Why are British teenage girls so unhappy? Hereās the answer (Caitlin Moran, The Times, Sep 13 2024)
"The report, by the Childrenās Society, found that British 15-year-old girls are the most unhappy in Europe.
British girls aged 10-15 are āsignificantly less happyā with their life, appearance, family and school than the average boy ā and their happiness is still declining.
Boysā life satisfaction, meanwhile, remains broadly stable. (ā¦)
But I still didnāt have an āaha!ā moment about why this so disproportionately affects girls untilā¦ I talked to some teenage girls.
It was at a party, and I went to vape with them on the patio. Because I take my nicotine like children do.
āDuh ā itās the boys,ā one said when I brought it up, as all the others agreed.
My last book, What About Men?, had been all about how much boys struggle these days: their loneliness; their suicide rates. Iād spent the past year feeling very sympathetic towards boys.
āYeah, well, who do you think theyāre taking out their unhappiness on? Itās us,ā another girl said.
āOne boy at school used to draw a picture every day of how ugly I was,ā a third girl said. āEvery day for two years.ā
āTheyāve all got āRate The Girlsā polls on their WhatsApps,ā the first said. āThey mark you down for weight gain, haircuts, what you say.ā
āBut then, if youāre hot, itās just as bad, in a different way, because theyāll be talking about how they want to f*** you.ā
The girls discussed coping techniques. Bad news: none of them worked.
āThe only way you can stop them is if you become āone of the boysā and hang out with them. But then,ā the second girl said with a sigh, āall the other girls call you a slut. Because youāve gone over to the boysā side.ā
āSurely itās not all the boys?ā I said. āThere must be some nice boys?ā
āOh, yeah,ā one girl said. āBut they keep their heads down. Becauseā¦ well, look.ā
She showed me the Instagram account of her friend. Under every picture she posted of herself ā smiling in a new dress; with her dog ā dozens of anonymous accounts had replied with the most rank abuse.
āFat.ā āSlut.ā āYou gonna try and kill yourself again, for attention?ā
āTheyāre all boys from her school,ā she said. āAnd look, this one boy tried to defend her.ā
I saw a series of messages from a brave teenage boy, posting things like, āYouāre all big men, leaving these replies under anonymous accounts.ā
As I could see, this boy immediately became a target too. Mainly accusations that he was āwhite knightingā this girl: āYou wanna f*** her, bro?ā
āSo,ā I asked, āyou donāt think itās social media pressure to be beautiful, or the economy, thatās making girls so sad?ā
āWell, yeah, them too,ā the first girl said. āBut, Monday-Friday, 9-3, Iām not on social media. Iām notā¦ in the economy. Iām just with these boys. And no one talks about how horrible they are.ā
I thought about another recent report, showing a 30 per cent ideological gap between Gen Z men, who are increasingly conservative, and Gen Z women, who are increasingly progressive.
I thought about Andrew Tate, who has nine million mostly young male followers ā and faces human trafficking charges, which he denies.
And I thought: maybe these girls are on to something. Maybe more people need to vape with teenage girls and ask them for the school gossip."
