With the debut of MTV's new reality show "My Super Sweet 16," viewers are treated each week to a new spoiled brat exploiting her parents' money in the hopes of having the coolest birthday bash ever. In the season opener, two La Jolla teens named Jacqueline and Lauren rent out the Hard Rock Café, practically invite their whole school, then bitch, whine and call daddy every time something doesn't go quite as planned.
Watching the show with an appalled look on her face, my roommate asked, "These people actually live within 20 minutes of us?"
Unfortunately, the answer is yes, and as the season progresses, we will continue to see how spoiled these teens really are.
In the first episode, millions of viewers tuned in just to watch 16-year-old Lauren whine about the cost of having singer Beyoncé perform ($500,000 for one hour), and act unimpressed when her dad tells her he is booking Unwritten Law to play at her party. "I'm not sure how much we are paying them, but it can't be that much. They're not that big," she tells the camera.
In the end, it's a party most high schoolers - or, for that matter, adults - only dream of, as the boys mosh, girls compare dresses and parents escort crashers to the door.
A more recent episode was filmed in Downtown San Diego. The popular dance club On Broadway was the location for another royal bash, and rumor has it things got a little out of hand; and several groups of underage kids were arrested for smoking weed, drinking in the parking lot and doing lines of coke in the bathrooms. Don't expect any of this to be on the edited show, however; MTV has a very strict anti-drug policy.
Things definitely have changed during the last few years. I remember my "sweet" 16th birthday; it was nothing like the ones filmed on MTV. I thought it was pretty cool when my parents allowed me to invite a few of my closest friends to a dance party in my garage. My 12-year-old brother played DJ and we spent the night dancing away to our favorite songs of the time (Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" and Ice Cube's "Put Your Back Into It") - basically anything that involved booties. I remember being excited when my crush of the year showed up and danced a slow song with me, and was sad when he had to leave at 1 a.m.
I was in heaven, and I couldn't have asked for anything more: I was surrounded by friends, my crush danced with me and people thought my parents, siblings and house were all really cool.
Little did I know that sex, drugs and a very adult world were waiting for me right around the corner. At that point, the only coke we had was to drink and there was nothing dirty about the dancing. Within a year of my 16th birthday, however, several friends were in rehab, one was pregnant and another had dropped out of school. But for that one night in my decorated garage we danced around, played stupid party games and acted like the kids we still were - not the adults we would too quickly become.
"My Super Sweet 16" airs 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays on MTV. Watch at your own risk.
-Maggie Grainger is a journalism junior and senior staff writer for The Daily Aztec.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.
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