We’re More Than Just Kids

To adults, we’re just kids with phones. To us, those phones are the only way we’re ever heard. 

Adults say we’re lazy, soft, spoiled, or ungrateful. But they don’t see what’s really going on behind our screens, our homework, and our late nights.

They think that since we’re “just kids,” life is easy for us—but it’s not that simple. We work hard every day, trying to meet their expectations.

We spend hours studying, memorizing formulas, writing essays, and doing projects. Most of what we learn now, we might never use. We’re always trying to juggle school, sports, clubs, and still have a life. And yet, all anyone notices is the phone in our hands. One scroll, one like, and suddenly everything else we’ve done disappears in their eyes.

It’s almost like the pressure to be “perfect” is everywhere. Every grade, every assignment, every little thing we do feels like a test. We’re expected to do it all—and still be polite, fun, and “grateful.” It’s exhausting, but we keep going, because that’s who we are. 

Even with all that, we don’t stay quiet. When we speak up, we’re sometimes called loud or dramatic. If we don’t, we’re told we should have said something. No matter what we do, it feels like adults rarely see the full picture—most of the time, they don’t even try to understand.  

But we’re not invisible. We’re not lazy. We are not just ‘some kids who have it easy.’ We are more than they think. Louder than they expect. And one day, they’ll  realize it. 

Sometimes it feels like we’re fighting to be taken seriously in a world that already decided who we are.