#had this on my mind for a while

[promptsforyourwhumpfic]

Whump Prompt #1198

A: “Are you okay” B: “Yeah, it happens all the time” A: “Doesn’t mean you need to deal with it alone - or at all for that matter.”

[dontknow-willaddlater]

That's it, that's their dynamic

[mothlily78]

That moment when you actually enjoy math and are good at it. But you're autistic so you're not actually good at it because you studied, but you're also faking being autistic because being genius is a stereotype

[trixortrixie]

It's weird how we are expected to "grow out of" plushies. Like they are soft and fluffy! You shouldn't need to grow out of soft and fluffy things! What's next? Growing out of liking puppies and kittens?

[randomperson339]

as the tags said, this is why chess blew up because it was "intellectual", but then when it was banned kids were given the ultimate "is anything we do acceptable" moment.

And the answer is, no.

You see, kids aren't people in the eyes of the general public. They will be people, and they are worth protecting, but that doesn't make them people. People have choices to make, and until you reach the age of majority, you cannot make any choices without your guardian's consent/not knowing you did it.

So in truth, children are property and every system involving kids reflects this. School cannot show anything too bad to their kids because the kids are being lent out to the school by their parents. There's fewer teen/tween media because they don't have the power to get that media, so the capitalistic system neglects them.

Then when kids are taken seriously, we don't have any idea as a society of what responsibilities they can have at that age, so the default is just give them responsibilities they shouldn't be expected to handle.

And going back around to the school system, the reason the adults can get away with this is because kids protections never really have kids making those decisions. It's next to never a kid saying "this was inappropriate" it's a "concerned parent"arguing against this piece of media, to a group of adults who probably haven't been a child for decades. And if any kids start to argue, they'd probably be seen as too immature to argue over this. (<- I haven't seen this, but it's what I think happens a lot.)

The world is so hostile to tweens.....

Like we joke about how our schools growing up would ban the latest toy trends, but that reality genuinely horrific when you think about it. Like maybe 1% of the bans were based on safety, but the rest cited reasoning like

-"kids were bartering for collectibles" (kids learning about economics and product value)

-"kids were wearing them and the colors were too flashy" (kids experimenting with self expression and fashion)

-"kids were playing with them during lunch and recess instead of using our rusted safety hazard playground" (kids utilizing their free time to do what helps *them* unwind).

Play areas specifically geared towards children and especially towards teens are constantly being shut down. "Oh kids today are always on their phones!" Maybe because

-there are barely any arcades left and even less arcades that aren't adult-oriented,

-public pools and gyms are underfunded and shut down,

-"no loitering" laws prevent kids and teens from just hanging out,

-movie theatres only play the latest films and ticket prices are only rising,

-parks and playgrounds are either neglected or replaced with gear only directed at toddlers and unsuitable for anyone older

-genuine children's and young teen media is being phased out in favour of media directed only at very small children or older teens and adults.

-suburbs and even cities are becoming more and more hostile to pedestrians, it's just not safe for kids to walk to or ride their bikes to their friends' houses or other play destinations

Children's agency is hardly ever respected. Kids between the ages of 9-13 are either treated as babies or as full-grown adults, with no in-between. When they ask to be given more independence, they are either scoffed at or given more responsibilities than are reasonable for a child their age.

This is even evident in the fashion scene.

Clothing stores and brands like Justice and Gap are either closing or rebranding to either exclusively adult clothing or young children's clothes, with no middle ground for tweens. Tweens have to choose between clothes designed for adults that are too large and/or too mature for their age and bodies, or more clothes they feel are far too childish. For tween girls especially it's either a frilly pinafore dress with pigtails or a woman's size dress with cleavage. No wonder tween girls these days dress like they're older, it's because their other option is little girl clothes and they don't want to feel childish.

And then when tweens go to school, the books they want to read aren't available because they cover "mature" topics (read: oh no two people kissed and they weren't straight or oh no menstruation was mentioned or oh no a religion other than Christianity is depicted), so kids are left with books for way below their reading level. No wonder kids today are struggling with literacy, it's because they can't exercise and expand their reading skills with age-appropriate books. Readers need to be challenged with new words and concepts in order to grow in their skills, only letting tween read Dr. Seuss and nursery rhymes doesn't let them learn.

Discussions about substance use, reproduction, and sexuality aren't taught at an age-appropriate level in school or even by children's parents, so they either grow up ignorant and more vulnerable to abuse, or they seek out information elsewhere that is delivered in a less-than-age-appropriate manner. It shouldn't be a coin-toss between "I didn't know what sex was until I was 18 and in college" or "my first exposure to sex as a tween was through porn" or "I didn't know what sex was so I didn't know I was being sexually abused as a kid."

Tweenhood is already such a volatile and confusing time for kids, their bodies are changing and they're transitioning from elementary to middle to high school. It's hard enough for them in this stage, but it's made worse by how society devalues and fails them.

We talk about the disappearance of teenagehood, and maybe that's gonna happen in the future, but the erasure of tweenhood is happing in real time, and it's having and going to have major consequences for next generation's adults.

[soapyakships]

lil bro... in LAWWW

[nouverx]

Trigun in a modern setting where Vash and Wolfwood are two hitchhikers that the girls found on the side of the road and they go on a roadtrip together ❤

[leisomnium]

burned bridges (the aftermath)🥀

[heilos]

I don't want you to feel like you're nothing

[queerbenched]

Have a tea break while you're at it!

[caramelldansenu]

[bloodofelves]

SIGNALIS (2022) ↳ dev. rose-engine

[akanemnon]

THAT'S A LOTTA DAMAGE (emotional damage that is)

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[melioristicbeast]

they're on a boat

wanted to capture the serenity of being out on the water on a warm afternoon

(they're listening to derek's playlist for once, rec under the cut)

[find this and my other sterek art on Redbubble!]

Had this on repeat while drawing it, thought the melancholic vibes fit ♥

[lucabyte]

even dogs pass the mirror test

[timethehobo]

“Immortality isn’t living. Immortality is everybody else dying.”