IB Language and Literature: Written Task

Tien Phan Written Task One: Part Two/ Language and Mass Communication Rationale In this written task, I‟m going to pretend to be Tavi Gevinson, a 17-year-old 17 -year-old fashion blogger and feminist, expressing her love for the show My show  My So-Called Life and  Freaks & Geeks in a love letter in the monthly Rookie issue . Our coursework discussed how women are represented on TV shows and how teenage girls feel about themselves. In our class, we watched the documentary “Miss Representation”. Not only did we watch the documentary, but we also saw an episode of  My So Called Life and one of Freaks of Freaks and Geeks and Geeks and discussed how teenage stereotypes stereot ypes are portrayed in these shows. Teenagers have been labeled as “loud” and “disrespectful”, but adults sometimes act like teenagers too so I think it‟s fair to address the misconceptions. Also, we discussed register, style and intended audience. Therefore, Tavi Gevinson is a teenage girl, she would use very casual register to connect with teen readers and have a personal connection with them. Therefore, I decided to look up interviews and articles about her and blogs she wrote about teenagers to really get her style when she talks to teenage girls. Therefore, my written task is going to be about Tavi‟s love for  My So-Called Life and Life and Freaks  Freaks and Geeks but Geeks but also her thoughts on teen stereotypes, the female characters in the shows and people‟s labeling teenagers through the voice of Tavi speaking to Rookie‟s readers. Words Count: 230

Tien Phan Written Task One: Part Two/ Language and Mass Communication Written Task 

D

ear my fabulous Rookie readers ,

Back in the „90s, there were these two TV s hows that portrayed how teenagers were trying to figure themselves out and feeling insecure, how people labeled teenagers, but they also showed that the adults were the same as teenagers. One was  My So-Called Life and the other was Freaks and Geeks. Each only aired for one season and was stopped. I LOVE THEM! About the characters, Angela Chase in My So-Called Life is exactly who we are when it comes to making decisions. She likes a guy, Jordan, who is from a different clique than hers. He is your typical jock that needs to keep up his reputation and cannot be seen with  plain Jane like Angela. The show talks about every single teenage issue there is: drugs, broken long-term friendships, family issues l ike fights with parents, etc. In the episode called “Self -Esteem”, Angela was having a secret relationship with Jordan; they had rendezvous in the boiler room so no one would see them. A guy, named Brian, liked her and would do anything for her but the feelings weren‟t mutual. Angela‟s friend, Rickie, was getting irritated and weird out by a substitute teacher  because the guy would not let Rickie off until he signed up for the Drama club. Then, Angela‟s dad joined the cooking class; but when the teacher didn‟t show up, a loudmouth woman kept talking to him and getting personal. That woman really

annoyed me to be honest. What I really like about it was that the characters portrayed exactly how typical teenagers act in the same situations; for example, when boys aren‟t honest with you, you would totally try everything to get the truth, even trying to stalk his Facebook to see if his friends mentioned anything. They showed that teenagers are always insecure, they think lowly of themselves, etc. That‟s exactly what Angela did in this episode, she thought that she was not good enough for Jordan so she also didn‟t want to show the world their relationship because people would gossip about it. In addition, the adults were exactl y the same as teenagers; they act the same way as us, regardless of age. The teachers at Angela‟s school flirted with each other, gossiped and showed signs of jealousy. And they say teenagers are “weird” and “childish” That‟s exactly what Freaks and Geeks is about. Lindsay Weir, the main character, portrayed exactly how we all are still trying to figure out what the heck we are supposed to be doing with our lives. Really, being a teenager is just too hard sometimes, especially girls. She is smart, nice, funny, infatuated with a guy and broke up with him, and she also has other usual girls‟ issues like family, parents and little brother. At the end of the season, instead of going to a workshop for top students, she went with her best friend on a trip to see a musical concert and follow a band with these two students she  just met in school. I like Freaks and Geeks the most because partly of the actors; there were James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, etc. They pla yed their roles perfectly, like the characters were written for them. James was the regular burned-out guy in your school who does not show one single excitement for classes and always looks

like he‟s high. In the end, he hung out with the geeks because he found them a s funny as other people too. Also, I like it partly because of the way the characters do what they want to search for their goals to look forward to. The things I do not get about adults are that they give the same labeling to every teenager they see; we are “loud, disrespect, obnoxious, unappreciated of what we have”. However, when you are a teenager, you‟re still trying to figure yourselves out, nevertheless your life. You have  pressures from school and family up to the point that you don‟t know what you are supposed to be doing. You are just trying to go out, day by day, finding your own self-identity and your goals for the future. So, I think you should not pay attention to what people say of you, just think of them as obstacles that are in your way towards your prize at the end of road. From watching characters like Angela Chase and Lindsay Weir trying to figure their lives out, I feel like teenagers are a rare species that should be under scientific research. Haha, I‟m not saying that we‟re bacteria or any animal;  I want to say that because people label teenagers as something else that they have not seen  before, science should give an entire branch of research dedicated to teenagers so they can find ways to prevent us. So, you guys should check out the shows because honestly, they are the best shows ever! Lots of love and kisses, Tavi Words Count: 825

Works Cited Cunningham, Scot. "Teenage Stereotypes." Teenage Stereotypes. Slideshare, 03 June 2012. Web. 01 Feb. 2014. Duncan, Fiona. "Tavi Gevinson: The Like, Role Model, or Whatever."  Bullett Media.  N.p., 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. Lori. "Tavi Gevinson: “Feminism Is Not a Rulebook but a Discussion”."  Feministing .  N.p., 11 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2014 Mitch. "A Stereotypical Teenager?" Teen Ink . Emerson Media, May 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. Miller, Julie. "Tavi Gevinson on Shifting from Fashion to Feminism, Surviving Blogger Mortification, and Her First Acting Gig." Vanity Fair . Vanity Fair, 09  Nov. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. "My So-Called Life." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2014. "Tavi Gevinson: A Teen Just Trying to Figure It out." TED: Ideas worth Spreading . TEDxTeen, May 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.