As one looks around an average high school, it’s notable that students have begun to take a more active role in their lives, not just in curricular events but in personal life as well. One’s well-being is now regularly attended to by younger and younger demographics.

It’s undeniable that health has emerged as an aspect of life that teenagers now begin to pay attention to. With student athleticism potentially at its core, this new focus on health in adolescence can only been seen as a good thing.

However, it seems that there is a distinction that needs to be made: has the idea of health become a trend? Do people only keep up certain regiments or eat a certain way to fit in, or maybe even to feel better about themselves?

It would certainly seem that way. Many students of this age, especially girls, frequent health-oriented establishments such as Nekter, seemingly for no other reason than to grab a bite to eat. But when put in the light that today’s generation seems to put more emphasis on staying physically ept than any other past one, there is likely a reason why.

Students also flock to gyms more normally than in years past. Whether athletes or not, many students have regular workout routines that are followed in an almost uncorrelated relationship to actual ideals of physical fitness. It’s just something people do, and little regard is placed in the routine.

If anything, the alleged trend seems more like a byproduct of the increasing amounts of pressure put on people of high school age. Things like AP tests, jobs and college applications lead students to don a faux sense of maturity, and thereby instill a need to act as an adult in social aspects of their lives as well.