ince launching Sweet Teen Club in February this year, Stacey and I have been bonding over all the things we saw movie teens do that totally baffled us. Things like ‘buying Baby Ruth bars’ and going to ‘track practice’.
I wrote about a few things I noticed here but a few more of cropped up that I can’t leave unaddressed. Here are a few things American teens do that fascinate Australians…
Cheer
It’s just not a thing in Australia. I went to all girls school across the road from an all boys school and there was just no opportunity for any kind of cheer squad situation. Even in government schools, it never seemed to catch on. Cheerleading exists in Australia but only for professional sports leagues or stand alone cheer competitions. I’m kind of glad we didn’t have cheerleading at school because it seems kind of pointless and in my opinion sport got enough air time at my high school as it is and certainly didn’t need any more in the form of a human applause machine.
Do ‘extra credit’ reports
This was not a thing you could do in Australian schools. Maybe if a kid got pneumonia and missed a term of school they might be able to do a make up assignment but unless you were failing there was no way to increase a grade by handing in extra work. You couldn’t be sitting on a B and hand in an extra assignment and get an A. That’s just not how it worked. You had one chance to hand in an essay and if you screwed it up, you screwed it up.
Drink milk
In every movie, TV and book American teens are always drinking milk. If you’re a regular listener of Sweet Teen Club you’ll know we’re very weird about this but the prominence of milk in American high schools is bizarre. You could buy plain milk at my high school tuckshop (which by the way was a hole in the wall with a grumpy middle aged lady standing in it, not a full on dining hall situation) but no one ever bought it. We also didn’t have tables. In ‘Straya we sit on the grass to eat our sausages rolls.
Be ‘tardy’
When I was in school ‘tardy’ certainly didn’t mean ‘late’ and I still get a bit uncomfortable whenever I hear someone say ‘tardy’. I’m like PC POLICE!!!! When I was kid ‘tardy’ was a shortening of the word ‘retarded’ which is not a nice word and most decent have stopped saying it now. Can we just say ‘late’ please?
Be in school ‘clubs’
We never had ‘clubs’. We had sports teams, a few bands and school plays twice a year. There was no Chess Club, Glee Club, Art Club or French Club. You either played netball or you got on stage or you did nothing at all. Those were the options and all of these options had a goal – like the school performance or the regional soft ball tournament. There didn’t exist any leisure clubs that were around just for the fun of it, which is a shame. I would have liked a Crochet Club or even a Book Club.
We are discussing all kinds of weird American-ness in this weeks Sweet Teen Club – we are discussing book number 8 in the Sweet Valley High series – Heartbreaker. This book is ridiculously confusing so let’s just say it’s about Jessica being bitch and also love triangles.
If you’re keen to listen to it here’s how you can do it –
iPhone users
Open up the podcast app on your phone (it already lives there so you don’t need to download it) and search for Sweet Teen Club. Then hit subscribe and you’re good to go.
Android users
The same as iPhone users but you just use the Android podcast app.
Desktop users
You can listen to it while you work at your computer – just click this link here.
You can also find the show notes and other bits and pieces here at the Jackrabbit site.
If you’re a 90s culture tragic like us please do join in and listen to the podcast – even if you haven’t read Sweet Valley High, we cover off a lot of hilarious 90s teen culture that will leave you cringing.
Use the hashtag #sweetteenclub and let us know where you listen to the show, what you’d like us to cover, and what you remember from 90s.
If you want to chat to us about the show (or anything really!) you can find us here.
Carly: Smaggle.com || @smaggle
Stacey: theveggiemama.com || @veggie_mama
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Are you American? Can you shed some light on these things? Are they real? Or just for show on TV?
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P.S Oh just a heads up, you can find me in all these places: Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, Instagram, YouTube and the Smaggle weekly newsletter. Just in case you’re into videos of baby animals being cute or people ice skating in dinosaur costumes.