The only thing almost as overdone as teen skins are rants about teen skins. 



Let me start with the fact that I myself, HappyHour, use a teen skin. Why? Because I wanted a skin that resembled me if I were 60x32 pixel art. I had brown hair, brown eyes, a shirt, pants, sneakers, it was pretty accurate. However, this is Minecraft, I can be who ever I want to be. So I did some modifications. I still wanted some kind of resemblence, but more fantasy-like. Is this real or Fanta sea. 

So what's wrong with teen skins? What's wrong with having a skin that looks like you? The majority of teen skins out there possibly resemble about 2% of the people actually using them. They are overdone, they are taking over the Minecraft skin base. What's wrong with it? They lack originality. This is said countless times. You know. Headphones, emo hair, creeper jackets, bandanas, long blonde hair, cute clothing, etc... 

I could go on, but I won't. But I could. 

I'm never judged about the fact that I'm using a teen skin, but I think what makes it okay is that I made it myself. It still might be unoriginal in certain aspects, but not many. I don't have headphones, I don't have a creeper jacket, I did (NOTE: I've updated my skin various times since this blog was published, but it's still a teen skin haha) have longish hair and sneakers, but I wouldn't technically fit the demographic.

I like to think of some teen skins as portraits of a human non-existent. This human is rendered in a very low resolution. I have the utmost respect for the people who made these skins, but for the 20 different people using the same exact skin in the same exact server lobby, not very much so. Be original, your username is, so why not the way you present yourself? 



Look at this: 




It has almost every characteristic I mentioned above. The jacket, may or may not be a creeper. Sneakers, a must. Headphones, you can't forget them. The supposed attractive hairstyle, clean, cut, you gotta have it. A bandana? Heck yeah! 

I've never seen anybody dress like this in my life so far. But in Minecraft? Enough to fill two lifetimes. 


Let's look at the feminine side: 



Not all teen girl skins look like this, but a lot do. You got the long hair, the shorts, boots, the Vans-resembling shoes, you might have jeans, sparkly eyes, cute sweater, cute shirt, cute beanie, you know what I mean. What's wrong with this? Nothing at all, it's just overdone. 


Look at this one: 


The clothing is original, hair might still be overdone, but whoever made this skin really took the time. I like it a lot, I'd much prefer it to the other.

Sugarbun is a fantastic skinner on PMC. She makes teen skins, yet, they are amazing. Her shading is on point, her unique style flows all throughout her profile. If I were a girl, I'd go bananas over her skins. However, some of the hairstyles used, are well, overrused. But that's what we have to work with now don't we?

lantosyt, another popular skinner, did this skin I think as a parody:



It's very original, but I think he was playing with the fact that teen skins aren't original. He had an incredibly long and obnoxious title, headphones, sneakers, and even the creeper hoodie. However, none of those accessories were designed exactly how other people would traditionally. The hair style isn't like most, the sneakers are different, even the headphones look different. Everything about this skin is different.

Looking deeper into it, most teen skins in the Minecraft skinning community look like famous hot people you'd see on Tumblr or Instagram ( such as myself ;) )

Are we making these skins, to project the ideal image of ourselves? With features and clothing we would love to have (surprisingly)? Is society so narcissistic, that it has seeped into even video games? That's a whole different topic, so let's get back to the matter at hand. 

Teen skins may be spam, but I get the feeling no one would complain nearly as much if all teen skins ever made were original.
If a creeper jacket was only used once, if headphones were used once, if the same shorts were used once. If the same hairstyle was used once. If every skin was as unique as the person using it, we could all have nice things. 

There are lots of awesome teen skins out there, and there are lots of original non-teen skins too. Some are even featured in the What's Hot section now.

There is nothing wrong with teen skins. What is wrong with them, is how unoriginal they are. 

You have the right to your opinion. 

Thank you so much for reading and home page! :) (a million years ago)