History Main / TeensAreMonsters

* ''Film/ProjectX'': A great majority of the teens qualify, but Costa deserves special mention, being sexist, racist, and perverted, among other things.

* In '' Series/{{The Glory}}'' Moon Dong-eun, when in high school, endured severe bullying from a gang led by Park Yeon-Jin, including being burned repeatedly by a curling iron, sexual harassment, and they at one point even broke into her home. Moon eventually drops out of school due to the group.
* On ''Series/{{Grimm}}'', teen werefolk tend to be this, even more than adults. Like the violinist were-rat, the sweet little were-badger (or -wolverine; some sort of mustelid), or the hybrid were-tortoise/were-lion.

** The perp in "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is a teenage gang leader who had accidentally beaten another teenager to death during a gang initiation ritual. The leader actually regrets killing the kid and admits he had honestly thought of the ritual as a gesture of affection.
** In "Last of the Watermen", Pembleton and Felton investigate the murder of an elderly woman [[TongueTrauma whose tongue had been cut out and shoved back in her mouth.]] The prime suspect turns out to be the woman's grandson; when they track him down and question him, he casually confesses that he had killed her [[ForTheEvulz for no real reason.]]
** In "The True Test", Bayliss and Lewis suspect wealthy teenager [=McPhee=] Broadman (Creator/ElijahWood) murdered another boy. They eventually uncover Broadman had been abusing younger boys to make them his willing slaves, and murdered the victim because he refused to murder Broadman's loving mother for him.
* The ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "The Jerk"'s patient of the week was a teen {{Jerkass}} that bullied his mother, insulted everyone he met just for the lulz, and was just a general all-around brat (after getting tired of all the tests, when asked for a urine sample, he pissed on the floor). his mother even used the "[[UsedToBeASweetKid he used to such a sweet kid]] till he became a teen" line. House only had his EurekaMoment discovery of the kid's illness by realizing that [[spoiler:the kid's utter jerkassery was NOT a symptom, he was just a teen A-Hole.]] He also said it was probably the mother's fault, which usually is in more real cases of bullying or teenage rebellion.

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai''. Poor Kiritaka is ruthlessly tortured by a GangOfBullies led by Nozomu Okaya. Why he was made their punching bag is because he saved a classmate for their cruel "game" of betting how long the kid would last getting strangled until he beg. And all of them are only 2nd year middle schoolers! On his 14th birthday, he's brutally kicked with a target taped on his torso and forced-feed cockroaches mix into his bento. In the middle of the night, the bullies text him a video and demand they all meet up somewhere. What was the video in question? An heavily edited porno of his "mother" with another man! The bullies have the gall to [[SlutShaming brag how "fuckable"]] [[YourMom his mom looks in the fake porn]]. When Kiritaka lets out a BigShutUp, they just laugh it off, making Okaya demand Kiritaka be the one to post the fake porno of his own mother online! When told no, Okaya gives Kiritaka a SadisticChoice, either jump off a cliff, or else the video gets posted online, with only 3 seconds to think it over. None of the bullies even have a shred of concern that he can easily die from this, brushing it off as a few broken bones. Kiritaka survived the fall, [[LookBothWays but not the truck]]. Most of the bullies seem horrified by this... only because they didn't want to get arrested, while Okaya only feels disappointed that Kiritaka's death means that he "won" and will never get to torture him again! All of this was because Okaya ''hated the look on Kiritaka's eyes''!
** Little did they know, they messed with the wrong MamaBear. Kiritaka's mother eventually finds her son's diary and flash drive showcasing all the bullying he's been put through, from ordering him to write suicidal notes for a thousand times unless he'll be ForcedToWatch a rabbit get killed by the bullies, forced to strip down, and many other beatings. [[ThatWomanIsDead Now abandoning her old life]], Maria Akeboshi plans for two years to get revenge on the bullies by being their SchoolNurse in their high school, and they're all still same sociopathic bullies.
** Tsubasa Kowase loved to beat up Kiritaka black and blue, nearly drown him, and/or record all the torture his friends would put on Kiritaka. Two years later, he gives the same treatment he gave Kiritaka to other young girls, but only targets them because he believes they're too weak to fight back. Kowase even makes money is by selling panty shots of random girls at his school to third parties. He's not above selling panty shots of elementary schoolgirls either. When his phone gets hacked and exposed all of his evil deeds, he accuses his frequent victim, Yashima, and threatens to expose her shoplifting and sex videos while he's beating her up and nearly drowns her.
** Kumiru Shikimi frequently hooks up with older, lonely singles while [[TheFakeCutie portraying herself as a sensitive, caring girl]]... before revealing that [[Really17YearsOld she's actually underage]] and [[HoneyTrap extorting massive sums of money out of her vulnerable targets in exchange for keeping the fact that they were about to sleep with a minor under wraps]] (and having her helper beat the stuffings out of them just to hammer it in). She also isolated Kiritaka from his peers by [[FrameUp making it look like he stole her gym clothes]], which everyone was too scared or too apathetic to contest (and is heavily implied to have done similar things to other students she didn't like), leaving him with no friends throughout middle school. After Maria [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine uses her own tactics against her]] and makes it look like she's trying to frame up Kinugawa, Shikimi reacts by throwing a tantrum and SkippingSchool, before sending her helper and his goons to beat up Maria [[DisproportionateRetribution for telling her that she would end up alone with that kind of attitude]].

* ''Manga/ShadowStar'' might as well be Creator/MohiroKitoh[='s=] best example on his manga usually taking very dark views of teens and tweens. The main setting is that [[{{Mons}} strange creatures called "dragonets"]] partner up with certain children, most of whom have issues with the way the adult world works, conferring upon them considerable power. Unlike other {{Mon}}-themed manga where that power would be used to protect Earth from alien or supernatural threats, many of the ''children'' become the threat themselves, turning their dragonets on each other and the adult world with horrific results. Also, as Hiro-chan's arc shows, those without dragonets have the potential to be monstrous as well.

** In "Ivan", the Skeleton Key was stolen not by the titular hacker, but by [[spoiler:a 17-year-old boy who was stalking the daughter of one of the Key's makers]].
** In "Arioch Cain", Elizabeth Keen is targeted for assassination. The backer of this assassination? [[spoiler:An angry teenage girl who believed that Keen was responsible for the terrorist attack that killed her mother.]]

* ''Series/ColdCase'' is a huge fan of this trope: plenty of the killers were teenagers at the time of their respective murders, but some episodes particularly stand out:
** "Shuffle, Ball Change" had a BigBrotherBully jealous of his younger brother's talent for dancing and the eventual approval of their hard-nosed widowed father and ultimately breaks his foot with the crutch he had been using all episode long due to a debilitating football injury then beating him to death with it.
** "Stand Up and Holler" featured two supposed best friends trying to be InWithTheInCrowd as cheerleaders for the football team. While the latter group are rapists, the former is ran by an AlphaBitch who poisons the one friend who dared try to go against her by leaving the squad and telling what the jocks did [[MurderByInaction while the pathetic wannabe "friend" leaves her to die.]]
** "That Woman" shows that it doesn't even have to be the "popular" group that is consisting of jerks: the school's "religious" group routinely breaks the rules of the group by engaging in activities like premarital sex and exploring their sexuality while also SlutShaming their newest member. They ultimately lured her into the woods fearing she would spill their secrets and participated in collectively stoning her to death.
* The high school students attending campus for a program to earn college credits in ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E22TheArtOfDiscourse The Art of Discourse]]" won't stop '''''mercilessly''''' hounding the cast for going to a community college, when they'll be one day going to universities. Strangely exaggerated; many fans felt they were too cruel to be funny.
* On one episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' there is the statement "All teenagers behave like sociopaths sometimes; that's why you can't diagnose them until they're 18." In the episode "All that Remains", a teenage girl starts to believe that her mother loved her younger sister more than her. She then murders her mother and then murders her sister a year later, and blames it all on her father, who happens to be an alcoholic and suffering from multiple personalities. JJ soon figures this out and the teenage girl points a gun at her. When Reid and Morgan come to arrest her, she tries to get out of it by claiming that she's suffering from post-traumatic stress, but they don't buy it.
** Even earlier, the episode "Elephant's Memory" focused on a boy taking his bullies hostage and shooting them, then heading into town to attack other people. [[ItsPersonal Reid's own experience with bullying]] makes him the most emotional he'd been on the show to date; he views the school staff as [[AdultsAreUseless not having done what they could to prevent the bullying and revenge]], and feels like he understands the suspect enough to talk him down.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4THeSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Stratagem"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]] features a genius teenager as an antagonist whose motivations can be boiled down to being a teenager. However, he came around in the end, sort of. Also, he had gathered a large number of other genius teenagers to him who, on hearing his real plan, were appalled and immediately abandoned him. It implied that his plans were less about his age and more that he was somewhat unstable anyway.

** The episode "Child Predator" has [[spoiler:Adam Kemper, the so-called victim of kidnapper Samuel Abbot. He actually abused his kidnapper and forced him to kidnap and kill children, then pretends to be a guilt-ridden victim of UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome to get an immunity deal for his crimes. Thankfully Sherlock pulls a RulesLawyer and get him convicted]].
** Episode "One Way To Get Off" has [[spoiler:Sean Figueroa, the illegitimate son of SerialKiller Wade Crewes, who's father convinced him to commit murders to make himself look innocent]]. He killed two couples, and a bystander who happened to be present.

* The ''Series/LawAndOrder'' franchise is fond of this one -- if there's a teenager in the episode, this trope trumps even NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize if you're trying to guess the perp at home. Especially if it's a teenage ''girl.'' Bonus evil points to a girl in ''SVU'' who [[spoiler:raped her little sister, convinced her boyfriend to rape her too, gave her an STD, got her boyfriend to kill the sister and ''another'' boy to kill ''him'']].

*** ''SVU'' in general subverts this nearly as often as they play it straight, since a number of the victims are teenagers abused by adults.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': Kuzco is a 17-year-old Incan king, and while he isn't completely evil, throughout much of the film -- until his HeelRealization -- he treats the villagers in his kingdom like shit, even having an ''[[WouldHarmASenior elderly man]]'' [[WouldHarmASenior thrown out of a window]] [[DisproportionateRetribution for the crime of "throwing off his groove"]]. His idea for an 18th birthday gift is to bulldoze a village to the ground and build a theme park -- [[ItsAllAboutMe themed around himself, of course]].

* ''Film/NeverBeenKissed'': Even though the film is mostly a comedy, the teenagers there are shown to be quite jerks; they stole Josie's car on her first day at the school and then watched on in delight while she tried to find it (and it was told to her that that wasn't the first time they did it), refused to sell a girl a prom ticket because she wasn't popular enough, tried to pour dog food on said girl at the prom and the boy that Josie was into (the student, not the teacher) deduced that she was a loser ''based on her bedroom''. Oddly enough, in spite of this behavior towards her, she eventually was able to be [[BrokenAesop accepted by the students and gleefully hung out with them.]]
* ''Series/OddGirlOut'': Another Lifetime Movie. In this one, the protagonist is bullied both inside and outside of school to the point where she cuts off her own hair (after the other teens say her hair is too frizzy) and overdoses on sleeping pills. Even after her attempted suicide, the kids would not ease up on her. They posted a video of her being wheeled into an ambulance on a hate page that was dedicated to her and called her a "pathetic druggie".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': Kuzco is a 17-year-old Incan king, and while he isn't completely evil, throughout much of the film -- until his HeelRealization -- he treats the villagers in his kingdom like shit-[[WouldHarmASenior even having an]] ''[[WouldHarmASenior elderly man]] [[DisproportionateRetribution thrown out of a window for the crime of "throwing off his groove"]]. His idea for an 18th birthday gift is to bulldoze a village to the ground and build a theme park -- [[ItsAllAboutMe themed around himself, of course]].

** %%ZCE [[SmugSnake Draco]] [[SpoiledBrat Malfoy]] and his Slytherin cronies.

* Stacey de Lacey from ''Literature/OliverAndTheSeawigs'' looks to be around his teenage years, and wants to help the Thurlstone win the seawig contest and become ruler of the living islands so he can have them under his command, and use them to get back at everyone who was mean to him. It probably doesn't help that he seemed to bring the bullying upon himself by being a pretty nasty kid himself. Plus, he has absolutely no qualms about [[spoiler:trapping Oliver's parents inside the Thurlstone's new earrings]].
* Jodee Blanco's memoir of recovering from intense bullying, ''Please Stop Laughing at Me'', turns both this and KidsAreCruel up a notch. A group of kids Jodee was friends with in a new town fall out with her after she refused to play a prank on a disabled teacher. They then come back to her over the summer, invite her to play baseball, then knock her out with a fastball, moon her, and call her a variety of names. Not only that, her crush wrote [[spoiler:"You're going to have to fuck yourself bitch"]] in her yearbook, gets beaten up by the entire football team, and is made fun of when word gets out that [[spoiler:one breast is smaller than the other]], and that's not even the half of it.
* ''Literature/{{Speak}}'' has Melinda's classmates. Heather jumping ship on her. Those kids at the pep rally. [[spoiler: And Andy Evans who raped her]].

* Ann M. Martin, best known as the creator of ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'', published a young adult novel titled ''Slam Book'' in 1987, which eerily seemed to presage the same bullying issues that would be associated with online social networks two decades later. In this case, Anna, the protagonist, falls out with her BFF, AlphaBitch Paige, over a boy, and concocts a scheme to humiliate Paige by forging slam book entries supposedly written by Paige to Cheryl, the school outcast. Anna, not even taking Cheryl's feelings into account, doesn't realize it's gone too far until [[spoiler:Cheryl commits suicide by slitting her wrists]].
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Joffrey Baratheon is only 13 years old, yet is regarded by many as the single most depraved character in the series (at least until the below-mentioned Ramsay came along).
** Gregor Clegane was barely in his teens when he burned his little brother Sandor's face after Sandor played with some of Gregor's discarded toys that Gregor didn't even want anymore. Gregor only got worse as an adult.
** Sixteen year old [[BastardBastard Ramsay Snow]] also qualifies, given how his main hobbies are flaying and hunting women for sport, and to a lesser extent nineteen-year-old Theon Greyjoy also counts, although he does bad things less because he's evil and more because he's a stupid kid that gets in way over his head. [[spoiler: Of course, that all changes when the two meet...]]
* In John Saul's ''House of Reckoning'', the main character is crippled from a car accident and the school (and the ''town'') whispers behind her back and alienates her, then accuses her of worshiping the devil. ''Because she has a limp''. Saul actually has several novels with outcast teenagers being victimized by their monstrous peers. ''The Unwanted'', ''Black Creek Crossing'' and ''Punish The Sinners'' are a few examples. Then there's Teri, the glamorous teenage serial killer in ''Second Child''.
* In Creator/AndrewVachss's Burke books the protagonist often passes by disaffected teens who may be violent, though they're rarely the focus.
* Brought up in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', but in typical Pratchett fashion, quickly subverted soon after. The Ankh Morpork teen street gangs are mentioned to be ruthless and deadly... but find themselves helpless to resist Captain Carrot's good-natured effort to organize them all into a Cub Scout equivalent, camping trips and chanting all included.
* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'', by Michael Grant. Partially justified in that the series uses an OnlyFatalToAdults situation and every main character is 14 or 15 years old. On the other hand, there are a lot more villains than heroes, and the "good" characters have issues.
* In ''Literature/TheButterflyRevolution'', John Mason rapes one of the female campers, Blackridge tortures Divordich, and [[spoiler: Stanley kills Mr. Warren.]]
* [[SmugSnake Draco]] [[SpoiledBrat Malfoy]] from ''Literature/HarryPotter'', and his Slytherin cronies.
** The young Tom Riddle is an exaggerated example, who [[spoiler: murdered his father and grandparents, framing his uncle. Opened the Chamber of Secrets, killed a girl and then blamed it all on Hagrid.]]
** For that matter, James Potter and Sirius Black were examples of this trope regarding Snape, at least during fifth year.
*** Severus wasn't their only victim. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince revealed that the Marauders got detentions for several acts of bullying and general mischief. One incident involved being one of them being apprehended and using an illegal hex on some one-note student. There's also Sirius trying to lure Severus to Werewolf Remus during a full moon with full knowledge of what Remus could have done to him.
** Snape might be an inversion because, while he didn't even seem to be mean, he had a very dark mind, with his fascination with the Dark Arts and the creation of some violent spells. This is likely what his classmates' perception of him was. However, he did hang out with a group of other Slytherins who eventually became Death Eaters which probably didn't help this perception. Though we never learn much about this gang's activities, they probably fall under this trope.
** And Dudley before the Dementors.

* ''Ashes'' by Ilsa J. Bick takes this to the extreme. In this ZombieApocalypse, an electromagnetic pulse has made most teenagers become {{Technically Living Zombie}}s and killed most adults, thus making the only survivors younger children or elderly people, who both have no problem mistrusting teenagers.
* Some of the teens in ''Literature/TheGeeksShallInheritTheEarth'' are unnecessarily cruel. [[spoiler: The leader of Danielle's hate club actually wishes that Danielle dies from the anesthesia when she goes to get dermatological surgery.]]
* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' pretty much breathes this trope. Let's just say that William Golding had no faith in the ability of human beings to solve problems [[HumansAreBastards without resorting to violence]], and showed it through the preteen and teenage characters in the book.
* ''Literature/TheScream'': The Screamers, rabid fans of metal band The Scream. One chapter ends with a list of the violent acts perpetrated by the fans, all aged 13-17. The characters also discuss [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge Khmer Rouge]] and one character points out that many of the people involved were around age 14.
* ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' has the oldest boys at Almanzo's school. Because of the time period and the rural environment, it's a mixed grade school. The older boys are sixteen and seventeen-year-olds who are rarely at school, and usually spend class talking when they are. They steal from the younger students and force the boys to fight for fun. The previous year they ended up beating a ''teacher'' so hard he died of his injuries. The new teacher gets them to behave [[CorporalPunishment by whipping them]].
* ''Literature/OnTheStreetWhereYouLive'': The police think that [[spoiler:Will Stafford]] must've been unhinged from an early age; he was fourteen when he found his great-grandfather's journal detailing his murders, but rather than be horrified and show it to an adult, [[spoiler:Will]] found it fascinating and secretly kept the journal, strongly identifying with his great-grandfather. Nearly two years later, [[spoiler:Will]] attacked a 15-year-old girl and admitted to Emily he'd been trying to kill her to replicate his great-grandfather's crimes.
* In the ''Literature/SeekerBears'' book ''Great Bear Lake'', a group of older polar bear cubs appear. They steal from weaker bears by ganging up on them, goof around when they're not supposed to, [[HollywoodAtheist mock the Spirits]], disrespect their elders, and try to fight on a day of peace. At one point they even [[spoiler:[[WouldHurtAChild kidnap a black bear cub]] so that can chase the black bears out of their territory and steal their food]].
* ''Literature/MartyPants'' has Salvadore Ack, whom Marty likes to call "Peach Fuzz" because of the mustache he has. Salvadore is a teenage bully who likes picking on Marty every chance he gets.
* ''Literature/{{Forbidden}}'': Kit, who, in his sister's words, is "your standard screwed-up teenager." Part of it has to do with his older brother being forced to [[PromotionToParent act as a parent to him]], rather than the BigBrotherMentor relationship they could have had. He does begin to improve starting in the last third or so of the book.
* In R.S. Belcher's ''King of the Road'', there's Dickie Dennis and his gang of thugs. In contrast to the "secret club" kids who are in their tweens and act even younger, Dickie Dennis and his gang are in their late teens. You know they're bad news when they [[NoodleIncident once put one of the kids in the hospital]] and in book, one of them tries to rape or at least molest [[SmurfettePrinciple Nevada, the sole girl in the "secret club"]] and another steals her beloved harmonica. Dickie Dennis and company get their MoralEventHorizon when they join a cult of killer clowns and murder and kidnap people from a kindly group of nomads. No one sheds a tear when [[CreepyGood heroic "clown"]] Emmett Wally from the Brotherhood of the Wheel, comes and kills most of the gang while trying to save the kids from them.