Letter to the editor

I am furious and outraged! I am a 16, almost 17, year-old-girl. I’m a high school student who has been applying for a summer job around town, but I keep getting turned down.

All I hear is, “You have no experience,” “You’re not old enough,” or “You can’t work here because your relative works here already.” I’m tired of hearing these excuses for not getting hired. I’m not asking for a lot of money, just for a summer and/or part-time job to occupy my time.

Adults are always complaining and saying that this generation of teens is lazy and teens nowadays don’t want to work or do anything. It’s not that we don’t want to work, it’s the fact that no one is willing to give us a chance. Adults make their impression on all teens as being troublemakers, as they are displayed in the media’s eyes, but in reality, not all teens are like that. The reason most teens get into trouble is because we have way too much time on our hands and have nothing better to do.

We can’t help it that we have no experience, but who does at the age of 16? Everyone has to learn how to do something, we aren’t born knowing everything about this world.

My question is: How can teens who are looking for jobs, get experience and stay out of trouble when no one will give us one chance? What’s the difference between a 16-year-old with no experience trying to get a job and a 40-year-old, also with no experience, trying to get the same job?

But the 40-year-old gets said job. Maybe if we were given a chance, people’s opinions about teens might change.

In reality, maybe it’s not the teens that actually try to work, it’s the untrusting adults that won’t give teens like me the chance that everyone rightfully deserves. Teens need help getting on the right path in life. If adults don’t help us then who will?

/s/ Mallory Chadwick
Frustrated teen