Since the beginning of time, it’s been the norm that adults have more power than children. They can lie all they want, but even the most powerful looking people have definitely had a ‘Horrid Henry’ style tantrum about something as a little one. Lord Alan Sugar was told it’s time to go to bed. David Beckham was yelled at for not putting his toys away. ‘The Rock’ had to eat his vegetables. (Of course it’s true, They told me) I understand It’s hard to imagine them in this way, but we were all children once. It’s the way the world has been functioning for as long as we’ve known.
But that’s the thing. We look at the power hierarchy and it’s always powerless children at the bottom. Young individuals without a voice who lack experience and have poor underdeveloped brains.
But there is one thing that children have dominated over the adults today - and that is the beautiful world of film.
Youth have always been a driving force in the film industry. Look at 80s cinema for a second, and you’ll see an iconic John Hughes film with a Brat Pack star in it for sure. Not that I’m complaining, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Breakfast Club one more time, as the last 10,000 times was obviously not enough for me.
Additionally, Directors from the 80s definitely knew their audience as every classic film of the era had a youth narrative, that triggered a cheeky bit of nostalgia for the grown ups, because nothing hits the same as reminiscing about teenage oblivion!
But I’m not just talking about youth as stars. Teen heartthrobs and darlings were easy to find in the 80s era, but do you know what was even harder to represent back then? Youth storytellers.
From Punk to Hiphop, the key root to youth culture has been resistance and rebellion. Which child is brave enough to say no? Which child is courageous enough to challenge the norms? Whoever it was, that child was the real star with a crowd behind them, cheering them as the rebel against the status quo.
But the real question is - how do the youth of 2025 have a louder voice for storytelling than those from the past? It really is as simple as social media and smartphones. Who knew something so small could have such a big impact on the voices in film making? Thanks to TikTok and Instagram Reels, it’s made it so simple for youth to explore outside the Hollywood norm and take back the power from grown up directors and their rigid rules of film making. Look at all the new films in the 2020s that have explored all the issues that no one would have thought of representing in films during the past few decades. From mental health movements , racial discrimination and gender sexualisation, youth rebellion has done more than just say no to grown ups about going to bed, eating their vegetables and putting their toys away. They’ve started to change the trajectory of films as new media has now unlocked a new method of story telling. How amazing is it, how much impact youths are having in film just by finding their voice?
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