Quotes About Adolescence

I was sort of a floater in high school; I feel like I tried my hand at all the different stereotypes or cliques. I'm grateful for the experience to walk in all those different shoes.

I played Rugby League at school but once I got to the age of 14, I had to make a choice and decided to stick with boxing.

Raised Roman Catholic up until 11 or 12, didn't stick. Went out into the world and did my own thing.

From the age of 12 when I decided to dance in high school, everyone was saying, 'Oh, you're a dancer,' and there was that kind of stigma about it.

I had a lil' chub-chub moment from ages 7 to 11. If somebody was teasing, they'd go straight to my fat. I was so insecure, I kept my shirt on in the pool, which is the worst because it sticks to your stomach anyway.

My input for the first 16, 17 years of my life was AM radio, FM radio - pretty mainstream stuff. Rolling Stone was probably as edgy as it got.

I went on the pill when I was 16, put on four stone... so that proved to be a very effective contraceptive.

I was 10 when I realised I couldn't stand football. I'd tried, obviously, before this - no one wants to give in to social pariah-hood without a fight. I had stood frozen on pitches, done some running about and shouted a lot, as though I cared.

When I went into high school, I don't know why - because I've been performing since I was little - but I think it was just the pressure of being somewhere so different, and I already stood out because I had an accent, and everyone always wanted you to talk, that I kind of shied away from singing a bit.

I was a ballerina for 10 years growing up, but I stopped.

I never wanted to be a puppeteer. I stopped puppeteering when I was about 18. I puppeteered when I was eleven years old to 18 to make extra money to go to Europe, which I made half of and my parents gave me half.

I went out every single night so I was never alone with my stepfather. At 12, I stopped going on holiday with them. The times I was alone with him I always made sure I was all covered up.

My memory stops at 14.

I never went shopping. That wasn't my thing. I grew up horseback riding. That was my passion. I didn't start shopping until about 16 or 17, when I could drive myself to stores and explore on my own.

There are so many stories about boys becoming heroes, learning their powers and becoming incredibly heroic. There have to be those stories for girls, too.

At school I pretended I had a normal life, but I felt lonely all the time and different from everyone else. I never felt like I fit in, and I wasn't allowed to participate in after-school activities, go to sports events or parties or date boys. Many times I had to make up stories about why I couldn't do anything with my classmates.

Peter Parker's storyline hits every key point of growing up.

I counted down the days until I turned 16 when I'd be allowed to straighten my 'crazy, frizzy hair,' as the other girls had called it.

I was a strange kid in that, while most kids hate school and want to turn 18 or 21, I loved high school.

When I was 12 years old, I was hanging out with 23-year-olds. I was into cartoons and Pokemon, and they're all talking about girls. It was a strange way to grow up.

Middle school left some scars, as I'm sure it did for many of us. When my body started to change, I felt a bit like I was living inside a stranger. People began responding to me differently, which was confusing.

Ma did a play called 'Entertaining Strangers' when I was about 14, which totally changed my life, I loved it so much.

I got my first whiff of what big-time adult literature was all about when I was in 8th grade. I got it from Mark Linn-Baker. You know - the guy from 'Perfect Strangers.'

And I think, one of the reasons I've stayed in Italy is that I believe, perhaps erroneously, perhaps sentimentally, perhaps merely in reaction to my own childhood of church bells and rainy weekends - I do believe that kids have a better time here, that adolescence is more fun here. Certainly I never saw a group of people so confident and at ease with themselves and their youth. I wish it for my children.