If you know me, you know I LOVE a good teen TV show or movie. Cliché as it may be, there's just something so entertaining about watching 25-year-olds play rich high schoolers who have more exciting lives than the Kardashians.
When you've watched as many teen shows and movies as I have, you start to notice just how many times the same exact tropes happen.
Here are 24 things that happen in literally every high school movie and show to the point where I'm sick of seeing them:
Mild spoilers ahead!!
1. Everyone having time for a full breakfast spread before school:
2. The new girl finding a new group of friends — usually the popular clique — on her first day of school:
3. Everyone getting into top-tier colleges and only applying to super difficult schools as backups:
4. Student-teacher romantic relationships being considered fine and normal:
5. Super dramatic slow-dance scenes where a big secret is finally revealed and one half of the couple storms off the dance floor:
6. Everyone losing their virginity on prom night (and having no problem getting a hotel):
7. Characters getting pregnant the very first time they have sex:
8. Parents dating their kid's significant other's parent:
9. A couple sharing a secret half-sibling:
10. Random people showing up at the characters' doors claiming to be their long-lost sibling, but really they're an imposter:
11. Jumping on a motorcycle just purely out of angst:
12. Love triangles that involve the guy cheating on the girl with her best friend:
13. Characters choosing their college based on how close it is to their significant other:
14. The main girl suddenly becoming "hot" after a makeover that just involves, like, straightening her hair and taking off her glasses:
15. Characters putting on school plays that are literally just about their own personal drama:
16. The main guy being portrayed as super nice, likable, and reasonable, but really, he's kind of a dick and rarely gets called out for it:
17. Fan-favorite characters being killed off just for shock value at the end of a series:
18. Toxic LGBTQ couples staying together just because they're the only queer characters on the show:
19. Characters magically having access to tons of alcohol (and usually good quality too):
20. If it's a supernatural show or movie, a character dying and coming back like 6 million times:
21. Couples breaking up to "protect" each other or just pretending to be broken up:
22. A character hooking up with their friend's sibling and it being seen as the BIGGEST betrayal of all time:
23. A character getting out of a toxic relationship, dating someone who treats them way better, and then deciding to get back with the first crappy significant other because they're "meant to be" or whatever:
24. And finally, queer-baiting audiences with super flirty scenes and no intention of actually turning it into anything:
