I’m about to disagree with the mass population of teenagers and the majority of articles on this website - being a teenager is an enjoyable, exciting time and should be appreciated by youths and envied by others.

It seems everywhere I look nowadays there’s miserable and depressing articles and TV shows telling us there’s so much stress on teenagers to conform and look a certain way and be a certain size.

We are told constantly that there is so much pressure with exams and relationships and that it's not fair.

Well, when I look around my school, at all my friends and peers, I don’t see that at all. I see the exact opposite.

The one thing that links all my friends together is individuality - some love drama, others maths, some like to dress sophisticated, others wouldn’t be seen dead in a pencil skirt or blouse but it doesn’t matter because if we were the same where’s the fun?

That to me is the best thing about being a teenager - the fun and laughter I share with my friends. I never laughed like this when I was younger and I never see older generations doing so.

This is the time you're allowed to act like an idiot, be totally in love with a pop star and wear the oddest combination of clothes, and when you're older look back and laugh at your young, teenage self.

Right now I have no idea where I’ll be in five years' time, who I’ll be friends with, what I’ll be doing - and what’s better than that?

All the questions you can wonder about but the fact is you can control what happens to you. I can’t stand all these statements that teenagers are being forced to become a size zero and fit into a certain 'clique', it's ridiculous and this anxiety and force is only there if you create it.

Of course there are troubles and you’ll always come across a person who tries to put you down, but we all have bad days, you just have to rise above it and be the bigger person and think of all the positive things in your life.

You may call me naive, but I say I’m an optimist, which seems to be something lacking in our generation.

By Grace Meritt, aged 16, from Bromley