One of the keys to resolving what is fundamentally a crisis with the representation of young people in popular culture is empowerment. Popular culture is the mass media and the sense of common experience, values, and beliefs that are offered in forms as diverse as television, music, film, the Internet, video games, mobile phones, magazines, and fashion. Young people are born into a visual age. Young people need to feel empowered to reject the images around them. They believe that they are fashioning for themselves a unique identity when in reality they are putting on a prefabricated corporate and cultural mould. There is a desperate need for parents, educators, and caregivers to educate young people to be discerning in their pop culture consumption and for adults to educate themselves about what young people are consuming. It is time to turn the seduction of popular culture into a dialogue by recognizing the various forms and voices for what they are. They are partial reflections, incomplete pictures of use, young people, and the world. References