“How the Emergence of a Teenager Affected American Society” The Origin of a Teenager; the emergence of a hero.“Adolescence, youth, and the adolescent are cultural constructions, or socially constructed categories, that have evolved in meaning and common usage over the past century. Only in the last fifty years has the term “teenager,” introduced by merchandisers and advertisers in the 1940s, meant anything to the American public. Today we generally think of teenagers as people between the ages of 13 and 19. Youth emerged as a category in the 1920s in sociological and ethnographic research studies of deviance. While the term youth originated in academic circles of urban adolescent deviance, the term adolescence refers more to a biological and psychological category of development. The beginning of adolescence is marked by the onset of puberty and refers to biological (growth, sexual development) and social (independence from parents) factors that mark that period in our culture. (What is a Teenager? by Kathleen Knight Abowitz, with Richard Rees) The teenage years are the best, and this period is one of the periods to which a multitude of songs are attributed. For example, “Die young” by Ke$ha. Never Grow Old by Avril Lavigne. Katy Perry's teenage dream. The question you would ask yourself would be: Did you enjoy your life as a teenager? As mentioned in the quote above, the term teenager was first used in the 1940s. This time period was more about World War II (Kauai). So it was a really fun time. Funny moment that made the teenagers of this period the heroes rather than the adults. So the emergence of a teenager had a huge positive impact on the American society of that period. “In 1939 I was in middle school. Like everyone else, I had an after-school job. I think I made $10 a week and I worked every night after school. This was during the Depression and everyone was poor. There weren't as many distinctions between who does this, who is here and who is at the bottom. We were all the same and it was very tough, but everyone pulled together and we made it (Ellie Kaufman).” Life as a teenager was affected by two things around this time: the Great Depression and World War II. As summarized above, the average life of a teenager consisted of going to school, working, and/or helping out around the house. However, the Great Depression had a huge impact that made all families equally poor.