"At 13, what felt like almost overnight, I turned from a happy, musical-theatre-loving child into a sad, lonely teenager. Things I had cared about only yesterday were suddenly irrelevant, as I realised that nothing and no one mattered, least of all me. It's an angst that adults often find difficult to remember or understand; as the famous line from The Virgin Suicides goes: Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl."
"In the provocative 2003 teen drama, which launched the career of Evan Rachel Wood, 13-year-old Tracy gets her tongue pierced, then her belly button. So I got my tongue pierced, then my belly button. I swapped baggy Hunger Games T-shirts for crop tops, low-waisted jeans and push-up bras. I bleached my hair blond and I snuck out on school nights after my parents went to bed. They had no idea what I was up to."
"Suddenly life was in colour again, and not just colour, but fluorescence. Now cool girls wanted to be my friend, and people at school were talking about me; I was interesting, I was somebody. At parties with these cool girls and hot boys, I felt important. Thirteen had taught me that if you did those things then you were cool, and if you were cool, you mattered."
At 13, a rapid emotional shift turned a happy, musical-theatre-loving child into a sad, lonely teenager who felt that nothing and no one mattered. Attending an all-girls Catholic school left me unaware of sex, drugs and alcohol until watching Thirteen at 14 prompted risky experimentation. I adopted piercings, changed clothing and hair, snuck out, attended mansion parties, drank heavily, tattooed friends, had sex for the first time and took acid. Those behaviors produced a sudden sense of belonging and importance; performing rebellion created social attention and appeared to confer coolness and personal worth.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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