History Main / TeenageWasteland

Somehow, the social order has gone all topsy-turvy. Instead of the old having power over the young, the young are free to do as they will, and may even have power over the old. This is pretty much inevitably portrayed as a bad thing, [[MostWritersAreAdults regardless of the state of the world today with the old having power]] (which of course is exactly the way it was when those who are now old were young). The young in question might attempt to [[PromotionToParent build some sort of new society]], or they might [[KidsAreCruel degenerate into]] [[TeensAreMonsters complete barbarism]], or there might be a [[OrderVersusChaos conflict between the former and the latter]]. The most famous example is ''LordOfTheFlies'', but it's not too uncommon, since it's a useful device to explain why teenagers are going on whirlwind adventures. Teenage Wasteland settings tend to be rather dark, since they often involve [[ChildSoldiers children and teenagers fighting for their lives]], and quite possibly doing horrible things to each other. ChildrenAreInnocent has no place in a Teenage Wasteland -- not all TeensAreMonsters, but in a Teenage Wasteland, you're likely to find at least some that are.

Not to be confused with RefrainFromAssuming, about songs with titles that are different from the refrain (such as the Who's "Baba O'Riley", whose repeated refrain is the TropeNamer).

Somehow, the social order has gone all topsy-turvy. Instead of the old having power over the young, the young are free to do as they will, and may even have power over the old. This is pretty much inevitably portrayed as a bad thing, [[MostWritersAreAdults regardless of the state of the world today with the old having power]] (which of course is exactly the way it was when those who are now old were young). The young in question might attempt to [[PromotionToParent build some sort of new society]], or they might [[KidsAreCruel degenerate into]] [[TeensAreMonsters complete barbarism]], or there might be a [[OrderVersusChaos conflict between the former and the latter]]. The most famous example is ''LordOfTheFlies'', but it's not too uncommon, since it's a useful device to explain why teenagers are going on whirlwind adventures. Teenage Wasteland settings tend to be rather dark, since they often involve [[ChildSoldiers children and teenagers fighting for their lives]], and quite possibly doing [[ChildrenWhoKill horrible things to each other.]] ChildrenAreInnocent has no place in a Teenage Wasteland -- not all TeensAreMonsters, but in a Teenage Wasteland, you're likely to find at least some that are.

Somehow, the social order has gone all topsy-turvy. Instead of the old having power over the young, the young are free to do as they will, and may even have power over the old. This is pretty much inevitably portrayed as a bad thing, [[MostWritersAreAdults regardless of the state of the world today with the old having power]] (which of course is exactly the way it was when those who are now old were young). The young in question might attempt to [[PromotionToParent build some sort of new society]], or they might [[KidsAreCruel degenerate into]] [[TeensAreMonsters complete barbarism]], or there might be a [[OrderVersusChaos conflict between the former and the latter]]. The most famous example is ''LordOfTheFlies'', but it's not too uncommon, since it's a useful device to explain why teenagers are going on whirlwind adventures. Teenage Wasteland settings tend to be rather dark, since they often involve [[ChildSoldiers children and teenagers fighting for their lives]], and quite possibly doing horrible things to each other. ChildrenAreInnocent has no place in a Teenage Wasteland -- not all TeensAreMonsters, but in a Teenage Wasteland, you're likely to find at least some that are.

** Thanks to the game's Infant immortality contract, instilling order the best way a socially stunted 19 year old could, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential With short range low yield nuclear devices]], is not an option, leading to the town being regarded as amongst the most aggravating as you're forced to kiss the arse of the most petulent little shit in videogame history, made worse by the dodgy child models making them look like they've been suffering from some serious inbreeding issues and the voice acting being embolism inducing. [[Wallbanger This area is required to further the main plot and every option requires you bow down to a 9 year old with a gun bigger than he is to get through a plywood barricade.]]

* In the [[{{Fighting Fantasy}}]] gamebook ''Starship Traveller'', the player can encounter a planet where the kids are in charge because the alien race suffers from extremely rapid and severe senility and dementia as soon as they reach adulthood.

* ''The Girl Who Owned A City''

* ''TheTribe''. An AfterTheEnd world where TheVirus is OnlyFatalToAdults. TheVirus doesn't actually KILL the adults - just drives them crazy, turning them into homicidal maniacs.

Somehow, the social order has gone all topsy-turvy. Instead of the old having power over the young, the young are free to do as they will, and may even have power over the old. This is pretty much inevitably portrayed as a bad thing, [[MostWritersAreAdults regardless of the state of the world today with the old having power]] (ahem). The young in question might attempt to [[PromotionToParent build some sort of new society]], or they might [[KidsAreCruel degenerate into]] [[TeensAreMonsters complete barbarism]], or there might be a [[OrderVersusChaos conflict between the former and the latter]]. The most famous example is ''LordOfTheFlies'', but it's not too uncommon, since it's a useful device to explain why teenagers are going on whirlwind adventures. Teenage Wasteland settings tend to be rather dark, since they often involve [[ChildSoldiers children and teenagers fighting for their lives]], and quite possibly doing horrible things to each other. ChildrenAreInnocent has no place in a Teenage Wasteland -- not all TeensAreMonsters, but in a Teenage Wasteland, you're likely to find at least some that are.

* ''The Warriors'' is arguably a type 3 setting, where the street gangs of New York (mostly teenagers and perhaps 20-somethings) openly rampage through the streets, even during the police's attempts at a crackdown. Cyrus, the "President" of the Gramercy Riffs, the largest and most powerful of these gangs, was attempting to unite the various gang factions to bring about a type 4.

** ''LordOfTheFlies'' is a parody of an earlier book (''CoralIsland''), but that's a ''little'' more optimistic.
*** PetPeeve of [[GermanTroper mine]]: Most of the "Kids are stranded alone" works like MugenWakuseiSURVIVE or InfiniteRivyus are actually adaptions of a book by JulesVerne called "Two Years' Vacation", at least those which are more optimistic and/or focus more on the survival aspect than on the psyche. It was [[OlderThanTheyThink written in 1888]].

** Subverted in that the captain didn't run Neverland all that well...
** Exactly how good the kids (specifically Peter) are in running things and managing themselves varies depending on the adaptation.

** Children sorting themselves into a hierarchy based on age is TruthInTelevision when different ages have the chance to mingle freely, as this troper knows from being in after-school daycare throughout elementary school. In the real world, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that kids are granted more privileges and independence as they increase in age, i.e. being older than somebody else really is worth bragging about. It doesn't make as much sense in the context of ''[[ShadesChildren Shade's Children]]'', since older kids probably aren't treated much different than younger kids by the Overlords.

* In LarryNiven's "A World Out Of Time", most of the Earth was ruled by immortal boy-children who kept a supply of grown-ups around as breeding stock (The immortal girl-children were wiped out by a gender war and environmental changes making their territory uninhabitable). All new boy-children are taken from the adults and join troupes of the immortal boys; the ones that demonstrate "superior qualities" are sent back to the adults to become new breeding adults, while the rest become immortal and stay boys forever. Girls remain with the adults and grow into new breeding adults.
** Both the boys and girls are depicted as cruel despots, but not because of their "youth"; most were far older than the adults and had the mentalities to match. They're cruel because they're powerful, ancient immortals, and cruelty is how they alleviate their boredom.

** It's {{sequel}} series, ''The New Tomorrow'', set some unspecified (but presumably quite long) period of time later, wherein the tribes are now settled in to their new world and, for the most part, more peaceful or at least more spread out. Except there are still no adults alive (surely the child survivors from ''TheTribe'' should've grown up and had kids and they too would....well, there should be * some* adults somewhere...)

** The desert domain of Sebua is home to a colony of feral children who don't grow any older, and who live like wild animals.

** Actually, it's a bunch of kids ruling the adults who enslave the kids... as opposed to the regular universe, where kids and adults are in a state of war.

# Adults simply do not exist any more. They are gone, either because the children have instigated a teenage revolution and isolated themselves from/ruthlessly slaughtered or exiled all the adults (''ChildrenOfTheCorn''), or because of something that was OnlyFatalToAdults (e.g. ''ShadesChildren'')

# Adults simply do not exist any more. They are gone, either because the children have instigated a teenage revolution and isolated themselves from/ruthlessly slaughtered or exiled all the adults (''ChildrenoftheCorn''), or because of something that was OnlyFatalToAdults (e.g. ''ShadesChildren'')

* In ''Children Of The Corn'' a group of children slaughter all the adults in their town and proceed to establish a primitive tribal society which functions at the behest of [[ReligionOfEvil a strange god]] called "He who walks behind the rows".

*** PetPeeve of [[GermanTroper mine]]: Most of the "Kids are stranded alone" works like MugenWakuseiSURVIVE or InfiniteRivyus are actually adaptions of a book by JulesVerne called "Two Years' Vacation", at least those which are more optimistic and/or focus more on the survival aspect than on the psyche. It was written 1888.

* In ''Children Of The Corn'' a group of children slaughter all the adults in their town and proceed to establish a primitive tribal society which functions at the behest of Strange God called "He who walks behind the rows".
** There was a book?!

* Heinlein's TunnelInTheSky is a type 1, but it works out because they were being taught survival technique's anyway.

* Elves in ''TalesOfTheQuestor'' die young, as a result of the loss of a priceless artifact that compensated for a poorly-formulated wish. This induced the complete collapse of their civilization.

* In ''Homestuck'', on the planet Alternia, all the adults of the troll species are shipped off to help with the imperial conquest of the galaxy, leaving only the young trolls on the planet to maintain the culture.

* The [[{{Ravenloft}} domain of Odaire]] became a TeenageWasteland when the evil puppet Maligno killed all the adults in the city, forcing the older children to fend for themselves and their young siblings. The desert domain of Sebua is home to a colony of feral children who don't grow any older, and who live like wild animals.

* An episode of ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' uses a Type 2, where the adults have been hypnotized by aliens Hellbent on taking over Earth. The kids have fun for a while but eventually come to their parents' rescue, by eating the aliens (which are basically sentient vegetables).