to teach them to read by the time they're 8 years old—in which case, their chances of high school graduation are drastically decreased and chances of incarceration are drastically increased. Millions of our kids (40 percent of all girls in Chicago public schools...) show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the COVID-19 crisis is quickly making that worse. Schools across the country are working to adopt "trauma-informed" teaching methods. Meanwhile, there is an average of only one school counselor for every 455 public school students... Consider the psychological and emotional effects of going to school each day well aware of school shootings and worried that the weird antisocial kid in class might want to kill you. Make no mistake about it, many of these children will be broken human beings 20 years from now."

"When people say the government should be run like a business, tell them that in many ways it already is—and that's the problem. Our government should not be run like a business; it should be run like a family. A business might rightfully put its short-term profits first, but a functional family puts the well-being of its children first. That's not a relative truth; it's a moral absolute."

"No one doubts what any of us would do for our own children, but now we must stand for everyone's children. We need a Cabinet-level position, a Department of Children and Youth, to even begin to get this problem under control. American women especially have a unique role to play here. For our system was designed before women had a voice in the public realm, and raising children was deemed to just be "women's work." But we certainly have a voice now, and we need to raise it on behalf of every mother's child. In any advanced mammalian species that survives and thrives, a common characteristic is the fierce behavior of the adult female of the species when she senses a threat to her cubs. Ours are threatened now, and we need to get fierce."

"If young men only had to contend with the disappointment of parents, teachers, politicians, officials, and planners, this would be bad enough. But the unrealizable expectations that have been provoked amidst persisting severe inequalities - within states, across regions, and around the globe - can also elicit far more severe threats to young men’s standing. This is so because marginalized young men are also often portrayed as being dangerous. As Barker pointed out: “In many parts of the world, it has become something of a national sport to demonize young men, particularly low-income young men.” This kind of demonization has been associated with “punitive, unjust, and ineffective policies,” in particular the widespread increase in the incarceration of young men in Latin America, the English speaking Caribbean, the United States, and Europe. In the United States, the incarceration rates of young black men in particular, rose at a dramatic pace during the 1990s."

"I have met plenty of shooters, even some killers. When I look carefully at what they have been through, in many cases I must admit that I might not have done things much differently than they did. Imagine that your early life was filled with deprivation, distrust, and trauma. Your main source of support is a small group of young men you grew up with. A rival kills one of them - your closest friend - and the police do nothing. Would you turn the other cheek? We all hope that we would make the right decision, but no one can be sure. David Kennedy once described these young men to me as “more trapped than evil,” and I agree."

"Those who should be worried about interpersonal violence are those living in low-income communities. The violence is overwhelmingly directed inward: low-income young men against other low-income young men. If you are a young man between the ages of 15 and 24, living in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, and in settings like this around the world, you should indeed be worried about interpersonal violence."

"Of 1,500 young men aged 18–30, we found that nearly 1 in 5 thought about suicide in the past two weeks. Which young men were more likely to think about suicide? Those who believed in a version of manhood associated with being tough, not talking about their problems, and bottling up their emotions were twice as likely to have considered suicide."

"The negative reproductive health outcomes among Latino young men may partially be attributable to low levels of contraceptive use among this population. The 2002 NSFG reveals that across all ethnic/racial groups, young Latinos are the least likely to use a contraceptive method at various points in their sexual history. For example, 34 percent of sexually experienced Latino young men reported that they used no contraceptive method at first sex, compared to 22 percent of white and 18 percent of African American young men. Even more salient to HIV/STI prevention is the use of condoms. Sexually active Latinos in the NSFG sample were less likely to use a condom (60 percent) at first sex than African American (81 percent) or white (68 percent) young men."

"There is danger that a young man, who is suffered to grow up in a great measure uncontrolled, will form a habit of idleness. We do not find that children, if left to themselves, choose labour; and where they form the habit, it is usually the result of parental instruction, counsel, and perhaps authority, rather than of their own taste or inclination. You may look all the world over, and you will find, with few exceptions, that young persons who are allowed to do just as they please, show themselves disposed to do very little, at least little to any good purpose; and the consequence is, that, at no distant period, thy have a confirmed habit of idleness which rends them little better than mere cumberers of the ground."

"Studies show gay men usually recognized that they were somehow “different” from their heterosexual peers around age 5 or 6 and society is increasingly supportive of young men “coming out” in their early teen years; however, the individual decision may be fraught with tension and anxiety, and depending on the environment or geographical location, a young man’s peers may respond with diverse reactions ranging from nonchalant acceptance to physical violence perpetrated against him."

"Sean was 21 years old and homeless… At the age of 15, Sean was showing sexualized behaviour toward male adults. This concern, alongside reports from another boy, led to an investigation. Sean reported that he had been repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse by Mr. Lister, the head of care at the school. As head of care, Mr. Lister was in a central and powerful position in the school. This included making decisions about behaviour grades that would result in the provision or restriction of privileges. He also made decisions about permission to return home at weekends. He lived on the school premises in a cottage, to which he invited pupils and sexually abused them, In Sean’s case, the sexual abuse had taken place over a period of six to nine months. Sean was not aware that there were others being sexually victimised at the school by the same person. Mr. Lister disappeared during the course of the investigation and was believed to have left the country."

"Revolutionary potentials for openness and change in masculinities are likely to stem from the margin. In other words, it is those in the margin who foster the openness toward which men in the centre need to move. Indeed, it was with one man… a queer, working-class man in Germany - that openness and egalitarian, revolutionary practices, beliefs and commitments in relation to masculinity emerged. He modeled what could be considered a “caring masculinity,” defined as masculinities that “reject domination and its associated traits and embrace values of care such as positive emotion, interdependence, and relativity.” Locked out of the privileges of the closed centre, he adopted a radical politics of gender and sexuality, challenged dictates of closed masculinities, and had a strong commitment to care."

"To be sober minded, the young man must indulge in serious reflection. Placed in this world as he is - surrounded by so many objects of interest - amid intelligent beings like himself… He must turn his thoughts, now and then, from the scenes which constantly meet his eye to more serious meditations."

"Within the first month in prison, young men had to adapt in three different ways. Firstly, they had to adapt practically to life inside. There were a number of aspects of the prison about which they had to learn: they had to learn what they were entitled to and what they were not; what they were allowed to do in their cells and what they were not; and what time different events of the regime occurred, such as when they would be unlocked and for how long. They needed to know where to apply for employment within the prison or how to attend education, how to attend the gym or a church, or other religious services (for example, Friday prayers for Muslims). The canteen was another essential aspect of prison life: how much money could they spend and how did they go about spending it? They needed to know when they could shower, and how and when they could receive visits."

"Equating talking about men with attacking others means that it’s safer to discuss negative aspects of masculinity than positive aspects, because that invites less confrontation. But there’s a lack of affirmative discussion about what we want boys and young men to grow up to be, and how we can empower young men to lead positive lives. A friend of mine is a lawyer who represents youth expelled from public schools… Most of the students she represents are male, and often these boys and young men get into trouble for fighting, inappropriate touching of girls, talking back to teachers, and generally disobeying the instructions of authority figures. My friend has recommended that schools and other organizations that work with male students try to develop programs and initiatives focused on encouraging healthy forms of masculinity. She believes more dialogue with boys about masculinity could help them mature and be more thoughtful about how they treat each other and their female classmates. But in response, she has been told that such initiatives would “promote patriarchy” and not be inclusive enough."

"By now, the abysmal patterns and statistics are so well known that they no longer evoke a sense of shock or disbelief. Black male youths are overrepresented in every educational category associated with failure (e.g. suspension and expulsion rates, dropout rates, special education placements, etc.) and underrepresented in every category associated with educational success. The patterns emerge early, even as early as preschool, and foreshadow those associated with adult Black males."

"What after all can the average young man, eager for action in the world of today, do? Duels, crusades, discoveries have come to an end. The "inner kingdom" of phantasy and imagination has been dried out by "sober thinking" or comics and movies. Naturally, there is religion and the Holy Folly of the Cross, there is intellectualism (the consolation of the intellect), there is alcohol and sex (the adventures of despair) or, finally, crime: the attraction of Blue Jaw Magoon's Purple Gang, the life of a "gorilla" or of an ace trigger man. The pent up energies of young man hood needs some sort of outlet in the stone deserts of Brooklyn, Detroit, or Chicago."

"As a young Asian man, I shrank before white eyes. I wasn’t tall, I wasn’t fair, I wasn’t muscular, and so on. Combine that with the enormous insecurities any pubescent teenager feels, and I have no difficulty in knowing now why I felt naked before a mass of white people."

"To project ourselves into their final thoughts will require feelings about a special kind of death - the sudden death in fire of the young, elite, unfulfilled, and seemingly unconquerable. As the elite of young men, they felt more surely than most who are young that they were immortal."

"They saw the growing peril to Britain and the rest of Europe but had no power to do anything about it. Most of them were under fifty; under normal circumstances, they and their contemporaries would now be moving into positions of influence and authority within the government. But there were far too few of them. Theirs was a lost generation, decimated by war. The other young men who likely would have shared their progressive views and their opposition to conciliating the dictators - their brothers, cousins, childhood friends, schoolmates - were lying in graves scattered throughout France and Belgium."

"The most important thing a young man ever does is to get ready. The key-note lasts to the end of the tune, and the foundation reaches clear to the finial. Beginnings are autocratic. No matter how long a man lives, he will never get away from his youth… A good many young men excuse themselves from ever becoming anything or doing anything by the fact that they always live where it is low tide. Perhaps that is because it is always low tide where they live. At any rate, the more I learn of the history of the men who have succeeded the more apparent it becomes that if they were born in low water they patched up their tattered circumstances and beat out to sea on a tide of their own making."

"Adolescent and young adult men do poorly on indicators of mental health evidenced by elevated rates of suicide, conduct disorder, substance use, and interpersonal violence… Evidence indicates that boys disconnect from health-care services during adolescence, marking the beginning of a progression of health-care disengagement and associated barriers to care, including presenting to services differently, experiencing an inadequate or poorly attuned clinical response, and needing to overcome pervasive societal attitudes and self-stigma to access available services."

"Young working-class men are not hostage to the traditional predispositions held by their counterparts from previous generations. They embrace service work and its attendant demands, and do not present a masculinity that is out of step with the contemporary economy; rather, such attitudes represent a “new normal” for young working-class men. [However] despite evidencing a more inclusive version of masculinity that is required of them to successfully integrate into the contemporary work, they are far from able to engage in significant upward social mobility. Having dispositions that make emotional labour possible, even enjoyable, does not offer a “silver bullet” solution to unemployment, underemployment, or low-pay, low-skill work."

"As adults we can assume that "adolescence" is a problem that needs to be solved, in order to minimize the risky behavior that young men, in particular, are likely to engage in. We readily assume that to be young is to be “guilty,” as if young people are waiting to be blamed for whatever goes wrong in their lives. Implicitly we theorise as adults who “already know,” through a reason that a dominant masculinity alone can take for granted. In an Enlightenment vision of modernity shaped by a dominant masculinity, reason as the source of knowledge is separated from feelings and desires which are framed in Kantian terms as forms of unreason and determination. So “adolescence” as a category within a rationalist tradition is framed as the object of a scientific gaze. As a biologically defined stage of development, we come to know “adolescence” within rationalist terms according to which, as social scientists, we have everything to teach and little to learn."

"As a group of young men in Riyadh point out, the easiest way to socialize with girls is through social media; thus if a young man wants to find a girlfriend, that is where he will look. In fact, most young men have girlfriends they found through social media, says one individual, but he stresses that they can rarely meet in public, He jokes that it is “top secret or like organized crime,” even though it is becoming more commonplace. According to an 18-year-old in Riyadh, “Everyone has a girlfriend, or boyfriend, these days, it is normal. Of course, we do not tell our parents because they would not understand.""

"Young men are peculiarly sensitive to the effect of ridicule, and are easily laughed or bantered out of their opinions when they have not embraced them from careful inquiry and accurate investigation."

"The desire to create a close and loving family is rarely discussed in relation to young men, particularly young men in prison… Yet [many incarcerated young men] are concerned with presenting themselves as able to take care of others - parents, siblings, and real or desired offspring, reflecting both traditional traits and a certain kind of modern manhood."

"If the young transgender man finds himself on the wrong side of the law, this can be a very eye-opening experience for him, especially if he has socially transitioned and is living as male. He will be searched by female officers if he is taken into custody, and because the justice system has gender-specific juvenile detention centers, it may be that a young transgender man finds himself in a female prison if his anti-social behavior has increased to the point where he has been convicted of offenses. This will be a traumatising experience for a young transgender man, and has the possibility for severely impacting on mental health."

"And a very great evil has befallen a young man, when wicked men feel that they have a right to his acquaintance. When I see a gambler slapping a young mechanic on the back; or a lecherous scoundrel suffusing a young man’s cheek by a story at which, despite his blushes, he yet laughs; I know the youth has been guilty of criminal indiscretion, or these men could not approach him thus. That is a brave and strong heart that can stand up pure in a company of artful wretches, When wicked men mean to seduce a young man, so tremendous are the odds in favor of practiced experience against innocence, that there is not one chance in a thousand, if the young man lets them approach him. Let every young man remember that he carries, by nature, a breast of passions just such as bad men have. With youth they slumber; but temptation can wake them, bad men can influence them; they know the road, they know how to serenade the heart; how to raise the sash, and elope with each passion."

"Every young man’s body is worth more to him than any fortune. He can squander it; he can waste it; he can throw it away. How can I burn into your minds and hearts the important duty of conserving this strength unless I make you understand what it costs to raise a boy? The wealth of [America] is not in the ground - it is above the ground. The most important wealth of this country is its manhood and womanhood."

"Youth interest in civic engagement is soaring among the generation that the global volunteering nonprofit Points of Light says was already the most active in history. More than half (53%) of Generation Z individuals said they wanted to get more involved in their communities post-COVID, which was higher than any other generation, according to a 2020 Points of Light survey. “If there is something that is harming us directly, we should be the ones to take charge,’’ said Isaiah Llamas, a recent high school graduate who helped facilitate a spring youth leadership session in Albuquerque. The New Mexico meeting was one of six around the nation co-hosted and funded by America’s Promise Alliance, a national network of groups working to improve conditions for young people... Young people – and adults who support them – say they’re trying to use the pandemic as an opportunity to organize, connect and plan for a better future. “Our generation is more aware and takes the time to understand each other and advocate for diversity, and not division,” said Deyona Burton, senior class president at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida, and founder of SPEAR (Showing Political Engagement and Responsibility), a youth-led social and political action group."

"Gender-affirming surgery often involves going through a number of hoops: waiting periods, hormone therapy and learning about the potential risks and benefits of the procedures. Although most surgeries are reserved for adults, the leading guidelines recommend that patients be at least 15 years old. This thorough process that trans people go through before receiving surgery may also explain the lower levels of regret."

"While the media seems all too happy to focus on trans children’s right to participate in activities alongside their peers (or, indeed, on trans children’s very existence), there is little coverage of one of the most pressing problems: the fact that they are significantly more likely to experience discrimination, harassment and violence at home or at school. Sometimes, horrific stories hit local news headlines, such as the trans teenage boy whose face was slashed by a gang of teenagers in Witham, Essex, or the eleven-year-old trans girl in Manchester who, after months of bullying, was shot with a BB gun at school. To date, though, the national media has more or less completely failed to explore the ways in which such egregious incidents form part of a wider pattern of abuse of trans children."

"Family rejection and estrangement have devastating long-term health implications. They also have a material impact. For some kids, the only option is leaving home. Others have no option at all: their parents kick them out. As a result, trans teenagers and young adults in Britain are much more likely to experience homelessness than their cisgender peers. [...] A minority within a minority, trans young people are disproportionately over-represented in the homeless population: one in four trans people have experienced homelessness."

"What is already known about this topic? Convenience samples indicate that transgender youths appear to be at higher risk for violence victimization, substance use, suicide risk, and sexual risk behaviors than are cisgender youth. What is added by this report? Population-based survey data from 10 state and nine urban school districts found that an average of 1.8% of high school students identify as transgender. Transgender students were more likely than were cisgender students to report violence victimization, substance use, and suicide risk, and, although generally more likely to report sexual risk behaviors, were also more likely to report having been tested for human immunodeficiency virus."

"Almost 2% of High School students identify as transgender"

"27% feel unsafe at or going to or from school"

"35% are bullied at school"

"35% attempt suicide"

"Nearly one in five people who identify as transgender are ages 13-17."

"Research shows transgender individuals are younger on average than the U.S. population. We find that youth ages 13 to 17 are significantly more likely to identify as transgender (1.4%) than adults ages 65 or older (0.3%)."

"At the state level, our estimates range from 3.0% of youth ages 13 to 17 identifying as transgender in New York to 0.6% in Wyoming."

"The majority of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender while in school (K–12) experienced some form of mistreatment, including being verbally harassed (54%), physically attacked (24%), and sexually assaulted (13%) because they were transgender. Further, 17% experienced such severe mistreatment that they left a school as a result."

"Gender-affirming treatment remains a topic of controversy, with many calling for greater access to gender affirming treatments to foster psychological well-being for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals. There is accumulating literature that suggests transgender individuals suffer worse mental health outcomes than their cisgender peers; of particular concern is increased suicidality. The literature to date reveals concerning trends regarding suicidality in transgender individuals. A high prevalence of suicide attempts and thoughts of suicide occur in transgender youth compared to their cisgender peers. Transgender US military veterans have more than 20 times higher rates of suicide-related events than cisgender veterans. The prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempts varies by sample, with the prevalence of suicidal ideation sometimes as high as 50-75%. Rates of attempted suicide can reach peaks of 30% and above. One longitudinal study of over 6,000 transgender individuals in the US indicates that the highest risk of suicide is among those under 18 years of age."

"In the Netherlands, treatment with puberty suppression is available to transgender adolescents younger than age 18 years. When gender dysphoria persists testosterone or oestradiol can be added as gender-affirming hormones in young people who go on to transition. We investigated the proportion of people who continued gender-affirming hormone treatment at follow-up after having started puberty suppression and gender-affirming hormone treatment in adolescence."

"704 (98%) people who had started gender-affirming medical treatment in adolescence continued to use gender-affirming hormones at follow-up. Age at first visit, year of first visit, age and puberty stage at start of GnRHa treatment, age at start of gender-affirming hormone treatment, year of start of gender-affirming hormone treatment, and gonadectomy were not associated with discontinuing gender-affirming hormones."

"Most participants who started gender-affirming hormones in adolescence continued this treatment into adulthood. The continuation of treatment is reassuring considering the worries that people who started treatment in adolescence might discontinue gender-affirming treatment."

"Being transgender is not a trend and transgender people have a history that spans centuries. Over the past few years, transgender visibility has increased dramatically, a sign that our society is becoming increasingly accepting of diverse gender identities. This is a positive sign, as more and more transgender people feel that they can live openly and receive support. Like the LGBTQ community has seen time and time again, increased visibility often leads to increased attacks by those who wish to shove us back in the closet. Lesbian, gay and bi+ young people should be free to declare their sexuality without others doubting them. The same should be true for young people who have a diverse gender identity."

"When a young child expresses that they are a gender other than their sex assigned at birth, their parents may support them in finding their own, unique identity. This can involve changing the child’s name, clothing or pronouns. Once a transgender youth reaches puberty, a doctor may prescribe them with reversible puberty blockers to safely delay the effects of puberty. Puberty blockers are not “experimental” treatments, but FDA-approved medications that have been used to treat precocious puberty in non-transgender children for several decades. Scientific studies demonstrate that access to puberty blockers reduces suicidal ideation and that parents’ affirmation of their child’s gender identity reduces rates of depression, anxiety and suicide to levels consistent with their cisgender peers. When kids are allowed the freedom to safely express themselves, they are happier, healthier and grow into thriving adults."

"Since 2013, HRC and other advocates have tracked over 200 cases of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people across 30 states and 113 cities nationwide. Beyond fatal violence, the transgender and non-binary community faces higher rates of harassment and physical assault — including transgender young people, with 43% of transgender youth reporting being bullied in school. Laws targeting transgender people — and the political rhetoric surrounding anti-transgender bills — send a message that transgender people are not worthy of equal treatment, contributing to dangerous stigma that drives this epidemic of violence. Bottom line: when transgender people aren’t valued — including by their own lawmakers — their lives are viewed by some as disposable, putting them at risk."

"Analysis of procedure-specific trends by age revealed a number of important findings. First, GAS procedures were most common in patients aged 19 to 30 years. This is in line with prior work that demonstrated that most patients first experience gender dysphoria at a young age, with approximately three-quarters of patients reporting gender dysphoria by age 7 years. These patients subsequently lived for a mean of 23 years for transgender men and 27 years for transgender women before beginning gender transition treatments. Our findings were also notable that GAS procedures were relatively uncommon in patients aged 18 years or younger. In our cohort, fewer than 1200 patients in this age group underwent GAS, even in the highest volume years. GAS in adolescents has been the focus of intense debate and led to legislative initiatives to limit access to these procedures in adolescents in several states."

"We are disappointed with this latest executive order. Policies that restrict or bana ccess to necessary medical care for transgender youth are harmful to patients and their families. Transgender youth need comprehensive, individualized, family-based care from multidisciplinary teams. Healthcare decisions should be made by patients, families, and their healthcare professionals, guided by evidence-based practices, clinical guidelines, and individual needs rather than government mandates."

"Transgender youths (those whose gender identity* does not align with their sex†) experience disparities in violence victimization, substance use, suicide risk, and sexual risk compared with their cisgender peers (those whose gender identity does align with their sex). Yet few large-scale assessments of these disparities among high school students exist."

"The reported prevalence of all experiences assessing violence victimization was higher among transgender students than among both cisgender males and cisgender females, including 23.8% reporting ever being forced to have sexual intercourse and 26.4% having experienced physical dating violence. A higher percentage of transgender students also reported lifetime use of all substances except marijuana than did cisgender male and cisgender female students; marijuana use was more prevalent among transgender students than among cisgender male students only. A higher proportion of transgender students reported all suicide risk outcomes than did cisgender students. Transgender students were more likely than cisgender students to report first sexual intercourse before age 13 years, sexual intercourse with four or more persons than were cisgender students, and no method to prevent pregnancy at last sexual intercourse. Transgender students were more likely than were cisgender females to have ever had sex (43.1% versus 33.2%) and to have drunk alcohol or used drugs before their last sexual intercourse (30.0% versus 17.9%). Transgender students were more likely than were cisgender males to report no condom use during their last sexual intercourse (63.8% versus 37.6%). Transgender students were less likely than cisgender males and cisgender females to have not ever been tested for HIV (70.0% versus 87.4% and 86.9%, respectively)."

"The results of this study validate findings from smaller clinical and web-based studies that, at a population level, transgender students are at disproportionately higher risk than are cisgender students for violence victimization, substance use, and suicide risk. The prevalence of reported substance use (e.g., 27.1%, 26.1%, 24.9%, and 35.9% reporting lifetime use of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and prescription opioid misuse, respectively) and suicide risk (e.g., 34.6% attempting suicide in the last 12 months) are concerning. Given that violence victimization is a documented risk factor for substance use and suicide risk, implementation of interventions focused on reducing the victimization of transgender adolescents might be a key strategy for improving overall health."

"Some examples of elevated sexual risk emerged among transgender students. More transgender than cisgender students reported first sexual intercourse before age 13 years and having had four or more sex partners, and more transgender students than cisgender female students reported ever having had sexual intercourse and use of alcohol or drugs before last sexual intercourse. Transgender students were more likely than were cisgender students to forego pregnancy prevention at last sexual intercourse and were less likely than were cisgender males to use a condom at last sexual intercourse; however, without further information about the sex and gender identities of these youths and their partners, the risk implications of these results are uncertain and should be interpreted with caution. Transgender students were more likely to have ever received an HIV test, an important protective behavior, given the known higher HIV risk experienced by this population."

"Taking steps to create safe learning environments and provide access to culturally competent physical and mental health care might be important first steps to improving the health of transgender youths. Continued research into the health of transgender youths and development of effective intervention strategies are warranted."

"Use of puberty-blocking medications and cross-sex hormone treatments for children and adolescents who experience gender dysphoria is a complex modern medical controversy. Over the past decade, clinics have seen an explosion in the number of young people seeking such treatment. At the same time, there has been a complex debate over whether these medical interventions are safe, appropriate, and effective."

"Abigail Shrier is a journalist and author of a controversial 2020 book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. She recently interviewed two doctors (both trans themselves) who provide treatment to trans youth. One, Marci Bowers, is the surgeon who treated reality TV star Jazz Jennings, whose life and transition are chronicled in the show I Am Jazz. Describing her treatment of Jennings, Bowers states,“If you’ve never had an orgasm pre-surgery, and then your puberty's blocked, it's very difficult to achieve that afterwards. I consider that a big problem, actually. It's kind of an overlooked problem that in our ‘informed consent’ of children undergoing puberty blockers, we’ve in some respects overlooked that a little bit .... if they’re not able to be responsive as a lover ... how does that affect their long-term happiness?” In her show, Jennings described that she had never had an orgasm. For a sexual clinician, the concept of orgasmic naiveté and the experience of sexual pleasure and health raise fascinating questions. Unfortunately, it turns out there is relatively little data or research to explore these issues in trans youth."

"It seems quite possible that the reduced physical genital development that results from puberty suppression could inhibit the phenomenological experience and behaviors associated with sexual climax. In other words, while youth who undergo trans-affirmative treatment may have less genital tissue with which to experience sexual stimulation, their bodies and brains are likely capable of sexual climax though they may feel the experience less intensely due to reduced genital tissue. It is possible that individuals assigned as male and female at birth may experience these effects differently, as seems evident in research with people who experience transition as adults. Finally, it seems likely that learning plays a role in this process, though contrary to Bowers, it seems unlikely that it is the only factor involved. However, it seems quite important that future research examine the sexual health experiences of individuals who initiate trans affirmative treatment prior to adulthood."

"Addendum/Update: In 2023, researchers published a study of 37 transwomen and orgasm functioning. 76% were able to achieve orgasm post affirmative surgery. There were no differences between those individuals who underwent puberty suppression or not. While these data do suggest there is a significant risk - 1 in 4 were unable to orgasm - the risk certainly doesn't appear to be as universal as has been suggested."

"Introduction: Concerns about future regret and treatment discontinuation have led to restricted access to gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) minors in some jurisdictions. However, these concerns are merely speculative because few studies have examined gender-affirming hormone continuation rates among TGD individuals."

"We noted a higher hormone continuation rate among TGD individuals who were younger than 18 years old at the time of first use of gender-affirming hormones compared with those who were aged 18 years and older when starting hormones. This has not been documented in previous studies. Parental support plays an important role in the mental health of TGD youth. A prior study of adults found that lack of family support for a TGD individual’s gender was associated with a history of discontinuing social or medical gender affirmation. Higher parental support may explain the higher continuation rate among patients who start gender-affirming hormones as minors compared with people who start as adults."

"We also found that individuals who start gender-affirming hormones before reaching the age of legal majority are less likely to subsequently discontinue use when compared with individuals who start hormones after becoming a legal adult. If replicated in future studies, the improved continuation rate among patients who are not legal adults at the time of treatment should provide some reassurance to those concerned about the ability of minors to provide informed assent to use of gender-affirming hormones. A higher continuation rate among minors could also be used to inform the actions of legislators and judges who wish to prohibit gender-affirming treatment for minors to protect them from the consequences of health care decisions they make with the assistance of their parents and health care providers."