 | "how do teens use their bedrooms to take ownership of their environment and identity?" - Charlie S |
The teenage bedroom is a place of imagination, creation, a safe haven, and loneliness. In the movie Labyrinth, pieces of teenage Sarah’s bedroom come alive in her fantasy world of the Labyrinth and the Goblin King. Her stuffed animals, puppets, music box, and books, all reflections of her childhood, become real.
How does the teenage room reflect the developing sense of self? How does the teenage bedroom serve as a reminder of the past, and how do teens use their bedrooms to take ownership of their environment and identity? How is a person's childhood preserved in their teenage bedroom?
My relationship with my own teen bedroom has been tumultuous. With divorced parents, all of my belongings are split between two places, and I have different purposes for each room. One is almost always tidy, while the other is practically always a mess. One is lavish with kitsch and color. The other is more sparsely decorated.
I tape photos, old post cards, clippings, art, and posters all over the walls. There are journals and memories in every corner. All of my belongings, from my street-corner furniture, to my collection of troll dolls, make my room an intimate reflection of myself.
I was curious what I could learn about my peers, just by taking a tour of their bedrooms. I interviewed three OSA students,to see what could be uncovered.
My first subject is Chloe. Her room is full of feminist posters and collages, gifts from friends, and keepsakes from her family members. The contents of her room show a strong relationship with her family and ancestry, along with a wild respect for female 90’s pop icons.
C: This is my little reminder sheet that tells me to like, not be lazy, and to make myself feel good. And then I have all these visual aids of these 90’s white women that I want to dress like.
C: These are keys my mom bought me a while ago for Hanukkah, and this is the silver fairyland key, cause I used to have so many fairyland keys when I was little. That was a big part of my childhood.
C: This is a little little glitter drawing that says ‘top cunt’. I like calling myself that.
C: These are some Mars Attacks trading cards ‘cause my dad and I are really obsessed with Mars Attacks.
C: This is my grandfather who died recently, and these are his little memorial cards that they gave us at the funeral.
C: My jewelry box, some kazoos, makeup, a book of Frida Kahlo, records I found on the street that I never listen to. I don’t have a record player.
C: Sea shells! Sea shells! My mother and my grandmother collect seashells, so they give them to me. Sometimes I go with them, and I put them in jars and stuff.
C: Baby slippers, baby teeth, and a plate I found on the side of the road.
C: This is my bookshelf. It also has dvds, and some fun photos, and these are some of my favorite books.
{I gasp at the feminist Ryan Gosling book on her shelf}
C: Yeah, maya got me that for valentine's day.
Can I look at it?
C: You totally can look at it.
C: This is Jimmy’s book and he wrote me a very special note in it. It made me cry. It’s a very good book, so I keep it here.
C: I color coded my books a while back, but my dad broke my bookshelf because he was trying to get a spider, but he stepped on the bookshelf and broke it.
C: This is a photo of my favorite girlfriends at brunch, and I glitter glued it but it got weird.
C: This is an old ‘Return of the Jedi’ poster, that my friend gave me for free cause her friend didn’t want it anymore cause she had too many antique starwars posters. I was like, okay, I'll take it.
Do you like Star Wars?
C: Yes, I grew up on star wars.
C: This is my bed. It’s really like, thrown together. I don’t like sheets that match. I just don't like the feel of it. I just like being loosey goosey, or bohemian or whatever.
C: These are all of my fairyland keys. A jar of condoms, just in case. I got a bunch at this Lena Dunham event. She was giving out free condoms.
Why do you have an open safety pin in your jar of condoms?
C: Yeah, I dunno why that’s there.
C: This is a doll that I got when I was seven when we went to Canada for the first time. I named her after my great great grandma Sara, who was Micmac indian. So she's a Micmac, or at least my father told me, a Micmac doll. Which is our native ancestry in Canada. I'm trying to learn more about my great grandma Sara.
C: This is really interesting cause I have all sides of my family on here, all types of family members, who we’re no longer close to. (Gesturing to photo wall) Which is really cool cause we're kinda divided over political and religious stuff.
C: This is my dad's friend Tim who died, so I keep him up here. My dad was really touched when I put him up here.
C: This is my grandfather that died, and we don’t have many photos of him because he took most of the photos when we were with him. So those are the only two photos I have of my grandfather right now.
C: I was the first girl on my dad’s side of the family. The first girl in a really long time. So my grandpa was pretty excited about that.
C: I like looking at these, and thinking about them. Thinking about my family, and all of the stories that they tell. There are so many more that I want to put up.
C: There's a lot of stories you can tell from these photos. For example this is my uncle, and I'm mad at him. I love him but I'm mad at him, cause he voted for trump and tells his daughters that Hillary is bad, and that makes me sad cause they’re young girls. I still love him, and he's still on my family wall. That’s never going away, you know?
My next subject is Elena. Her room is full of plants, art, and music related items. Her belongings show strong ties the Bay Area, and to her grandmother. Her room feels very natural.
E: Welcome to my room! It’s pretty exciting!
E: And I have this. It’s like a vagina...It’s a vagina. It was made by Faviana Rodrigues, who is a super cool artist from Oakland. And these are some pictures of just you know, me and my bitch. No, I'm kidding.
E: I got these really cool Buddha medicine flags. They look like Tibetan prayer flags, but they have a medecine prayer instead. I got them from my grandma’s church, which is like a spiritual learning church.
E: That’s a box of wine that my mom keeps in my room so she doesn’t drink it all.
E: This is my dream catcher. It doesn’t actually do anything. I think it’s because it’s not directly above my bed.
E: And this is my bed! It's so comfy, it’s like the most comfy bed ever. You can ask Ari, she’s slept in it so many times.
E: And these are some photographs of this place, and I forget where it is, but I visited it when I was very small. My grandma’s friend took them. Or maybe it was just some guy she knew. Maybe it wasn’t a friend. But he took them, and I stole them and put them in my room.
E: These are my windows! They let me see the outside world. It’s pretty nice!
E: These are my plants that I love so much. I’ve had them since I moved here. This one I got from Mr. Ho, and it was very short and dying and I was like, I'm a plant woman, I'll fix this. I’ll take this plant in.
E: These are really nice speakers which hook up to my record player, where my One Direction record is.
E: These are little jewelry boxes I got from my friend. I think she got them from the Berkeley flea market and they’re really cute. But they smell really terrible.
E: I made this actually, it’s a cigar box. I took off the top and took nails and these moon charts for the different moons that happen each year. I got it from the back of this weird spiritual magazine my grandmother gets.
E: This is my ring area, my invisalign, which is gross. And I have this little baby wall, which is
just pictures of me as a baby and like my family, people holding me.
E: This is my little cousin kyle, and that's his mom washing me. She's just washing me in the sink like they always do.
E: This is some pure nineties joy right here. That's my dad, and that's my mom and they look so different. I don't know why they look so weird.
E: This is my half sister, so I barely see her but I remember in the times that we were together, we would get photos taken. I don't know why, that was like a weird childhood, hood thing. You just got photos taken, I dunno why.
E: This is after my first real play! I was just a narrator, but it was ‘Wizard of Oz’ and I was happy, and my family came and brought me flowers.
E: This is from when I was like, one. I was just living life. A happy lil’ baby. Chilling.
E: So I was really obsessed with Star Wars but I was really late, on Star Wars. I just started watching in fifth grade. So when I found out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father I was like going around telling everyone at school, and they were like ‘yeah, you didn’t know that?’
E: So I got this really cool movie poster from when the movie was released. It's really hard. They weren't cheap back in the days. So I have that, and I also have this wine Star Wars painting from Trader Joes since my mom works at Trader Joes. A lot of people wanted it, and finally when it was time to come down, my mom was like I’ll take it. So she got it! I dunno how she got it.
E: Whenever there’s a big change in my life, I need to change my room. Cause I need the energy to be different. So if there's something that I don't want, or don't like anymore, I just change it. My room has been through a lot of different ways of organizing.
E: I'd say everything I have in here now represents who I am. Just because who I am always changing, so my room has to reflect that.
E: Welcome to my room! It’s pretty exciting!
E: And I have this. It’s like a vagina...It’s a vagina. It was made by Faviana Rodrigues, who is a super cool artist from Oakland. And these are some pictures of just you know, me and my bitch. No, I'm kidding.
E: I got these really cool Buddha medicine flags. They look like Tibetan prayer flags, but they have a medecine prayer instead. I got them from my grandma’s church, which is like a spiritual learning church.
E: That’s a box of wine that my mom keeps in my room so she doesn’t drink it all.
E: This is my dream catcher. It doesn’t actually do anything. I think it’s because it’s not directly above my bed.
E: And this is my bed! It's so comfy, it’s like the most comfy bed ever. You can ask Ari, she’s slept in it so many times.
E: And these are some photographs of this place, and I forget where it is, but I visited it when I was very small. My grandma’s friend took them. Or maybe it was just some guy she knew. Maybe it wasn’t a friend. But he took them, and I stole them and put them in my room.
E: These are my windows! They let me see the outside world. It’s pretty nice!
E: These are my plants that I love so much. I’ve had them since I moved here. This one I got from Mr. Ho, and it was very short and dying and I was like, I'm a plant woman, I'll fix this. I’ll take this plant in.
E: These are really nice speakers which hook up to my record player, where my One Direction record is.
E: These are little jewelry boxes I got from my friend. I think she got them from the Berkeley flea market and they’re really cute. But they smell really terrible.
E: I made this actually, it’s a cigar box. I took off the top and took nails and these moon charts for the different moons that happen each year. I got it from the back of this weird spiritual magazine my grandmother gets.
E: This is my ring area, my invisalign, which is gross. And I have this little baby wall, which is
just pictures of me as a baby and like my family, people holding me.
E: This is my little cousin kyle, and that's his mom washing me. She's just washing me in the sink like they always do.
E: This is some pure nineties joy right here. That's my dad, and that's my mom and they look so different. I don't know why they look so weird.
E: This is my half sister, so I barely see her but I remember in the times that we were together, we would get photos taken. I don't know why, that was like a weird childhood, hood thing. You just got photos taken, I dunno why.
E: This is after my first real play! I was just a narrator, but it was ‘Wizard of Oz’ and I was happy, and my family came and brought me flowers.
E: This is from when I was like, one. I was just living life. A happy lil’ baby. Chilling.
E: So I was really obsessed with Star Wars but I was really late, on Star Wars. I just started watching in fifth grade. So when I found out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father I was like going around telling everyone at school, and they were like ‘yeah, you didn’t know that?’
E: So I got this really cool movie poster from when the movie was released. It's really hard. They weren't cheap back in the days. So I have that, and I also have this wine Star Wars painting from Trader Joes since my mom works at Trader Joes. A lot of people wanted it, and finally when it was time to come down, my mom was like I’ll take it. So she got it! I dunno how she got it.
E: Whenever there’s a big change in my life, I need to change my room. Cause I need the energy to be different. So if there's something that I don't want, or don't like anymore, I just change it. My room has been through a lot of different ways of organizing.
E: I'd say everything I have in here now represents who I am. Just because who I am always changing, so my room has to reflect that.
My last subject is Lucy, who sleeps in a little room chock full of stuff. Her room is brimming with humor and spunk, along with cultural influences and artistic displays of her identity.
L: So walking into my room, there's a lot of stuff on my door, a lot of old polaroids, and there's a bunch of stickers. For instance, some Thieves skate company stickers, some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some characters from ‘Cars’, um i have a Bernie Sanders sticker on here.
L: My favorite sticker says: ‘the reason I swear so much is because fuck you.’ Pretty funny.
L: There’s a hello kitty sticker. I actually bought that one for 25 cents at a yard sale. Pretty happy about that. It’s Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel in Hawaii. Lit.
L: There's a photo of me crying with a crown on my head. Because who wants to be king of the castle? Not me.
L: In the doorway our heights are written down. And then I have a picture I bought at a yard sale for 5 dollars of France.
L: I have my dresser that says: How I dress does not mean yes. And I've got some old paper dolls.
L: I have a Kristen Stewart collage I made. It just happens to be Kristen Stewart. It says: ‘woman, claim it! cunt, fuck, slut, me, freak, bitch, hoe, us, you. feminism.’ I don't know.
L: Then there's an Iggy and the Stooges Raw Power poster.
L: There's a John F Carey, and George W Bush skull and bones, the thrilla in vanilla, Daily Show with Jon Stewart poster. Funny. There's a ‘Psychedelic Furs’ poster.
L: There's one that Evan made that says ‘fuck art let's rock’, and then Ari put up one that says ‘art rock art, lets fuck’.
L: And then I have a map of the world, cause I love the world. I got a marauders map that Eli bought for me, I've got ‘Quadrophenia’ by ‘The Who’ on vinyl, I've got some pictures of Charlie and I as youngins at a dance, looking fire.
L: I got a little plastic horse, I got the golden ticket from when I was Charlie Bucket, a thing where I call Monet a yuppie, a thing where I turned JFK into an emo, I've got a birthday card from Charlie...I've got another Iggy Pop poster, a Pulp Fiction poster, and an altar for Meryl Streep.
L: My Frozen Blanket that my aunt gave my sister! She didn’t want it, and I thought you know what, that movie made me cry like three times and this is fuzzy as hell. So yes I will take it.
L: A memory I have in this room is watching ‘It’s Complicated’ which is a very weird movie about old people with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin, where Charlie and I witnessed Steve Martin calling his ex-wife a hoe which was great. We were sitting in my bed, while doing that. Pretty lit.
L: My bed is like, I love my bed. I've had my bed since I was like fourth grade. My sister stole it for a while but I reclaimed it.
L: I think that a lot of the music and movie posters and the people I have on my walls sort of reflect the way that my life is now, and what I value in my life. Cause you know you don't see no Taylor Swift or Backstreet Boys up in here. Although, she is pretty beautiful. But she's been revealed as a snake. So there's that.
L: But I think if you came in here, you'd probably think, wow, this girl must like Iggy pop and pictures of her friends, and a lot of books. Oh there's a lot of books. The whole harry potter series, and a bunch of other stuff. There's some shoes. Some paint. Gettin it, up in here. And that's pretty much it.
What surprised me about all three bedrooms, was the nostalgia. They all contained kitsch that told the stories of their childhoods. From old birthday cards, to sea-shells, to gifts from friends, to old blankets and baby slippers, to a Trader Joes 'Star Wars' poster. These bedrooms show what teens hold onto as they grow into adults. These bedrooms show that no matter how much or how fast we change, our roots always stay with us.
