This article is directed towards parents of today's teenagers...

How were you when you were young? Didn’t you try to experiment with anything? I’m sure you did.

You drank. You smoked. You did drugs. And you dated. You may have not done it but you surely must have thought about it. The point is we all come across a stage in life when we want to experiment. We all want to try different things, and see what the world offers us.

Experimenting is a part of life and its part of growing up. We should be allowed to try new things. We should be able to express our individuality and live life the way we want to. Life is too short to waste it living like a prisoner. Are we human beings or are we caged animals, because we feel like we’re stuck in a cage full of rules and regulations.

We wanna be free. We wanna fly. We wanna explore the world. We don’t need you permission, we need your guidance. You are our parents not our dictators! Your job is to protect us, not control us. We agree, you want to protect us from the dangers of the world, but how are we ever going to survive on our own when you hide us from everything? How are we ever going to learn to fight if you fight all our battles for us?
We want to experiment but we also want to be able to confide in you and be able to talk to you. We want to know that you will be there to help us and support us through everything. Trust is an important issue that not many teenagers and their parents share. Why? You say you don't trust us because we go behind your back, hide from you, and disobey you. But that’s only because we're so afraid that you'll judge us or punish us. We can't ever tell you anything because you'll cast it off or worse, won't even bother to listen. You think we're teenagers so everything is just a phase.

In the long run, you’re just damaging your relationship with us. We’ll never be able to open up to you and you are the ones who are going to lose out. You’re never going to know who we really are; you’ll just see what we show you. Why? Well because you’ve given us no other option.

Little things like experimenting with makeup and dating is not going to ruin our lives. This is what we do. We're young, we're teenagers. This is the time to have fun and discover who we are. So just stop. Stop trying to mould us into different people or trying to live the life you never had through us. We're our own people and this is our life. You should accept us, however we are, whoever we are. Because the love between a parent and a child is unconditional isn't it? Exactly. Let us live our lives the way we want. Because ultimately, all you should want for your child, is their happiness. And this is what makes us happy.

Co-written with a friend.