"Highschoolers"

I find it odd how in many recent television shows and movies, adults play the roles of teenagers.  Remember High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and High School Musical 3: Senior Year?  Hopefully not.  In these movies, popular actor Zac Efron plays a high school drama queen basketball star.  He was already 19 when acting in the first movie, but by the third he was 21.  When he is supposed to be an 18-year-old senior, he is in reality a 21-year-old man.  Or, to point out a more obvious example, he was 22 when he played the main role in the movie 17 Again.  In a different more recent example, actress Jennifer Lawrence (22) in The Hunger Games, played the role of a teenage girl.

Well, what difference does it make?  When you have adults playing the roles of “highschoolers,” people generally not in contact with teenagers on a day-to-day basis gain a false sense of what they look like.  Keep in mind, a 14-year-old girl is still in high school.  Highschoolers are not these full-grown, well-developed adults movies and TV shows convince most people that they are.

Also, it artificially raises expectations of obnoxious preteen girls.