Growing up around the media and popular culture, it doesn’t do much for a young girl or boys self image. Your hair is the wrong color, or your jean size is too big. No one can live up to the standard of “beautiful” that this country has set. No one can be that perfect. David Hume said “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.” Pick up any teen magazine and I’ll bet you that there will be at least one article about weight and how to lose it, or “Look like this movie star!” They should be running articles about mental health and how to be yourself. Or tips on staying happy and dealing with your problems in a healthy way. I’m sick of reading things about how to get my crush to notice me, or how to get the perfect tan. Try to find any average teenager and ask them how many books they’ve read this year. “Maybe one, for school,” will be the most popular response. 75% of Americans read less than one book a year. Kids are watching TV and playing video games because reading isn’t cool. Almost everyone at my school smokes weed. Why? Because Snoop Dogg said, “I roll the best weed ‘cus I got it goin’ on.” Smoking only temporarily makes your forget about your problems. I feel that anyone who smokes is stupid and can’t handle their real lives. Maybe if someone wrote a song about helping the homeless or feeding the hungry that’s what my generation would be doing, instead of wasting their lives, intelligence, and money. I’m sick of being the only one of my peers to know who Nietzsche is, instead of being up on the latest T.I. song. I’d rather learn from the geniuses of the past, than make the same mistakes as everyone else has already made.