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Michael Nolan Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Writing & Rhetoric 13300 - 02 5 December 2011 Romeo and Juliet Now: Adolescent and Teenage Romance Romantic and sexual relationships among adolescents and teenagers is a superfluously discussed topic among parents and other adults. Children are seen as too young, too inexperienced, and too nave to engage in these mature relationships, yet children of the same age are treated as adults in other situations. Biologically, children are ready for these types of relationships once puberty beginswhen girls turn eleven and boys turn thirteen. The argument that childrens brains, specifically the prefrontal cortex, arent fully developed until their twenties is unsound. There is actually a higher density of nerve endings, called gray matter, in children than in adults, so children can process a wider variety of information and make more intricate connections (Bornstein 576-578). Relationships at this age can also be safe, and the children of Sweden can attest to that. Fifteen-year-olds in Sweden were the second-highest percentage of any rich country in the world to report having already had sexual intercourse (UNICEF 30), yet they also ranked highest in areas pertaining to strong familial relationships and healthy behaviors. Because children are already treated like adults in the judicial system and they are considered as biologically equivalent to adults, children deserve the right to free relationships as much as adults do. In order to ensure that these relationships are healthy and safe, parents and other adults should maintain an open discussion about the topic. Teenagers and adolescents are not too young, and it is unfair to selectively treat them as adults.

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As a teenager, this topic is a part of my own generation and, thus, important to me. I have had my share of relationships and have endured the criticisms of my family and my friends. I strongly believe that relationships do not have to fit a template. The common template for an average teenage or adolescent relationship is superficial, and that is why parents ignore them. I recycled a lot of my beliefs I explained in my audio narrative from the beginning of the semester, which described my current relationship and how much my partner means to me. I hear about how relationships between my friends end due to external causes, such as separation due to college or disapproval from parents. My goal of this essay is to convince my viewers that relationships at my age are not irrational or dangerous, but are beneficial and should be supported. Relationships strengthen interpersonal skills and familial bonding, and they have also been shown to increase child well-being and healthy behaviors in Sweden. I hope that this video can discount some of the misconceptions regarding relationships at my age, and I also hope it can change the perspectives of my viewers in favor of teenagers and adolescents who suffer from this age discrimination. As a persuasive, rhetorical maneuver, I knew my teenage friends should be the ones stating the facts and statistics of this topic. This topic is a fairly universal issue among my generation, and having those affected by this issue arguing for my topic would be more effective than words on a page or adults stating the facts and statistics. I decided to give my video a speedy pace as another persuasive maneuver, for my viewers would have little time to develop a counterargument before the next part of the video was shown. I also wanted to provide some insight into the oppression against teenagers and adolescents regarding marriage at their age, so I wrote a skit that featured former student Lexie Below as an excited teenager inquiring about a

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potential marriage between her and her boyfriend. With the quickly-paced statistics presented by my fellow teenagers and the insightful skit performed by Lexie, I believe this visual essay is highly rhetorical. This essay is a response to the age discrimination regarding relationships, and it persuasively reveals my motives to change the perspectives of the viewers who watch this video. The statistical evidence allows the essay to be accepted by an adult audience due to the formality and organization of the evidence itself, yet the recitation of the facts and statistics by members of the affected generation also allows this essay to be accepted by my generation. These are all aspects of a rhetorical work according to James Herrick. While my goal is to change ill-conceived perspectives on teenage and adolescent relationships, I constructed this essay to explain my own beliefs without enforcing them upon my viewers. I believe this is a more powerful tactic than an aggressive attack would be on the viewer, and, thus, it is a very strong form of rhetoric.