History of the 'Teen' genre

Teen films is a genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped. For legal reasons, many teenage characters are portrayed by young adults. Some teen films appeal to either gender depending on the storyline. Often a teen films is set in a school as the target audience can relate and would find it more interesting. Films in this genre are often set in high school, or contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes  are also common, as are crude forms of humour's well as the classic teen film, which is similar to a romantic comedy, as it has many different sub-genres:

• Teen sci-fi
• Teen horror
• Teen drama
• Teen love -e.g. 17 Again
• Teen musicals - e.g. Hairspray and High School Musical.

The first teen genre film was in 1917 called 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' an American silent comedy-drama film directed by Marshall Neilan based upon the novel of the same name by Kate Douglas Wiggin.

Codes and conventions of teen films vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties, losing one's virginity, social groups and cliques, interpersonal conflict with peers and/or the older generations and American pop culture.

The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotype and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include:

• The Jock/Cheerleader - bully, popular, airhead, mean, stupid, powerful e.g. can change peoples views.
• New girl/boy- different from everyone else, breaks stereotypes.
• The Geek/Nerd- really clever, can't talk to the opposite sex.
• The Rebel- skives off school,
• The Misfit/Outcast -sarcastic, see's people for the real them.
• The Boy/Girl next door- everyone likes them
• The gay best friend- feminine, relatable
• Class Hottie- rich, attractive, revealing clothing
• Class Clown- everyone laughs at, gets in trouble
• The Stoner/loner lonely, never at school, doesn't go to social events.

A good example of the use of archetypes in teen film were displayed in the film The Breakfast Club in the 1980s. These archetypes have since become a larger part of the culture. The Jock, cheerleader, social outcast among others, become a familiar and pleasurable feature for the audience. However genres are dynamic, they change and develop to meet the expectations of their target audience, teenagers, films such as 'Fun size' have most of the basic archetypes that one would expect, the jocks and cheerleaders, the outcasts and geeks, the older and younger sibling disagreements, etc.