In this third 3rd chunk of the non-fiction book by Alissa Quart she mentions how colleges are getting branded by students and also how teen literature has a branding effect on teens. She also mentions the unbranded kids an how they fight against corporations who try to brand them. Students brand colleges by trying to get into the best universities, many of them have tutor at an early age and take special classes with tutors. Many of the students parents encourage them to get into those universities such as Princeton and Harvard, therefore they spend about 500 an hour getting a tutor for their children. These teens want to brand name colleges, and will do anything to get into them. Teen literature has also become a way kids brand themselves , many at the age of 14 will begin writing book about life experiences that they had, such as rape, drug addiction, alcoholism, and other horrible situations. These teens sell out their stories to corporations who publish them in books. The author even says that if after selling their story is it still theirs now that other people(corporations) have it. These teen become branded as the teen who got raped or the teens who had a drug addiction. Last but not least in her book she does mention those kids who decide to live their life without getting into a branded life style. Some of them are kids who do not attend high school and teach themselves at home, they do not go to high school because of all the branding that goes on there. How being there you are influence to dress a certain way and be a certain way. These teens do not want to be like that, they also do not care about name brand universities and will just go to a college that they want or not go to one at all. Another of anti-branding teens are the DIY kids, these are punk teens who do not get into the whole wearing brand clothing or into branding themselves. They become involve in having mimi concert between all of them almost every weekend,either in public places like malls but usually in their garages. They also hold meetings where they talk about issues that are important to them, and they do not try to brand themselves like all the teens around them. Some teens revolt against branding in school they do not like when their school are filled with brand names in vending machine or textbooks such as Coca Cola, M&Ms, or other name brands. They fight against it just like the case that Alissa Quart mentioned with Edison school system again Philadelphia students. The author shows us how branding can have negative affect on teens and how not every single teen out their follow the trend of being Branded.Questions
Clarification- Does being an unbraded teen (such as DIY kid, or teaching yourself at school) affect that teen social life? Is it hard for them to make friends?
Application- After finish reading the book do you consider yourself a branded or unbranded teen? Why?
