Role models can raise young peoples aspirations and help the transition to adulthood. But politicians have focussed too much on pop stars and sporting heroes.
| I would like to be like Gandhi one day because he stuck up for what he believed in. |
Move over Ginger, Sporty and Scary. Young girls are more likely to look to Bianca and Tiffany, the much loved but fictional characters of Eastenders, when they seek inspiration.
I like Tiffany because she shows that women should stick up for themselves, says Asia, 17. While Chantel, 15, says, I like Bianca because shes a new woman. She rules over Ricky rather than Ricky ruling over her.
The girls use role models to try out their options. Your teenage years are full of angst, says Ruth, 14, So I think you need someone to talk to. The next best thing is to have a role model so you can think about what they might do if they were in your situation.
But the girls are clear this is a process of helping them make up their own minds, not mindlessly following in anothers footsteps. Solyma, 16, is typically eclectic in her approach: I would like to be like Gandhi one day because he stuck up for what he believed in. Marilyn Monroe is my other role model because she was beautiful, and she had a hard life but she made it to the top.
Its about taking things you see as being important from different people, explains Siobhan, 16.
For boys, parents significance as role models has been overlooked in recent talk of the importance of good parenting. For them, parents attitudes and aspirations are as important as their practical skills.
My parents are modern and give good advice, says Danny, 15. Theyre not those parents who try and keep you under their thumb. They try and advise you how to do things, not just tell you what to do. he says. Stuart, 16, appreciates pressure from his mum to succeed because he knows she is thinking of his future. My mum doesnt want me to be a failure, she wants me to go out and be successful, happy and gets lots of money, he says.
But before parents seize the opportunity to deliver a lesson in morality, they should be warned that kids need space for their own views. Solyma says, My dad has wanted me to be a nurse ever since I was young. My sister was going to be a doctor and I was going to be a nurse but weve both rebelled against that. Were both doing things in the arts and I dont think my dads too happy about it.
With thanks to students at the Tower Hamlets Summer University for their views.
About the team
This article was produced by Stuart Fletcher, 17, Kate Mercer, 17, and Abeyna Jones, 16. It appeared in Local Government Voice Solo.
