150 Relatable Teenager Quotes About Life, Love, And Being Yourself

By Nia Simone McLeod

Writer, Video Editor & Pop Culture Enthusiast

Updated November 17, 2023

Being a teenager is filled with ups, downs, and everything in between.

At Everyday Power, we have curated inspirational, relatable teen quotes to help you along the way.

In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 94% of teenagers reported using the internet daily.

By sharing inspirational teen quotes on social media platforms, we can help reach a large audience of teens and provide them with positive messages amidst the often negative aspects of the internet.

What’s Your Favorite Memory Of Being A Teenager?

From school crushes to your first job, many memorable moments come with being a teenager.

At times, being a teenager can be emotionally taxing.

You may feel like you’re carrying the world on your shoulders.

Today, we’re reminding you that you’re not alone in your experiences.

Below, we have curated teen quotes from actors, singers, and philosophers about their teenage experiences, young love, and youth.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation.

Browse our entire collection of inspirational quotes for more motivating ideas and concepts.

Teen Quotes About Being Yourself

A study by the University of Pennsylvania found that exposure to positive messages, such as inspirational teen quotes, can increase a person’s resilience in the face of stress and adversity.

By sharing these quotes with teenagers, we can help them develop a greater ability to cope with challenges in their lives.

1. “With confidence, you have won before you have started.” – Marcus Garvey

2. “We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” – Virginia Satir

3. “Always be a first-rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland

Teen Quotes about being the best version of yourself

4. “Never dull your shine for somebody else.” – Tyra Banks

5. “Take care not to listen to anyone who tells you what you can and can’t be in life.” – Meg Medina

6. “Adolescence is the conjugator of childhood and adulthood.” – Louise J. Kaplan

7. “Adolescence isn’t just about prom or wearing sparkly dresses.” – Jena Malone

Teen quotes and sayings about adolescence

8. “Youth comes but once in a lifetime.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

9. “Adolescence is just one big walking pimple.” – Carol Burnett

10. “I had teen angst for a while, but I think every teenager has the angst.” – Jamie Bell

11. “When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world.” – Elon Musk

You will also enjoy our article on quotes about choices and consequences.

12. “Don’t compromise even if it hurts to be yourself.” – Toby Keith

You will also enjoy our article on Tyler the Creator quotes.

Teen Quotes About Young Love

The Center for Adolescent Health reports that teenage depression rates have been on the rise in recent years.

By sharing teen quotes that address mental health and well-being, we can provide teens with a source of comfort and encouragement during difficult times.

13. “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.” – Aristotle

You will also enjoy our article on introduction quotes.

14. “First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.” – George Bernard Shaw

You will also enjoy our article on anchor quotes.

15. “The greatest things in life always come with a chance of great loss.” – Luke Edison

You will also enjoy our article on unforgettable memories quotes.

16. “To be inspired is great, but to inspire is an honor.” – Stacey T. Hunt

17. “Be classy. Anything but trashy.” – Coco Chanel

18. “The youth need to be enabled to become job generators from job seekers.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

19. “Keep true to the dreams of your youth.” – Friedrich Schiller

20. “We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.” – Bryan White

21. “The little-unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person’s life.” – William Wordsworth

22. “I’m so in love, every time I look at you my soul gets dizzy.” – Jaesse Tyler

23. “The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Teen quotes about the magic of first love

24. “The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous.” – Maya Angelou

If you enjoy this article, check out our collection of Gen Z quotes to help understand them better.

Teen Quotes From Celebrities

25. “Relationships take work. It isn’t true love if things go smoothly.” – S.R. Crawford

26. “It is better to love truly at seventeen than pretend at thirty.” – Rom Amor

27. “Well, I could do it for a day, but I wouldn’t want to be a teenager again. I really wouldn’t.” – Jamie Lee Curtis

28. “Don’t settle for being an option; become a priority.” – Matt Mitchell

29. “As long as I didn’t say it aloud, it wasn’t real.” – Sarah Dessen

30. “I liked being a teenager, but I would not go back for all the tea in China.” – Rob Lowe

31. “Being a teen can be tough. Just try to surround yourself with really good friends that really have your back, and also be a really good friend to those who really care about you. If you’re not sure about certain things, talk to your friends that you trust and your family.” – Victoria Justice

32. “When I look in the mirror I see the girl I was when I was growing up, with braces, crooked teeth, a baby face and a skinny body.” – Heather Locklear

33. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” – Bertrand Russell

34. “I think everybody’s weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it.” – Johnny Depp

35. “There was so much pressure to fit in, I tried to force myself to be like everyone else. The last thing any teen wants is to be ‘uncool.’” – GRiZ

Teen Quotes About Youth

36. “Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day.” – John Wooden

37. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” – Marilyn Monroe

38. “Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves.” – Virginia Satir

39. “First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the every day, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences, gestures, attitudes, a burning phrase with no context.” – Elizabeth Bowen

40. “Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.” – Samuel Ullman

41. “No other version, no matter how perfect it is, would ever feel better than being your true self.” – Edmond Mbiaka

42. “Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress, and the way to live.” – Gianni Versace

43. “As I’ve said many times, the single most oppressed class in America right now is the teenager.” – Joe Bob Briggs

44. “Trouble is, kids feel they have to shock their elders and each generation grows up into something harder to shock.” – Ben Lindsey

Powerful Teen Quotes To Inspire You

45. “The young always have the same problem — how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.” – Quentin Crisp

46. “The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” – Jalal ad-Din Rumi

47. “We’re a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness and call it love true love.” – Robert Fulghum

48. “Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you’re close in heart.” – Kay Knudsen

49. “I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.” – Robert Cormier

50. “Children, even infants, are capable of sympathy. But only after adolescence are we capable of compassion.” – Louise J. Kaplan

More Teen Quotes And Sayings

51. “I wanted to be his life preserver, the thing that would keep him afloat. Instead, he became my anchor. And I’m tired of drowning.” – Amanda Grace

52. “My teenage years were exactly what they were supposed to be. Everybody has their own path. It’s laid out for you. It’s just up to you to walk it.” – Justin Timberlake

53. “I spent the first fourteen years of my life convinced that my looks were hideous. Adolescence is painful for everyone, I know, but mine was plain weird.” – Uma Thurman

54. “You’re the queen of pushing people away before they can say they like you. The queen of rejecting first so you can’t be rejected.” – Maggie Ann Martin

55. “Once you were a winner, you had to stay the winner they expected you to be.” – Joelle Charbonneau

56. “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” – Nietzsche

57. “Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.” – Henry Ward Beecher

58. “Just thinking about you brings a smile to face, a twinkle to my eye, and a skipped beat to my heart.” – Ash Sweeney

59. “As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too.” – Johnny Depp

60. “Being a teenager is an amazing time and a hard time. It’s when you make your best friends – I have girls who will never leave my heart and I still talk to. You get the best and the worst as a teen. You have the best friendships and the worst heartbreaks.” – Sophia Bush

Teen Quotes We Can Relate To

61. “And these children that you spit on

As they try to change their worlds

Are immune to your consultations.

They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.

Changes”

― David Bowie

62. “People say teenagers think they’re immortal, and I agree with that. But I think there’s a difference between thinking you’re immortal and knowing you can survive.” – Francesca Zappia

63. “Being classy is my teenage rebellion.” – Rebecca McKinsey

64. “The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.” – Ray Bradbury

65. “I think being a teenager is such a compelling time period in your life–it gives you some of your worst scars and some of your most exhilarating moments.” – Stephanie Meyer

66. “She had been a teenager once, and she knew that, despite the apparent contradictions, a person’s teenage years lasted well into their fifties.” – Derek Landy

67. “Some are young people who don’t know who they are, what they can be or even want to be. They are afraid, but they don’t know of what. They are angry, but they don’t know at whom. They are rejected and they don’t know why. All they want is to be somebody. ” – Thomas S. Monson

68.” Teenage hearts are raw and new, fast and fierce, and they do not know their own strength.” – Catherynne M. Valente

69. “Life is a process during which one initially gets less and less dependent, independent, and then more and more dependent.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

70. Family and friends and faith are the most important things in your life and you should be building friendships.”- Barbara Bush

Relatable Teen Quotes About High School

71. “High school is such a small part of your life. So why change your life for it? Who cares what people think of you.” – Unknown

72. “I think everyone feels lost at times during their high school years.” – Linda Cardellini

73. “Let’s face it. No kid in high school feels as though they fit in.” – Stephen King

74. “High school will always be a drama zone. It takes the strongest and smartest to know how to avoid it.” – Mia Lugo

75. “It’s only kids in high school who are convinced they’re never going to change. There’s always going to be a pep rally and there’s always going to be a spectator bus, somewhere out there in the future.” – Stephen King

76. “High school for me was not all that fun. I think it’s a lot more fun after when you realize that high school ends, and everything that’s important at that time is sort of not important if people don’t like your jeans or whatever. It doesn’t matter.” – Leighton Meester

77. “There’s a big world out there. Bigger than prom, bigger than high school, and it won’t matter if you were the prom queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd.” – Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore)

78. “It is hard to convince a high school student that he will encounter a lot of problems more difficult than those of algebra and geometry.” – Edgar W. Howe

79. “High school wasn’t a trial by fire or some ordeal that had to be survived. It was all a big joke. You just had to provide the laugh track.” – Scott Westerfield

80. “Students get diplomas when they graduate from high school, but I think they should also get diplomas for simply surviving the teen years.” – Melanie Willard, Dare to be Raw

For more inspiration, also check out our collection of quotes for kids about success.

Teen Quotes That Are So True And Relatable

81. “Don’t worry if people think you’re crazy. You are crazy. You have that kind of intoxicating insanity that lets other people dream outside of the lines and become who they’re destined to be.” ― Jennifer Elisabeth

82. “Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.” ― J.B. Priestley

83. “Let your inner DORK shine through.” ― Rachel Renée Russell

84. “The invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in which people get to stay out late but don’t have to pay taxes – naturally, no one wants to live any other way.” ― Judith Martin

85. “I have this sense that I didn’t really start growing up until my twenties.” ― Winona Ryder

86. “So many people try to grow up too fast, and it’s not fun! You should stay a kid as long as possible!” ― Vanessa Hudgens

87. “I mean, I’m pretty good in real life, but sometimes people seem surprised that I’m like a normal teenager and wear black nail polish and I’m just a little bit more edgy than the person I play on television.” ― Brittany Snow

88. “Nobody understands anyone 18, including those who are 18.” ― Jim Bishop

89. “Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.” ― Anita Brookner

90. “I was a quiet teenager, introverted, full of angst.” ― Nigella Lawson

Teen Quotes About Being Young And Carefree

91. “When you become a teenager, you step onto a bridge. You may already be on it. The opposite shore is adulthood. Childhood lies behind. The bridge is made of wood. As you cross, it burns behind you.” ― Gail Carson Levine

92. “One of the cruelties of teenage hood is that you’ll never know what your parents were really like at your age, and they’ll never accurately remember.” ― Una LaMarche

93. “Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves.” ― Virginia Satir

94. “Telling a teenager the facts of life is like giving a fish a bath.” ― Arnold H. Glasow

95. “All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.” ― Joan Chen

96. “To an adolescent, there is nothing in the world more embarrassing than a parent.” ― Dave Barry

97. “As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.” ― Fran Lebowitz

98. “At the age of 16 I was already dreaming of having a baby because I felt myself to be an adult, but my mum forbid it. Right now, I feel like a teenager and I want to have fun for one or two more years before starting a family.” ― Milla Jovovich

99. “I think you go through a period as a teenager of being quite cool and unaffected by things.” ― Miranda Otto

100. “I got through my teen years by being a bit of a clown.” ― Diane Cilento

Teen Quotes To Establish A Good Union

101. “When it comes to their behavior, teenagers will most likely be more influenced by their friends more than anybody else.” — Mary Appleton

102. “It may seem like common sense but remember with the naive teens anything may happen so don’t wait for it to happen instead communicate early to ensure their safety.” — Ellen Trump

103. “When we regard teens with a positive, optimistic attitude, they give us their best.” — Lucie Hemmen

104. “Teaching is a skill that is unique. Teachers play an important role in our society, they influence our children, our teens, and ourselves.” — Catherine Pulsifer

105. “If you are a parent and you are asked to think about difficult people at home, you probably automatically think about your teenage kids.” — Malcom Rockwood

106. “Relationships mold us into who we are as children, teenagers, and adults. Each phase of life brings changes in the relationships of those around us.” — Cindy Hyde

107. “It’s not easy parenting a teen girl. It”s not easy being a teen girl either. You’re not alone if you find parenting your teenage daughter a challenge.” — Sarah Booker

108. “If every hour spent with your child makes them more confident and obedient in their teenage years, how many hours would you try to spend with them?” — V. Noot

109. “It is important to spend time with your teenager, and to show them that you are open to talk, to listen, and to work out things together.” — Mary Appleton

110. “Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.” — Doug Larson

Teen Quotes About Their Passions At A Young Age

111. “In your teens, you think you know everything, and you know nothing. By your thirties, you’re sure you know nothing, but you’re happy with that.” — Tea Leoni

112. “Being a teenager and figuring out who you are is hard enough without someone attacking you.” — Ellen DeGeneres

113. “I would not encourage children or teens to multitask because we don’t know where those efforts may lead.” — Marilyn vos Savant

114. “Like the teens I worked with, I understood the need for miracles–they kept reality from paralyzing you.” — Jodi Picoult

115. “You can determine the kind of life you will have in your 30s and 40s by what you do in your teens.” — Gordon B. Hinckley

116. “Oh the innocent girl in her maiden teens knows perfectly well what everything means.” — D. H. Lawrence

117. “Just after I entered my teens I suddenly entertained an insatiable enthusiasm for the delightful habit of criticizing others.” — Loretta Young

118. “Teens are always shown as one dimensional. They’re stereotyped. When I was in high school, I cared about more than getting a date or making the team.” — Jared Leto

119. “I’ve always loved punk music, since I was in my early teens, since middle school.” — Anton Yelchin

120. “I had a really intense flying dream most of my childhood into my teens. I would go out at night and fly all over the city and I could facilitate other people to fly with me.” — Dee Dee Ramone

Teen Quotes To Give Strength To Face The Ups And Down In Life

121. “Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.” — Coco Chanel

122. “Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.” — Earl Wilson

123.“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.” — Mark Twain

124. “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age eighteen.” — Albert Einstein

125.“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln

126. “Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it.” — Brigitte Bardot

127. “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” — Betty Friedan

128. “I wish all teenagers could filter through songs instead of turning to drugs and alcohol.” — Taylor Swift

129. “Young people willing to push super hard to make something happen are among the most powerful forces in the world.” — Sam Altman

130. “Live your life like you are 80 years old looking back on your teenage years.” — Taylor Swift

Teen Quotes To Help You Understand Them Better

131. “Teenagers learn best by doing things, they learn best in teams and they learn best by doing things for real all the opposite of what mainstream schooling actually does.” — Geoff Mulgan

132. “Feelings change fast when you’re a teenager.” — Jacquelyn Mitchard

133. “Bribes are the glue that’s kept teenagers and parents connected for generations.” — Gayle Forman

134. “It happens to many teenagers-that moment when you feel full of resentment or distrust for those adults you once loved unquestioningly.” — John Irving

135. “Teenagers are people who act like babies if they’re not treated like adults!” — Harvey Kurtzman

136. “Teenagers. Everything is so apocalyptic.” — Kami Garcia

137. “I think that no matter what you’re doing as a teenager, you’re going to be presented with peer pressure.” — Sara Paxton

138. “Everything about being a teenager and not feeling like you fit in is just magnified by being a mutant!” — Anna Paquin

139. “These teenager looks aren’t going to last forever, and that there are much better foundation to build a life upon than how attractive you are.” — David Levithan

140. “If you want to have a more pleasant,cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.” — Stephen Covey

Teen Quotes To Understand Their Emotions Better

141. “The teen years are a time of testing and trying on different versions of ourselves.” ― Oprah Winfrey

142. “I think it’s too bad when teenagers become conformist in terms of fashion,because it’s the ideal time to go off into your own crazy thing without looking completely idiotic.” ― Clemence Poesy

143. “When you’re teenager, your hormones and your emotions are so tumultuous and so unpredictable. You’re just trying to understand yourself.” ― Penelope Mitchell

144. “I have wanted to have a baby since I was a teenager, but it frightens me. It is much easier to have a dog.” ― Carmen Electra

145. “When you give directives to a child, especially a teenager, you must consider the nature of your child.” ― Zig Ziglar

146. “All teenagers want to rebel a little and break away. But I think you are always going to want to go back to your parents for that safety they provide.” ― Saoirse Ronan

147. “I was 13 and a teenager, as well. When you’re that age, you want to be an adult, in a way, but you don’t want to have the responsibilities of an adult. You still want to have the freedom.” ― Elle Fanning

148. “Impressing a bunch of snooty teenagers is a pretty lame life goal to have.” ― Vera Brosgol

149. “I don’t know any teenager with a positive attitude.” ― Gabourey Sidibe

150. “I don’t keep a journal anymore. I did when I was a teenager, but now because I write about it all in my songs, that’s what I’m really doing.” ― Lucinda Williams