The Teenage years are all about discovering the difference between the ideal world that we construct as youth and the real one that we face as adults. Teenagers are figuring out how they can physically fit into the world, and need spaces to claim as their own. Some teens congregate in forbidden and dangerous places.

Everyone's view of the world grows as they develop. Kids build mental maps of places, and on the edges of those maps are where the forbidden places are first discovered. This process of discovery is kicked into overdrive when puberty hits. Teens want to act out their overwhelming creativity, idealism, and dangerous behavior.

Teenage Geography is the term I use to describe places where adults don't go, places where teenagers hang out in nature: under bridges, unofficial public spaces or hidden areas found on rural private property.

Most man-made features of such rural or exurban places are of industrial or municipal purpose (drainage ditches, railroad tracks, bridges, dams, quarries.) Their utilitarian qualities resonate with the idea of a larger social structure, an underlying utopian structure. The (abandoned) state of decay of these places when teens claim them only adds to a romantic sense of ownership. Other such teenage geography may not include man-made features and simply exist in a natural state; but without all the paraphernalia of teens (beer cans, cigarettes, rubbers, radios, etc.) and the absence of adult chaperones, these places just become regular rural spaces.

Tree houses and forts are related to the idea of teenage geography, but these are deliberate constructions rather than historical settings. Unlike creeks and ditches, Tree-forts and rope-swings are temporary.

Teenage hangouts like Parking lots, coffee shops, malls, convenience stores and arcades do not fit my definition of Teenage Geography because adults, although they may be unwelcome, still trump the teens as far as social hierarchy. This is because such places are still public. Teens feel a sense of power in claiming ownership to their own places.

Other characteristics of Teenage Geography:

• Rumored to be the sites of fantastic events
• Historical, generational
• Lots of things happen that teenagers don't want adults to see them doing. Dionysian, hedonistic behavior. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
• A place to project fantasies
• Connected to nature
• may also include forbidden architecture. forbidden architecture is abandoned or semi abandoned buildings. It is trespassing, but the penalty for being caught is less than it would be for an adult.
• The physical risk of going to these places is sometimes high.
• Names are mostly word-of-mouth. They might describe the physical features of the place.
• They create a sense of ownership in the teenagers who use them.
• These places are decorated with graffiti.
• These are social places, and to go to them alone strikes me as sociopathic.
• Bonfires and other ritualistic, pagan elements
• Litter and other paraphernalia (beer cans, porn mags) are left behind.
• They carry with them the spirit of discovery and secret knowledge.