Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Confess The Biggest Mistake From Their Teenage Years

People Confess The Biggest Mistake From Their Teenage Years
silhouette of jumping people

People make mistakes their whole lives; it's just a fact.

But it's always true that those mistakes happen more often, and usually on a larger scale when you're a teenager.

That's because, once you become a teenager, you feel grown up and invincible, when the truth is, you're still learning, still growing, and still human.

Even the most successful and put-together people can look back on their teen years and cringe at the mistakes they made.

When I was a teenager, I made horrible choices, from stealing my mother's credit card to letting my wild child best friend shear off my hair. At least I learned my lesson!


Curious about mistakes others made in their teen years, a Redditor asked:

"what was your biggest Teenage mistake?"

Some of the responses were wild!

Ouch!

"Doing an unsuccessful backflip on a trampoline"

– TamaraVargasFR

Brush, Brush, Brush Your Teeth

"Not taking better care of my teeth"

– LedTasso69

"Honestly if there are any teenagers in here who don’t understand this yet, please know that your teeth will fall apart if not taken care of properly. You will pay for it and it won’t be fun at all."

– SoothsayerRecompense

If Only You Knew

"Sold $200 worth of Bitcoins to a friend for tickets to a music festival back in 2011."

– Spaceman_Beard

"Now THAT is a worthy regret. I don’t know exactly how much that would be worth now but I’m thinking a minimum a decent 6-figure amount and maybe even as much as 7 figures. Maybe I’m even underestimating it."

– FightPhoe93

The Inevitable Car Stories

"I took my uncle's beautiful restored classic car for a drive when I didn't have a license and got it impounded."

– throwawaysmetoo

"How many fingers of yours did he break?"

– koloros

"I wrecked my cousins new car & didn’t have my license yet."

– Golfnpickle

The One That Got Away

"Not getting the hint that my friend, the beautiful Patricia, wanted to be WAY more than friends."

– dwane1972

"Her name was Kate and 15 years later , I can pin point the exact second I should have kissed her on the beach."

– aussie_nobody

"I did the same mistake, except it was with a Sarah. She was gorgeous and probably well out of my chubby nerd friend zone league, but we shared the same bench in school for five years and knew us quite well. She was at my place once. Spontaneously, it wasn't. It was a mess. She fell back on my bed and said it smelled so good. I thought it was dirty because it was long overdue to change the blankets. I think I ruined my chance right there and then."

"I always wanted to ask her about that time, maybe when we would meet on a class reunion, if the chance would have come up at least, but unfortunately she died last year under unclear circumstances."

– DividedState

Life Of Crime

"I robbed a gas station. ⛽️"

– pauluzu

"How did that go?"

– harlotScarlett

"Considering the gas prices nowadays it's propably like robbing multiple banks"

– LordoftheDimension

We Couldn't Have Been Warned Away

"Marrying my 18-year-old self to a 40-year-old who'd been grooming me for three years, just to spite my mother."

0/10, would not recommend."

– Late_Again68

"I have a friend who did exactly the same thing. But no one could have told her differently. I tried, her family... now she has 5 kids and is recently divorced. At least she got out."

– Decent-Obligation-43

School Is Serious

"Treating highschool as a obligation and not a opportunity. Not just social but economical gains and your own development are way greater effected by how you view your highschool years."

– likea_yeti

"maybe every day or at least every other day i think to my self “i wish i would have taken high school way more seriously, and not just gone through the motions.” This will be a HUGE point of emphasis on my raising my son."

– kingnt3

Be Like The Cool Kids

"Getting addicted to smoking very early"

– SuvenPan

"Same man, I started smoking around 13 and am still trying to quit nicotine now at 25. I can barely run a mile despite being in generally decent shape from a physique and strength perspective, and my resting heart rate is over 100. I know I’ve still got time to undo a lot of the damage, but does it suck to know how deep a hole I’ve dug myself because I wanted to fit it with some “cool” kids and then developed an addiction as a crutch to avoid dealing with my mental health."

– impossiblyirrelevant

Money, Money, Money

"Spending a large inheritance I got when I was 18 in 2009. Could of owned a property outright by now"

bKingas

"I blew through one at 21 and was kicking myself for years."

– nelsonalgrencametome

"This is why I will make any large inheritance to young family members a trust. You can't spend it all at once and it won't get fully released until 30 when hopefully you've got yourself together."

– passed_turing_test

Those teenage years can be hard. The important thing is, you recognize your mistakes and learn from them.

Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshots from ​@Parksyyyyy's TikTok video
@Parksyyyyy/TikTok

Family Called Out For Pranking Family Member's New Fiancée Into Thinking They Run A 10k Every Thanksgiving

Most of us have been in a serious enough relationship that we had the chance to meet our partner's siblings, parents, and possibly other family members.

We can all attest to how nerve-wracking that moment was and the pressure we inevitably felt to impress our partner's family and try to "fit in."

Keep ReadingShow less
Radoslaw Sikorski; Elon Musk
Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Just Epically Ripped Elon Musk After Musk Called To 'Abolish The EU'

Billionaire Elon Musk was mocked by Polish Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski after Musk called for the European Union to be abolished.

Musk spoke out after an EU decision to penalize X with a €120 million fine (about $140 million) over what regulators described as a misleading use of blue checkmarks and insufficient transparency in the platform’s advertising database.

Keep ReadingShow less
Miss Harris in season 5 of "Stranger Things"
Netflix

'Stranger Things' Creator Shares Sweet Connection To Actor Who Plays Teacher In Final Season

The fifth and final season of Netflix's blockbuster Stranger Things dropped its first four episodes (Volume One) over Thanksgiving weekend, just in time for people to digest from their Turkey dinners.

The hugely popular sci-fi show launched its final season with record viewership. Over the course of Stranger Things' five seasons, several notable actors have made appearances alongside the main cast, including Sean Astin, Matthew Modine, and Paul Reiser.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tim Allen in 'The Santa Clauses'
Disney

Conservative Tries To Claim Disney+ Show Is Somehow Satanic Due To Joke—And Gets Instantly Fact-Checked

It's the holidays again, which of course means the yearly tradition of Christians having a meltdown about supposedly being persecuted by the existence of non-Jesusy Christmas stuff is back with a vengeance.

But the latest flap online is really a doozy in its audacity both because it's incredibly dumb and also a lie, obviously posted as a purposeful attempt to get attention.

Keep ReadingShow less
Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge; nativity scene outside a church
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images; John Nordell/Getty Images

Massachusetts Catholic Church Angers Conservatives With Its Brutal ICE-Themed Nativity Scene

The Christian Bible teaches that the Holy Family—Joseph, Mary, and Jesus—were residents of the Herodian ruled Nazareth, Galilee. Having traveled back to Joseph's ancestral home—Roman ruled Bethlehem, Judea—for the census, Mary and Joseph, in modern American parlance, would have been homeless immigrants/tourists having an "anchor baby" at the time of Jesus' birth.

While Joseph considered Galilee his immediate family's home, the trio would eventually flee to Egypt as refugees to escape from King Herod.

Keep ReadingShow less