Aw, such a good piece. I remember as a kid adults telling me “at least you don’t have to work…at least you don’t have to worry about x, y, and z…” and feeling so invalidated by it, because to me the struggles I had as a young person were REAL, goddammit. And even now as an adult, I feel like work, taxes, etc. are not comparable to the emotional turmoil of being a teenager. Yes, you have more responsibilities now, but you also have more means to deal with those.