The Teenage Dream

The Teenage Dream is a small writing project I've been working on for a while.

[theteenagedream]

🌧Masterpost🌧

💿What is 'The Teenage Dream'?

☁️Okay, well, what are the four roles?

🌧Character Sheets🌧

🍒Kylie Cooper

🌶Jonas Kann

☕️Sylvia Shepard

🍺Carrie Langley

[theteenagedream]

☁️Okay, well, what are the four roles?

The four roles are the four different roles a child can take on in a dysfunctional home or family. These roles include the hero, the scapegoat, the lost child, and the mascot. (Not in any respective order.) Each character will fall into one of these descriptions as best as I can get them to.

A description of these roles are included below:

The Hero

The family hero is your typical Type A personality: a hard-working, overachieving perfectionist. Through their own achievements, the hero tries to bring the family together and create a sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, a driving need to “do everything right” tends to put an extreme amount of pressure on the hero, leaving them highly anxious and susceptible to stress-related illnesses later in life.

The Scapegoat

The scapegoat is just what you would expect: the one person who gets blamed for the whole family’s problems. They offer the family a sense of purpose by providing someone else to blame. They voice the family’s collective anger, and may shield the addicted parent from a lot of blame and resentment. When the scapegoat gets older, males tend to act out in violence, while females often run away or participate in promiscuous sex.

The Mascot

Think of the mascot as the class clown, always trying to deflect the stress of the situation by supplying humor. This role is usually taken on by the youngest child; they’re fragile, vulnerable, and desperate for the approval of others. Providing comic relief is also the mascot’s defense against feeling pain and fear themself. Mascots often grow up to self-medicate with alcohol, perpetuating the cycle of addiction if applicable.

The Lost Child

The lost child role is usually taken on by the middle or youngest child. They’re shy, withdrawn, and sometimes thought of as “invisible” to the rest of the family. They don’t seek (or get) a lot of attention from other family members, especially when making decisions. They have trouble with forming intimate relationships, and choose to spend time on solitary activities as a way to cope.

[theteenagedream]

💿What is 'The Teenage Dream'?

'The Teenage Dream', previously named 'The Four Roles', is a writing project I've been working on for a while. For many years, I've just been thinking about it, maybe drawing some (admittedly terrible) character sheets. But most of it has been brewing in my head for a while!!

Previously, this was gonna be a comic series. But, I'm awful at drawing and I dont feel comfortable trying to tell people what to do and how to draw it in a way I wanted to. So, writing it is!!

Most of everything I write will be on tumblr. I don't have an account on ao3 and I dont know how to work it anyway. And I refuse to use wattpad.

Anyway, 'The Teenage Dream' will be focused on four main characters. Kylie, Jonas, Sylvia, and Carrie. We will follow them through their lives as they try to navigate through the harsh life of teenagers nowadays. All 4 characters will fit into 4 roles. Specifically the four different roles a child can take on in a dysfunctional family.

The main point of this story is to bring attention to the different types of dysfunction in families, even if they look good from an outside perspective. It's to bring light to the diversity of families and how some are more or less dysfunctional than others. I will use personal experience and friend's experience to do this accurately.

This story will have queer characters and many different religious and political views. Essentially a very diverse story. Or as best as I can make it. I will do as much research as possible, I just ask that you point it out if I portray something wrong or say the wrong thing. I ask that you take no offense to any opinions or anything stated by characters and remember that these are made up characters.

I will try my best not to hurt anyone and to put trigger warnings when needed. I hope you guys will enjoy my story and appreciate the work I put into it.

Sorry for the rambling, thank you for reading!! :)