India has one of the youngest populations in the world, and it’s visible. So when I stepped into India for the first time in over a decade, I was excited to see how Indian teens live. There are a lot of differences and similarities that I didn’t expect. 

DIFFERENCES

• Brain-rot

I had the fantastic experience of finding out that brainrot does not exist anywhere but the US, when I asked a teen I met if she had rizz. Her response was a judgemental stare and silence. 

• Skinny Jeans

Boys in India really just love skinny jeans. The guys are usually wearing an oversized t-shirt with super faded skinny jeans. 

• Uber

For unknown reasons, most families own 1-2 cars, but don’t use them, like, ever. To get to school, most kids usually have drivers that pick them up and drop them off, or they Uber. To go out, motorcycles, Uber and walking are the most popular choices. 

• Private schools and Uniforms

The public school system is pretty poor in India, so the majority of kids go to private schools. Most kids also wear uniforms and have strict dress codes, no matter whether you go to public or private school. 

• Social Media

Tiktok is banned in India, so Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube Shorts are the most commonly used social media apps.

• Houses

Schools have literal houses like in Harry Potter. Typically, there will be four houses, (some schools refer to them as groups) and you will get randomly assigned to one in kindergarten or first grade. After that, your house will never change. Every year, there will be some school-wide competitions (academic, athletic and artistic) that every house tries to win, to get points. At the end of the year, there will be a big competition worth double or triple the points of previous competitions. Whichever house has the most points gets awards. There are team captains, vice captains, cheerleaders, etc. Most private schools do this, or something similar, every year. 

• Maids

Most families have at least one maid. These maids can be live-in (they live in your house until they quit or you fire them). Or they can come to your house, do the chores you pay them for, and then leave. From my personal experience, live-in maids usually do things like washing the dishes, cooking, or babysitting. Maids that come and go usually do things like sweeping the floors (floors in India are made of marble or polished stone).

• Low taper fades

Every guy has a low-taper fade. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many low taper fades in my life. 

SIMILARITIES

• Screenagers

Phones have taken over everywhere… the screen time averages don’t get better on the other side of the world. 

• Brands

I was somewhat surprised to see that the clothing stores that exist in the US also exist in India. In a mall I visited, there were big Birkenstock, American Eagle, Adidas and Nike stores. McDonald’s, Taco Bells and Pizza Huts lined the roads, just like they do here.  

• Spanish, French, Japanese and English

We have to take a language to graduate high school. Indian teens do too… their language options are just slightly different from us. Most Indian schools require students to learn Hindi and English, but can choose to take Sanskrit, French or one of the many languages native to India.  

• Prom

India has prom too! It’s a huge event, just like here, and they ask each other out, go dress and suit shopping, and have huge banquets. 

• Stress

I guess growing up is hard everywhere. Seniors in India have the same worry as seniors here…college. Getting into college in India is harder, due to the massive amount of people applying. The best colleges of India have around a 0.5-2% acceptance rate, smaller than Harvard and Yale’s respective 4%. 

I learned a lot of things on my journey across the world, and I will say I was surprised at how similar yet different Indian teens are from American teens. While our day to day lives are not interconnected in any way, we share similar struggles, experiences and emotions.