It can feel wrong to encourage young people to shoot for the stars – yet if no one did, our world would be empty of the artists, actors, athletes and visionaries who give it so much pleasure and meaning
Who wants to crush a kid’s dreams? Not me. But what to say when asked by a teenager about a career in the media? With tens of thousands of media, journalism and other graduates crowding into the market every year, the chances of finding steady work, let alone stardom, are more remote than ever. There’s no advice I feel comfortable giving. Too often, I suck my teeth and tell them how hard it is, which surely invites them to wonder exactly how hard it can be if I’ve managed to pull it off. Fair point. But what’s the point encouraging them to chase something that probably isn’t there? Dispiriting.
Dispiriting too, when you encounter the opposite of a teenage dreamer: the teenage realist. A few years ago, I was being shown around a secondary school in the Black Country with various worthies. A venerable member of the Cadbury family was in our group. Tremendously tall, stooping to hear what was said, he was kind and attentive, but not of a breed recognisable to any of the kids around us. Undaunted, the head boy led our group with some aplomb. He was but 16 – the school didn’t have a sixth form. He talked to us about the school in a mature, intelligent manner, but without a trace of precocity. In his own quiet way, he was quite something. This young man will go far, I thought. With this in mind, I asked him what he wanted to go on to study. He said he was looking at doing drama at a local college.
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