Teen Werewolves & Vampires...Strange Teen Trends & Ways Teenagers Express Themselves

While browing youtube for videos on werewolves, I surprisingly (and somehow not so surprisingly) stumbled upon a news channel's excerpt from San Antonio covering a story of "Teen Werewolves." I thought, oh...this should be interesting. Suffice it to say, it was most definitely interesting! I instantly enjoyed quite a hearty chuckle out of the newest trend phenomena sweeping through the middle schools and high schools in this country. Upon further research, I have found that there are many new teen cliques and groups that seem to be subgenres or subcultures of the goth and emo trends. I believe the new pop culture involving vampire teenage romances and teen werewolves has a little something to do with this teen werewolf craze.

The first and probably the weirdest teen craze I have discovered is that of the "Teen Werewolves". There is a group of teenagers located in San Antonio, TX that call themselves the "Crimson Blood Wolf Pack". These kids proclaim to be teen werewolves and even have a leader of the pack, an "alpha dog" whose name is Wolfie Blackheart. And no, that is not her real name, just what she prefers to be called by her teen werewolf followers. At first glance these teens are your typical emo-type adolescent, with black make-up around their eyes, black clothing, and long face-covering locks; however, come closer and you will see that many of them wear brightly colored contact lenses, fake fangs, and even tails! The tails hang from the top of the back of their jeans or pants and appear to be shaggy wolf tails. Still don't think that's strange? Well, I know that teenagers find absurd ways of expressing themselves, especially if they feel outcast and they don't fit into the normal teen crowds, but this teen werewolf crowd goes even further with their animalistic obsession. During an interview with the teen wolf pack, one kid unexpectedly falls back from his seat on a school bench and lets out a high-pitched "YELP!" Now I don't know about you, but as a teenager my first instinct upon falling back would not have been to yelp like a dog.

Okay, so all of this teen "wolf" thing could still be in good fun and acceptance for these teenagers, right? Well, possibly so...except for in a few grisly cases. A couple of years ago, the wolf pack's alpha dog "Wolfie" was actually under police investigation due to Internet pictures of Wolfie holding her neighbor's missing dog's severed head. Hey, I warned you it was grisly. The story goes that the neighbor's dog Rigsby had disappeared two weeks prior to the picture being discovered on the Internet. Well, Miss Wolfie admitted to severing the dog's head, but she swore up and down the the dog was "already dead" and that she would never "hurt another canine", because she is "canine". Not such an intelligent line of defense...especially since she openly admitted to cutting the dog's head off and boiling it, in an effort to further educate herself in the potential future career of taxidermy. Weird...I know.

A couple more interviews can be found on youtube of Wolfie Blackheart, as well as some of her loyal female followers (who were apparently Wolfie's lesbian lovers, too). When their parents let them out of the house, the teen werewolves convene in the woods on a full moon. To, well, howl and do other dog-like things...whatever they may be. I'm not too sure I would like to know all of the details about these teen werewolves' meetings. During Wolfie's investigation, dozens of other "teen werewolves" in the San Antonio area and all over the country posted their support of Wolfie on the Internet, most commonly on youtube. So strange how strong of an influence this girl had on these teenagers...but then again, many teenagers are just looking for a flock to follow (or pack to run with...whichever metaphor you prefer).

So after I decided that this teen werewolf phenomenon, minus the dead dog's decapitation, was relatively harmless...I found another video on youtube, posted by the same teen wolf pack in San Antonio. Apparently one of their favorite fellow pack-mates passed away just a year or so following Wolfie's animal cruelty investigation. Youtube videos claim that he committed suicide by hanging himself with his dog chain/collar. This is the same kid who is featured in one of San Antonio's local news channel's interview of the teen wolf pack (also pictured to the right), with his supportive mother stating that she finds no harm in how he dresses or who he hangs around in school...as long as he comes home and does his schoolwork and spends time with his family. Once again, I am all about free expression, but it made me wonder how the mother felt after learning that her son had taken his own life...with a dog collar. Does she blame the teen werewolf crowd that he ran with? Does she realize that her son was already depressed and may have been depressed long before he started running with the teen wolf pack? Do we blame society's pressures for a surplus of depressed and suicidal teenagers? I don't have solid answers on these questions, and I may never have resolution. I do know one thing for certain, when my daughter reaches adolescence, I will try to talk to her and let her know that she can talk to me as much as she wants. I don't want my daughter thinking that she can't talk to me about things...even if she doesn't like to.

Another teen trend on the rise is the "vampire awakening". Is anyone sensing a Twilight/Vampire Diaries pattern yet? There are entire forums consisting of confused teenagers who believe that they are "awakening" into the life of a vampire, or realizing that they have always been a vampire. This sort of reminds me of a vampire gang back in the late 90's in which the leader went on a rampage and murdered a girl's parents. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every teenager who believes they are a vampire is murderous or homicidal, I'm just drawing lines of connection and showing the extremes of teenage trends. I've also come to realize that there is a fine line (in certain cases) between a simple trend and what can turn into participation in a cult, of sorts.

So in the year of 1996, a boy by the name of Roderick Ferrell decided to create a group of friends and call it "The Vampire Clan". This group of disturbed teens lived in Murray, Kentucky and were obsessed with a role-playing game called Vampire: The Masquerade. (For the record, I don't necessarily blame the game for their irrational ways I am just stating the facts here). The gang was said to have hung out in cemeteries and exchanged blood with one another in an effort to "cross-over" into vampirism. Shortly after this "vamp clan" was formed, Ferrell led his clan to Florida and murdered his former girlfriend's elderly parents. Apparently he was caught but he proclaimed to be a very powerful and old vampire and told the police that they would never be able to keep him imprisoned. At the same time that this confused and twisted kid was having a case built against him, his mother was indicted for writing sexual content in the form of letters to some other fourteen year old kid. In the letter, she proposed for the boy to "sire" her and make her a vampire. Seems to me like the entire family was a wee bit nutty. What do you think?

Anyway, after many supposed "vampire" murderers and psychopaths throughout history, due to the romantic approach to the vampire in pop culture, teenagers seem to be the most drawn to the idea of becoming a vampire. My fellow Hubber, nmcquill, actually wrote a hub about the obsession with "Edward" from Twilight, and she mentions that teenagers seem to find favor in a means to "escape" reality by dreaming of being a vampire or simply falling in love with the idea of being a vampire. It is a way to feel like they are not under the strict rules of parents and authoritative figures...a way to feel free from restrictions of teenage life. However vampires make me feel or influence my writing, I don't believe I'm going to go around telling people that because I sunburn easily or I like to stay up late into the night that maybe I'm "awakening" into my vampire identity.

For instance, this forum - http://www.sanguinarius.org/teen_vampires.shtmlgives many accounts of real teenagers that have submitted their testimonials of what explains their "awakenings". Honestly I just found most of these hilarious...I honestly had an LMFAO moment while reading this stuff. Most of them tell a story that all show similar "symptoms", including: being very thirsty in the morning, having an urge to drink blood upon seeing it, staying up late and sleeping during the day, being easily burned by the sun, and having heightened senses. I am not saying that I believe this can't be possible or that it isn't possible, I just thought it to be a little silly. I hate judging people and I hate it when people judge others, but these "awakenings" just seemed a little fabricated in many circumstances. Apparently there are vampire clubs on the Internet that teens can join in order to feel like they fit into the vampire world. They feel "different" from everyone else, but doesn't everyone feel "different" from others at some point in their lives...especially during adolescence?

I have done a lot of thinking about it, and I believe that society and pop culture have a major impact on teenagers, no matter what crowd they hang around. The funny thing is when I was in high school we had certain groups like any other high school at the time, which consisted mainly of preps & jocks, goths & metalheads, stoners, punks, drama kids, band geeks, and emo kids (emo music had just broken really big into the music scene). We never had anyone that claimed to be supernatural or have supernatural powers...or role-play as something other than the norm. If you did a study of teenage cliques over the past fifty years, you will see that many of the types of cliques have remained the same; however, new cliques break onto the high school setting every great once in awhile...and more especially as of late.

Of course popular culture and society and the media has a great influence on teenagers, and everyone for that matter, but I do not believe that parents of depressed or confused children who turn homicidal or suicidal should place the blame on the type of music the child listens to, or the type of friends they were hanging out with. We all know that hanging with the wrong crowd can lead to trouble, but can we truly blame others for our own children's faults? Or for our own faults? Just as emo (emotional for those who don't know what that means) music influenced the beginning of the emo crowds in high schools, we can conclude that movies and books also have a large influence on how teenagers view themselves and the world around them. It's an effort to fit in, to feel like they have an identity, to feel like people like them, to feel self-confident in a world that is somewhat new and large.

In a world that can be violent and degrading, the only thing I can offer as advice (and I hope that I follow my own advice) is to let your kids know how much you love them.  Try to build up their self-esteem and let them know that they are worth something to you.  Set a good example in the beginning of their lives of what self-confidence means.