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It seems that the word 'Emo' strikes fear in the heart of any parent who's child likes to wear eyeliner, drainpipe jeans and a band t-shirt. Lately it's been the cause of media concern and is pretty much slated by everyone but the people who follow it.

At the present day if you are emo you: self harm, write poetry, are depressed, wear skinny jeans, have a fringe and like bands like Fall Out Boy and Dashboard Confessional. Bit of a sweeping generalisation, don't you think? Here is where the problem lies. Because of this stereotype anyone who shows just one of those attributes is shoved firmly into the Emo box by both peers and adults alike.

Of course if you look for a link between all these you will find one. The majority of teenagers in the UK now fit quite snugly into one of two widely known stereotypes. The emos and the chavs. So it is quite easy to find a link between two very different types of people. People who do self injure are very emotional people. Poetry and music may come as a result of self harming. Which then leads on to finding out about the emo trend. It seems to me that no-one has ever thought of it this way around. We've only been told that emos self harm as a result of being emo. Surely that is not the case as one in ten teenagers are likely to self harm regardless of what music they listen to.

All I ask of you is to consider how many teenagers run up to you wailing poetry and holding out bleeding wrists on an everyday basis.Or are we just told this? Aren't they just people who have found other people who like certain things and it has evolved from there? Emo, in my opinion, is no cause for concern. I do not think people self harm because they are emo. I think people self harm and then find emo and find that they can connect with it. If the media look hard enough they can take these stereotypes and find the extremes and then exploit that to fear monger, especially among parents. It's time we looked at the cold hard evidence and saw that there is no major link between the two and in highlighting this 'problem' we are making people who do self harm less likely to seek help because they fear they will be told they are 'attention seeking'. In slating emo we are doing more harm than good and it's something that needs addressing properly not exploited by the media.

Learn more about this author, Charlotte Broad.
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