A teenager in the 50's hardly knew she was a teenager because the word was not in common currency. I was brought up with my parents' high expectations, so first and foremost I did my homework diligently, achieved good Highers and a University bursary. Most of my friends were expected to go on to University or some other form of Higher Education - and for the most past, they did. Apart from school work, I would walk the dog and enjoyed meeting my friends for a game of tennis. I wasn't much good at it, but could make up a four. In summer we'd play well into the evening and I would ride home on my faithful bike. No-one ever suggested that I wasn't safe going out and about on my own. We could safely use buses to go to the neighbouring town where there were better shops (Woolworths!) and cinemas. In summer we had a wonderful beach and a huge open-air tidal swimming pool, much frequented after school.
. My teenage GC do have a reasonable amount of freedom, but I know that my DiL has a tracker on DGS 2's phone as he has sometimes kept 'undesirable' company. Lockdown has been hard on all of them, though GD(now 18) has a motor bike and her brother has a moped, so they have been able to get about as much as permissible. Public transport is nothing like as easily available to them as it was for me and their leisure activities, like Army Cadets, have been on the back burner. Now exercise opportunities are again opening up and GS, 13, will be able at last to attend tennis coaching on Saturdays.
Now I've thought about it, I did have a good life in my teens - always plenty to do, freedom to do it and no serious qualms about the future. As Harold McMillan said, '(we) never had it so good'.
By the end of the decade, teenagers were to the fore. Elvis, Cliff and - a few years later - the Beatles and their ilk created an audience and a market that had not previously existed.