277 Members of Youth

Kat Coffee Company, Chelsea What three words would you use to describe what troubled you during your adolescence? Confidence, importance, and competitive. Confidence I guess is about lack of confidence? Both. Lack of confidence in how I portray myself. I think that’s very natural for people growing up, but I think I knew who I wanted to be. I always wanted to wear the sort of clothes I wear now, but when you’re a 14 year old you can’t really wear this sort of thing and not look weird. You know when you see a kid in a suit and everyone’s like “aww, they’re so cute”. I didn’t want to be seen as cute, but it’s quite difficult for a kid to dress nicely and not be deemed as either weird or cute. But then I had overconfidence academically and in hobbies. I wouldn’t be able to live up to the expectations I set myself. Is that to do with confidence? I’d say so. I’ve been told that I’m very hubristic, which isn’t something I liked about myself, but I’ve come to terms with it. It’s never nice wh...

Royal Quarter, Buckingham Gate What three words would you use to describe what troubled you during your adolescence? Education, complying, and sleep. Sleep ? It’s not the deepest thing but if I’m thinking back to what troubled me day-to-day, yeah it was lack of sleep. It took over my life in a way. In the evenings I’d start anticipating the night, because I knew it was going to be painful; I’d just lay there overthinking for hours before falling asleep. Even before teenage years it was a big problem for me. I remember going to my doctor about it when I was around 13 and them saying “it’s probably just a hormone thing” or something to that extent. That annoys me even to this day. (Chuckles) Hearing him say that was the start and end of my teenage angst. Do you know the reason for the sleeping issues now? Underlying stress if I had to guess. Before age 13 too? Yeah, all my childhood maybe. I’m not going to pretend like I was the child prodigy of pressure, but I was way ahead of my years ...

Flat White, Berwick Street What three words would you use to describe what troubled you during your adolescence? Pressure, wealth, and maturity. Were your family well-off? Oh yeah, hugely. I grew up in a house in an infamously expensive part of central London. I had a boater hat at school, what more do you need? Do you remember being aware of your family’s wealth? Umm... it’s hard to remember. There was this day when I was about 10 when I asked my mum about beggars and why she never gave them anything, and she sat me down and gave me this speech about having money and the responsibility we had to maintain it or something like that. That was my Tory birds-and-bees talk. Money was a taboo subject though from what I remember - and I don’t remember a whole lot from my childhood before turning 12 to be honest. Were you ever embarrassed by being born into wealth? (Sighs) Wow… Now I am. Back then no. I suppose I was unaware to an extent. Like of course I knew we had money, but so did everyone...

Costa Coffee, New Oxford Street What three words would you use to describe what troubled you during your adolescence? Integration, affection, and adulthood. Integration's a good word choice. Yeah, I don't care so much now, but for me between 10 and 15 it was a big part of what I was worried about. It sounds like I just mean social integration, but I also mean feeling like you're part of something. When you're at that age you don't have much else to worry about. Integration is a major factor of life. Everyone's life at that point is in the same structure; you might go a different school in different place, but you're still going to school, you know? I think integration is a universal thing to think about at that point. Towards the end of that period though, around age 16, it morphed from wanting social integration to wanting affection. Affection from who? Having a relationship basically. It's basic in a way, but I always imagined I'd have a relationsh...

Hayward Gallery What three words would you use to describe what troubled you during your adolescence? Performance, standards, and comparison. When you were younger was there ever a point where you looked forward to school? Yeah, school wasn't hell. I looked forward to friends, I looked forward to English, I looked forward to showing off... What do you mean? I used to be an athlete. I mean … I was the best. (Chuckles) I'm not going to deny that. I got all the acclaim for my physical abilities - I think I was really put on a pedestal. Being in a primarily black environment, being able to run gave me a lot of clout. I was part of the gifted and talented group, like, I did well. So yeah, it benefitted me and I could take pride and joy from that part of school.  It sounds like you were quite popular. No, I wasn't popular. Were you liked? Fairly. I would never say I was “popular” though. I was only popular with the shy people who wouldn't have been approached by others. But b...

GAIL's Bakery,  Kensington High Street What three words would you use to describe what troubled you during your adolescence? Love, anxiety, and self-destruction. Do you mean romantic love?  Yeah, I was a hopeless romantic. And I still am, let's be real.  Were you in any relationships when you were a teenager?  Oh mate, loads. There were jokes about me dating any girl who made eye contact with me. There was this one girl who I fell in love with. It still messes with me, like I'm still in love with her I think. But it isn't real, you know? You're so pumped on hormones at that time in our lives that you get those deep emotions that mess you up forever. You know what I mean?  All emotions are exaggerated when you're a teenager, good and bad.  Yeah, and people say "oh, young love this, young love that." Young love sets up your expectations of every other relationship you're going to have. That's what it does.  Are you saying you don't think you...