While walking down the school halls you see a great diversity of people. There are the jocks, preps, nerds, popular people, and the outcasts. At first glance they are all completely different types of people. The jocks are obsessed with looking buff, for some reason always needing to prove there superiority. The preps; so incessantly upbeat while looking down their noses at other people. Nerds; too busy with school and their future to have lives. The popular people are infuriated by the nagging feeling to try and fit into the crowd as much as possible. While still keeping the tiniest morsel of individuality they have left. Lastly, the outcasts, trying their hardest to avoid eye contact, while walking hunched as if they have the entire weight of the world on their shoulders. On the surface they are as different as vampires and werewolves. However, even though they are a diverse group, each one of them is connected through a series of events and overwhelming feelings of lust; otherwise known as love in the world of tweens and teens. Who do we have to thank for what some might call an unneeded and volatile connection, why Stephanie Meyer of course, the multimillion dollar author of Twilight! Stephanie Meyer is the one we praise for delivering what we once classified as a book, to the depressed and pathetic masses of the world.

Like a swarm of new born vampires the Twilight phenomena has taken over. According to USA Today Stephanie Meyer has sold well over 22 million books since 2008. What used to be a book about distorted love, overly aggressive monsters and a way for the outcasts to keep themselves physically attached to a world where most thought they didn't belong, and mentally inside a world where even someone as shy and insecure as Bella Swan can meet the "man" of their dreams. Or for the desperate house wife whose husband is a beer drinking redneck, who could care less if the so called “love of his life” is miserable or not. It has now turned to the holy bible for girls (and a few guys looking to get lucky). All of the Twilight books are giving tweens and teens alike unrealistic expectations in their love life. Reading the book will only lead the already lonely and poor souls into depression.

Jay Fox, a writer on Yahoo Answers has this to say about the book “I didn't want to read it (because I’m a boy, and I don’t usually like that stuff). But I started reading it anyway, and I couldn't put it down. I ended up getting slightly obsessed with it, and I think I was obsessed with their passionate love for each other.” This is a perfect example of how the Twilight marketers suck you in. For those girls ages twelve to eighteen this is the ultimate fantasy, a hot guy who loves you whether you look like crap or not! But, there has to be something more than this, something deeper. Could it be that the quiet-outcast-I-don’t-like-anyone-at-school-but-secretly-have-a-crush-on-the-hottest-guy-in-my-grade, type girl is using Twilight as a way to build up enough confidence to ask that person out?

Unfortunately, unlike in Twilight a beautiful glittering man will not come and save you from your repetitive and mind-numbing life. There are however, those all too common cases where the lonely girl does get a boyfriend. He is, as far as she can tell, her “Jacob”, not quite as perfect as Edward only second best. In spite of what seems like an almost fairy tale, the minute “Jacob” loses his temper he begins to transform into his true self. All of a sudden your fairy tale of being a “Pocahontas princess,” carrying a Native American baby boy in his cradle over your shoulders is shattered with the bitter howl of a wolf. This is the start of a physically/sexually abusive relationship. According to rain.org twenty-nine percent of all girls ages twelve to seventeen are sexually abused. Funny isn't it, how this is the same age group that Stephanie Meyer writes for.

Some say the solution to this problem is to “always tell our girls to wait and never settle for second best.” This is great a great way to keep your kids out of the wrong situations. Or at least it is if your child is one of the confident (well as confidante as teenagers get) people. But, what happens when the I-don’t-care-if-people-think-I’m-a-dude-bad-dressing-doesn't-need-a-boyfriend-to-make-her-happy-girl, meets the first guy who notices her? To her this is her “Edward,” the best of the best. Will she end up “falling unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him?”(Twilight page 195) The answer to that is “yes.” Alas, the male looses interest significantly faster than the girl. If this girl was your conventional unnoticed teen/tween she would sulk, write a few depressing Facebook comments and get over it. Too bad this doesn't include our girl! At this point she is dragged so far into the Twilight fantasy that when her “Edward” finally leaves her, she bcomesan emotional wreck! This reminds you of the Myspace scandal that happened in 2007. “Megan, a 13-year-old, corresponded with Josh for more than a month before he abruptly ended their friendship, telling her he had heard she was cruel. The next day Megan committed suicide,” MS NBC news said. Megan is an illustration of how unstable and distorted the teen/tween reality truly is.

Never the less, even though there is proof to the fact that the Twilight saga does cause mental anguish to teens and tweens, people still continue to buy into the vampric fairytale that Stephanie Meyer has created. In short, I am still walking the halls watching the disease spread among the adrenaline pumped jocks, arm wrestling and show off like premature wolves. The toffee-nosed preppy people laugh their little hyena laugh as they torment another exiled student. Yes, even the mastermind nerds are blindly following the phenomena. I ask you, is it our addiction of unrealistic love that draws us in, or the fact that if a vampire can find love then so can I?