When scrolling online or listening to the news, it is quite possible that there is a story related to an irresponsible teenager doing something stupid and reckless. One example of this is the recent controversy with Justin Bieber. All teenagers throw eggs at their neighbor’s house, drive double the speed limit and take prescription medication, right? Wrong.

I am getting fed up with this stereotypical teenager. While there may be a few people in this world that fit the teen formula, the majority are misrepresented. The way teens are portrayed influences not only adults but also teenagers themselves. We high school students are often portrayed as unreliable, hormone crazy individuals who, when we are not playing video games, watching television or sleeping, are partying, making poor decisions and ruining our futures. It is harsh, I know. Sure, we all make mistakes here and there, but what others may fail to see, however, is how much we are accomplishing and the intelligence and heart in our generation.

According to the website besteducationdegrees.com, in 1982, 58.3 percent of kids went to college, while in 2012, 79.2 percent went to college. They also included that cigarette use has dropped by 12 percent, and marijuana use by 10 percent since 1982. Nationalservice.com explained that 28.4 percent of teenagers ages 16-19 volunteer, more than double what they did in 1989. In a survey, teens place being honest, working hard, being a good student and helping others as their most important values. These statistics prove that we are becoming smarter while devoting time to give back to the community and serve others.

Overall, it is important to realize what we are shown as the normal teenager is not an actuality. When I see how people view teenagers it makes me think that all teenagers act this way, and I become discouraged with my generation. We need to know, however, that there are high school students all over the world making great achievements every day, we just need to recognize the success instead of all the negative stories. We often hear about the teenagers who threw parties that got out of hand or were texting and driving, but rarely do we hear about the 17 year old boy from Honduras who created advanced eyeball tracking technology that gives disabled people a new way of communicating, or the 14 girl year old who saved a little boy from a burning building.

Needless to say, I cannot wait to see what our generation will achieve and how we will show what teenagers of 2014 are really like.