TEENAGER (noun). A land-based mammal believed to be part of the homosapien species, often found fossicking at fast-food outlets or congregating in large groups in shopping malls and around the bonnets of souped-up cars.
The species is marked by a weakness for drugs, alcohol, sex, video games and brand-name clothing.
It's a gross generalisation, but the reality is that we don't have high opinions of youngsters who fall into this category.
The term teenager did not come into existence until about 1950. Sure, they existed, but not as a sub-culture in society.
Before then, there were children and there were adults. One or the other.
If you were a child, you were under the care and discipline of your parents. If you were an adult, you accepted all the accompanying responsibilities of work, taxes, relationships and so on.
After World War II, however, teens were given something they liked to call freedom. They dressed differently, listened to rock'n'roll and generally rebelled against the status quo.
Laws were introduced pertaining to the age for alcohol use, driving, voting and work, meaning adulthood had a finite starting point.
In short, a wedge of society that had once contributed like the rest became wholly consumers.
And it all went downhill from there.
Look at most teens today.
Life revolves around their social playgrounds. Responsibility is unfashionable. There's such a thing as a ''gap year'' (a holiday from life?) and a university degree with as little as 10 contact hours is considered full time.
And now we hear the government is paying parents to keep their teens in school. It's come to this.
I have been reading a book called Do Hard Things by 19-year-old twins Alex and Brett Harris. They tout it as ''a teenage rebellion against low expectations''.
The siblings have identified a serious flaw in Western culture: that so little is expected of young people.
Their theory is simple really: because so little is expected, little is delivered.
''Isn't it ironic that many teenagers, though fluent in multiple computer languages (we're considered trendsetters and early adopters), are not expected to understand or care about things like personal finances, politics, or our faith?'' they write.
''We're not even expected to be capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation with an adult.''
The pair founded TheRebelution.com in 2005 and have since rallied thousands of teens to ''do hard things'', to choose the path less travelled if you like, and make life decisions that hone potential and develop character.
Imagine what a new generation of leaders, unfazed by challenges, could mean for our country.
Better still, imagine if teens -replete with all that energy, creativity and ingenuity - were promoted to leadership from time to time.
Imagine what that would do to their self-worth, confidence and futures.
Joan of Arc led the French army to a handful of important victories in the 1400s. Her campaign was completed before the age of 20.
Alexander the Great was just 16 when he founded his first colony.
Literary classic Frankenstein was written in 1818 by a 19-year-old Mary Shelley.
King Tutankhamun was believed to be only eight or nine years old when he was dubbed pharaoh. The Egyptian king died before he was 19, still a teenager.
Great people. Young people. People who never knew of a sub-culture called adolescence and certainly didn't stake an indignant claim to a few years of living it up before ''settling down''.
It's high time we encouraged teens to ''do hard things'', to define the age rather than be defined by their age.
Email a friend