Teen Culture

Teen Culture Update: February 2020

It feels like we just celebrated the launch of a new decade, and just like that, fish fries are back in full effect and you’re doing your best to keep not just your New Year’s resolutions but also your Lenten fasts. The last month in teen culture comes with a lot of positive moments, a healthy dose of fear, and many topics your teens might be curious about or you might want to ask them about. 

Celebrity Conversions

Let’s start with the good stuff. Since the beginning of this year, a few notable celebrities — some who your teens might admire — have been speaking up about their faith journeys and their relationships with Jesus. Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, and Justin Bieber are three of the most prominent of these celebrities. During Apple Music interviews with Zane Lowe, each of these celebrities noted the impact that their faith has had on their lives as they’ve navigated the pressures of being famous, the digital age, and their own mental health challenges. 

Additionally, Justin Bieber spoke very openly about coming to know Jesus and being transformed by Him during his interview. He also led a prayer and gave a message during Kanye West’s Sunday Service at the end of February during which he shared a bit of his testimony about how God has been a source of confidence for him in anxious moments. You can watch this moment here, and your teens might want to take a look at what Ashley Hinojosa had to say about it on our YouTube channel here

While we can’t ever know all the ins and outs of a person’s conversion story, and while I certainly don’t claim to know whether or not the theology of Kanye’s Sunday Service is in line with the Catholic Church’s, I do know the public nature of these peoples’ conversions can lead into some really life-giving conversations. All of these moments can lead you into conversations with your teens about how persistently God pursues each of us including celebrities and people who don’t interact in typical “church” environments. 

Coronavirus 

Your teens are just as, if not more, concerned about Coronavirus as you are. The biggest difference between how they understand it and how you understand it is that, in addition to headlines and brief credible explanations of the virus, they have also likely come across more than a few memes making light of it and its impact on the world. 

I don’t mention this to get down on teens for not taking seriously a contagious virus that’s spread globally at an alarming rate, but I bring this up to emphasize as I have in the past that teenagers have adopted a mode of processing challenging information by making light of it. It is worth your while to make an effort to challenge and guide them in processing things such as the Coronavirus with a bit more emotional maturity than a meme. 

Election Season 

By the time you’re reading this, Super Tuesday primaries are over and most of the results are probably clear. Your teens didn’t vote in them, but they were certainly aware they were taking place. With more celebrities being vocal about hot topics and this generation, in general, being more concerned with their civic duties than millennials were at their age… your teens have a lot on their minds. 

While the issues addressed in primary elections and in the upcoming presidential election are complex and challenging, it’s important to address them with your teens and challenge them to consider how their faith compels them to engage with the world. 

The conversations that you have around these current topics in teen culture might not conclude in simple solutions or clear answers, but they can lay the groundwork for giving your teens confidence that their faith in God should affect every aspect of their lives.

The goal of this blog is to give parents information and insight into what is trending in teen culture so as to provide entry points and conversation starters as they guide their teens through modern culture. The purpose of this blog is not to condone, or approve of all aspects of teen culture but rather to inform.

About the Author

Leah Murphy

Leah serves as Life Teen's Director of Digital Evangelization. As a graduate of John Paul the Great Catholic University, with a background in video and a passion for that wild place where faith and culture meet, she lives to tell God's love story to the world in the digital space. Dwelling in San Diego, CA, she spends all her free time doing all the things with her friends, enjoying the best music out there, and going on every adventure that comes her way.