Louise J. Kaplan Quotes

Middle-aged adolescents are a libel on the real thing.

The most significant change wrought by adolescence is the taming of the ideals by which a person measures himself. . . . Love of oneself becomes love of the species. Conscience is pointed to the future, whispering permission to reach beyond the safety net of our ordinary and finite human existence.

Today's child is growing up absurd, because he lives in two worlds, and neither of them inclines him to grow up. Growing up--thatis our new work, and it is total. Mere instruction will not suffice.

I don't believe the United States is going through a midlife crisis. The United States is going through an adolescent crisis.

Apart from a small minority, teenage boys fall into three distinct categories: macho, metro, or just plain muddled.

The donning of the ear buds marks the beginning of teen life, when children set off on their own for the passage through adolescence.

I remember in seventh grade we used to wear lipstick to school, and the teachers would get so angry, and they'd steal our lipstick if we had them.

Music, especially as an adolescent, helps to build identity because that's when people start developing a sense of self. You can kind of tell based on what music a person listens to what kind of person they'll be pretty much for the rest of their life.

I did throw a lot of eggs into one basket, as you do in your teenage years - 'I am buying these records, I am wearing this'. I did quite a bit of that. You have to do it, wear your stupid shoes, wear your stupid hair.

I just have a problem with youth culture.

Teens have a sensational narcissism and genuinely believe that their experiences are unique and can't be explained to adults. But we forgive them for their mistakes and naivete.

It's not hard to get into a teen's head, because it's all emotions. Their feelings are amplified; you have no luxury of hindsight. If you haven't had your heart broken before, you don't know that you'll be able to get back up again.

I come from this macho Italian neighborhood. When I was thirteen, during those real vulnerable, impressionable years, and a boy starts becoming a man, to make that transition, and you start making decisions, and you start developing virtue and principles - I never made the transition.

Hiding behind a tougher outer image as a teenager feels cooler and safer compared to admitting, perhaps, that you're the very opposite.

Adolescence is like cactus.

Adolescence is a relatively recent thing in human history -- a period of years between the constraints of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood. This irresponsible period of adolescence is artificially extended by long years of education, much of it wasted on frivolities. Tenure extends adolescence even further for teachers and professors.

Adolescence is that time when I think, it can be- it's the cruelest place on Earth. It can really be heartless.

Other people have suggested that I write about teens because I'm perpetually stuck in that stage of my own development. That could very well be true. I would throw out that teens and tweens are just absolutely fabulous and the most interesting people on the planet. And it is a time of high drama, and everything matters.

Adolescence involves our nutty-desperate-ecstatic-rash psychological efforts to come to terms with new bodies and outrageous urges.

Adolescence isn't a period; it's a coma.

During adolescence imagination is boundless. The urge toward self-perfection is at its peak. And with all their self- absorption and personalized dreams of glory, youth are in pursuit of something larger than personal passions, some values or ideals to which they might attach their imaginations.

An adolescent is both an impulsive child and a self-starting adult.

To produce that identity among young people required guinea pigs.

There's nothing more terrifying then a teenage girl.

Sex education, including its spiritual aspects, should be part of a broad health and moral education from kindergarten through grade twelve, ideally carried out harmoniously by parents and teachers.