Teenage Girls Aren’t like Teenage Girls Anymore少女再无少女样

It seems that teen girls want the same things out of life as their adult counterparts. Is that a problem？

少女们想要的生活用品似乎跟成年女性一样。这会是个问题吗？

Making the rounds on X last December， was a Christmas list. Apparently belonging to a 13-year-old girl， it listed， amongst a lot of things， facial ice globes， a silk pillowcase， products from Charlotte Tilbury and Drunk Elephant， and clothing from Skims1. People online took issue with the list not just because there was a lot on it—it totaled 44 things， with “money” included twice—but because it wasn’t the stuff they expected to see on a Christmas list from a girl of that age. Rather， it was essentially the same kinds of things that an adult might want. That raised a boatload of deeper questions. Namely， why don’t teenage girls act like teenage girls anymore？

去年12月，社交媒体X平台上流传着一份圣诞愿望清单。显然，这是一个13岁女孩写的，上面列了很多东西，包括面部冰敷球、真丝枕套、夏洛特·蒂铂丽和醉象的产品以及Skims的塑身衣。这份清单在网上引起了人们争论，不仅是因为上面有很多东西——总共 44 件，其中“钱”出现了两次——还因为他们认为这些东西不该出现在这个年龄段女孩的圣诞清单上。这些基本上都是成年人可能想要的东西。这引发了许多更深层次的问题。那就是，为何少女的行为举止不再像少女？

Really， the viral Christmas list is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issue of teenage girls acting like grown women. Scroll through TikTok long enough and it’s likely you’ll find not only age inappropriate makeup routines being practised by near pre-teens， but those that have been posted in response， outlining what is appropriate for a teenage girl. And there’s the near constant debates about whether what’s been worn by certain starlets2 is suitable or not. Disney-era Miley Cyrus was subject to this discourse， and now that conversation has been transposed onto figures like Alabama Barker and Millie Bobby Brown， who consistently opt for clothing and makeup that makes them look older than they are.

提到少女表现得像成年女性这个问题，这份病毒式传播的圣诞清单其实只是冰山一角。浏览抖音海外版TikTok的时间够长，你就会发现，不止有十一二岁的女孩在练习化不符合她们年龄的妆容，还有人在下面评论，简略告知十几岁女孩应该怎样化妆才得体。此外，关于某些影视小花的妆容是否合适的争论也几乎从未停止过。迪士尼时代的麦莉·塞勒斯就曾受到这种讨论的困忧，现在这种讨论转移到了阿拉巴马·巴克和米莉·鲍比·布朗等人身上，她们总是选择让自己看起来比实际年龄大的服装和妆容。

For some， it’s a tale as old as time： the controversial Christmas list is simply the modern iteration of putting on your mum’s heels or cradling a Baby Annabell. For others， it’s a decidedly modern phenomenon that’s been born out of the omnipresence of the online sphere. Dominating these spaces are not just hordes and hordes of influencers， but “normal” people seeking to paint a more idealised picture of their life. Add all of this together and， according to psychologist Dr. Lalitaa， “adult-like behaviours are portrayed as glamorous and sophisticated”. This leads to “adolescents wanting to imitate them to fit in” she tells HUNGER.

对一些人来说，这不是什么新鲜事：这份有争议的圣诞清单只不过是现代版的穿妈妈高跟鞋和抱安娜贝尔娃娃。而对另一些人来说，这种现象显然新潮，产生于无处不在的网络。占领网络的不仅是许许多多的网红，还有试图把自己的生活描绘得更为理想化的“普通人”。心理学家拉利塔博士认为，所有这些因素加起来，“成年人的行为被描述为迷人和精致的”。她接受《饥渴》杂志采访时说，“这导致青少年想要通过模仿来融入”。

Dr. Lalitaa points out that these forms of imitation are part of “the identity formation process in teenagers”. In other words， something like the Christmas list is， in theory， normal. It’s arguable3， however， whether this time round it goes a step further than imitation. Whether the teens of today—with their #GRWMs4 featuring Nars products and matching silk pyjama sets—are almost enacting5 adulthood. This has consequences. “They’re being exposed to behaviours that are too complex and damaging to an emotionally immature central nervous system，” Neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Taylor adds. According to her， the outcome of that is anything from “anxiety and unhappiness” to “sociopathic behaviour”.

拉利塔博士指出，这些形式的模仿是“青少年身份认同形成过程”的一部分。换句话说，像圣诞清单这样的事情从理论上讲是正常的。然而，这一次的行为是否超越了单纯的模仿，尚存争议。如今的青少年——她们在#GRWM视频里展示娜斯彩妆产品和配搭的真丝睡衣套装——是不是在扮演成年人，也没有定论。这会产生后果。神经学家蕾切尔·泰勒博士补充道：“她们正在接触的行为过于复杂，会对情绪尚未成熟的中枢神经系统造成伤害。”据她所言，这样的后果轻则是“焦虑和不快乐”，重则是“反社会行为”。

Essentially， teenagers aren’t adults. While that might seem like a “grass is greener” kind of statement， they’re not equipped to face the realities of the adults they’re emulating. Dr Taylor also thinks it’s important to highlight that teens are mimicking “behaviour that is promoted by the algorithm.” “It’s really concerning that there is an apparent ‘grooming’6 of children and adolescents into thinking that the behaviour they see on there is what all adults do. The algorithm is there for a reason. To convince people that they need certain products to be the human being that they want to be”.

青少年本质上并不是成年人。虽然这有点吹毛求疵的味道，但他们确实并没有能力面对他们所效仿的成年人的现实。泰勒博士还认为，重要的是要强调，他们正在模仿的是“算法推荐的行为”。“儿童和青少年明显受到诱导，以为他们在网上看到的行为是所有成年人都会做的事情，这非常令人担忧。而算法的存在是有原因的，为的是让人们相信他们需要某些产品才能成为自己想要成为的人。”

So， where can teenage girls go to explore what it actually means to be a teenage girl？ It’s slim pickings7. The Christmas list discourse spurred users on X to talk about the decline of magazines for teen girls， some of the only spaces that celebrated the experience of adolescence. Mizz shut its doors back in 2013 and Rookie Mag was dissolved in 2018. “That magazine truly made me feel like it was the coolest thing in the world to be a 15-year-old girl who was a little weird and sentimental about things [sic]” said one user. While you still can buy teen magazines today—J14， Anyway and Teen Breathe are a few that I found—they definitely don’t have the same cultural resonance as their bygone predecessors. And that’s not really a surprise given they’re competing with hyper-addictive platforms like TikTok.

所以，作为一个少女到底意味着什么，少女们该去何处探寻答案呢？她们的选择很少。圣诞清单的讨论引发 X平台上的用户谈论起少女杂志的衰落，这些杂志是为数不多歌颂青春的阵地。《宓姿》早在2013年闭刊，《新秀杂志》也于 2018 年解散。一位用户说：“那本杂志真的让我觉得，做一个有些古怪且多愁善感的 15 岁女孩，是世界上最酷的事情［原文如此］。”虽然现在仍然可以买到青少年杂志——J14、Anyway和《青少年呼吸》是我能找到为数不多的青少年杂志——但它们肯定不如从前同类杂志能引发文化共鸣。鉴于它们正在与 TikTok 等超级令人上瘾的平台竞争，这并不奇怪。

All of this comes at a time where grown-up women are obsessed with evoking the experience of their younger years. With “girl dinner” 8 and girly aesthetics reigning supreme， media outlets had even gone as far as to call 2023 the “year of the girl”. And it’s this contradiction that makes the phenomena on display in the viral Christmas list hard to watch. No one would implore teenagers to stop trying to grow up so fast than the women now tucking into9 picky-bits， fixing bows in their hair， and clutching their newest Jellycat toy.

而这一切都发生在成年女性痴迷于重温少女时期经历的时代。随着“女孩晚餐”和少女美学大行其道，媒体甚至将2023年称为“女孩年”。正是这种矛盾，让这份圣诞清单揭示的现象让人感到难以接受。现在的女人正手抓便利食物大吃特吃，往头发上绑蝴蝶结，把玩最新款的果冻猫玩偶，没人比她们更希望少女们不要那么急着快快长大。

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者）

1金·卡戴珊与合伙人延斯·格雷德（Jens Grede）和埃玛·格雷德（Emma Grede）共同创立的塑形内衣品牌。

2 starlet希望成名（或有明星相）的年轻女演员。

3 arguable无把握的；可疑的。 4 GRWM全称为get ready with me，是社交媒体上流行的缩写词。作为话题标签，GRWM经常出现在美妆博主的视频中，主要用于描述视频或帖子的类型。创作者在其中分享他们为一天或特定事件做准备的例行公事。这可以包括化妆、发型设计、选择服装或其他个人修饰任务。视频通常是休闲和对话式的，旨在为观众提供提示、产品推荐，或者只是为了让他们感觉自己正在与创作者一起闲逛，从而心情愉悦。 5 enact表演。

6 groom 培养，使做好准备。 7 slim pickings选择很少或有限。

8 女孩晚餐。外网兴起的社交媒体趋势，指女生们把一些喜欢的食物随机放在一起组合成一顿大餐，一般是奶酪、饼干、水果、冷肉等零食。 9 tuck into sth尽情地吃，痛快地吃。