Emo Kids

When it comes to emo kids, people often think about overdramatic kids who like to cut themselves due to stress. They are often seen in middle school, high school, or even some early college. They have long hair swept to one side wearing tight dark colored clothes similar to punk styles. They were featured on South Park  as morose and apathetic  kids who were always complaining. Some parts of the stereotype about depression, oversensitivity, and cutting are true, but they are grossly exaggerated by the media.

There is much more to emo kids than just the negative stereotype. Emo originated from music from the 80’s. It had its own subculture and attitude, which many younger adults adopted. Now, due to the popularity among teenage kids, it has also become largely associated with fashion. So you could say there are three main aspects of emo – the fashion, music, and attitude.

Someone who is hardcore emo will naturally be into all three aspects very deeply starting with the attitude. The attitude is essentially about exploring very deeply one’s own emotions and inner self. Usually about turmoil, it can also be about love or any other emotions. Growing up as a teenager is a very emotional time with a wide range of different issues. Therefore, there is a lot of variety of tastes among even hardcore emo kids.

Among the non-hardcore emo kids, the variety becomes even larger. Some kids who are considered emo only dress emo or listen to a little bit of emo music. They may or may not really have the attitude or lifestyle. So you actually don’t have to really be into emo to still be called emo by a lot of people. Let’s explore the three aspects in more detail.

Emo Scene

Some kids only dress similar to those in the hardcore emo subculture. These kind of emo kids are known more accurately as scene kids. In terms of fashion, the main difference between emo kids and scene kids is that emo kids wear more black and scene kids tend to be more gaudy with hair/clothing styles and colors.

Emo Music

Emo music helps them vent or explore whatever they are facing. Some kids grow from their explorations of their feelings. Other kids are attracted to the darker kind of emo music and enter a downward spiral by causing harm to themselves emotionally and even physically.  Emo music today has a more broad definition and is often associated with rock bands which explore inner emotions deeply.

Emo Lifestyle

It is a life of introversion in which one spends most of their time in their heads. Emo kids are known to be shy and self-aware. Many of them are creative with poetry and have deep feelings about a variety of issues. They are probably right brained (think artist/activist) types that feel misunderstood by many people, because the world is predominantly left brained (think bureaucracy/politics).

To learn more about emo in general, read the What Is Emo and Emo History articles.