Written by

Alice Morton & Maisie Newman.

Seven asked City Academy students Alice Morton and Maisie Newman what it's like being a teenager in Bristol. Here's how they see things...

Teenage life in Bristol is not what it should be. Cinemas, Hollywood Bowl and shopping seem to control our lives.

With the pair of us, on average, given £6.60 a week, it is hard to find something different to do.

Additional activities, such as ice skating, for example, can make our lives even more stressed than they already are. Getting there costs about £7 (not including bus fare and lunch).

A simple way of resolving this money problem would seem to be to "find a job and make use of yourself", as our parents would say. But it's easier said than done.

Companies don't like employing people under the age of 16, an age at which we will be busy studying for our exams.

Fourteen and 15-year-olds (we are both 15) are not legally allowed to work for 40 hours a week, operate power-driven machinery and work where there is exposure to radiation, but they're not the kinds of jobs we would want to do anyway. But what's the excuse for not letting us work part-time in a shop such as, say, TK Max?

It is a shame that there isn't a wider variety of things for us to do in Bristol at a reasonable cost.

Despite our obvious resentment about this, our favourite thing in Bristol is probably the amount of festivals and carnivals that we have in our city.

With such a multicultural society, the festivals are a great way to bring the locals together and heighten our community spirit, with teenagers enjoying the waltzers at the same time. It is about the only time when we can stop wandering the streets with nothing to do, and go out and enjoy ourselves without getting into trouble.

We admit that there are places to go with your friends (for example, @Bristol, which is a fantastic day out). But after you have been there once or twice it becomes boring and tiresome, as it is just the same thing over and over again.

This means that more of our free time is being spent down the park, which we don't mind, but there is a problem. This is because if they see a group of teenagers walking around the park or down the street, older people can't help but feel intimidated. Why?

Neighbours and the older generation seem to think you're always up to no good.

Too much bad press about teenagers has made people believe we shouldn't be allowed out at night because we cause too much trouble.

Teenagers have been stereotyped as evil, underage drinking, knife- using, neighbourhood wreckers. Because of this prejudice, teenagers live up to these expectations and all it does is make things worse.

As more money and time is being spent on family days out, adult entertainment and children's activities, there are no activities for us to do.

However, the new development of Cabot Circus has given us hope.

It will mean that there will be more for us to do when in town, which means we'll stay out for longer.

Broadmead's night life will thrive and will be a lot safer for everyone.

There isn't really anywhere you can go on the spur of the moment. Everything has to be planned with precision which, to be honest, can get very annoying if it hasn't been finalised with your friends. And a good jam-packed day in the city for us is expensive, too.