Slop.

The "turmoil" of adolescence is entirely a product of industrial capitalism and its mistreatment of teenagers.

In 1991 anthropologist Alice Schlegel of the University of Arizona and Herbert Barry III, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh, reviewed research on teens in 186 preindustrial societies. Among the important conclusions they drew about these societies: about 60 percent had no word for "adolescence," teens spent almost all their time with adults, teens showed almost no signs of psychopathology, and antisocial behavior in young males was completely absent in more than half these cultures and extremely mild in cultures in which it did occur.^[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-teen-brain-2007-06/]

In fact, I recently learned that the popular notion that the brain isn't "mature" until age 25 is probably a myth.^[I learned it from this infographic. I haven't fully vetted everything on it, but I'm sharing it to promote discussion: ] ^[https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/brain-myth-25-development]

Personal anecdote

I grew up in the Deep South (Georgia), and when I was 16, my high school girlfriend and I were dying to fuck, but we never could, because every adult in our lives made it their life's mission to prevent all "kids" from having literally any privacy whatsoever.

The closest we got was brief, ten minute periods after Friday night football games, while we waited for our parents to pick us up. Band kids like us would hide in the auditorium and make out, but the band directors were constantly sweeping the building, trying to catch kids being "naughty" in order to traumatize and admonish them. I recently learned that that was also a plot point in Handmaid's Tale—my best friend was unable to finish the book because that scene was too triggering.

It's been over twenty years and I'm still resentful about it.