Maybe it's the massive success of shows like Gossip Girl [1] and The O.C.. Maybe it's because Juno [2] was so endearing and filmmakers are desperate to make "the next Juno." Maybe it is, as I mused in my review of the documentary American Teen [3], simply that people are often interested in stories about teenagers because everyone can relate to the experience of going through adolescence. Whatever the reason, teens are ruling the movies these days.

Today alone there are several news items having to do with The Kids Today. Check it out:

• I've been psyched about the comedy Youth in Revolt [4], starring Michael Cera, ever since I first caught wind of it [5] back in August. Yet again Cera plays an awkward teen, lovestruck and bumbling. Today there's news of a director climbing aboard [6] the project: Miguel Arteta [7], most known for having directed The Good Girl, though he has also helmed episodes of Ugly Betty, The Office and Freaks and Geeks.

More points on why the kids are alright if you .

• Care to guess who will play Hayden Panettierre's clueless boyfriend in the teen comedy Daydream Nation [8]? None other than Kieran Culkin, brother of Maccauley. Not much else is known about the project besides that Hayden will play an "acerbic teen" and they want it to be a "coming-of-age story for the 21st century . . . an intellectual comedy a la Juno and Election." Can Hayden pull off acerbic? I guess we'll find out.
• This one's a little disturbing: Lizabeth Zindel's novel Girl of the Moment [9] has gotten the green light for film adaptation [10]. The comedy follows "a teen girl who lands a once-in-a-lifetime chance to intern for a famous teen starlet, thrusting the heroine into a glamorous and catty inner world of young celebrity." That's not the disturbing part, however. Variety continues with this quote from producer Richard Gladstein:
  

  "There was a survey done by the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse U. that found that 43.4% of teen girls wanted to become celebrity personal assistants. They chose this option twice as often as being president of a college, three times more often than U.S. senator and four times more than chief executive of a major company."

  Does anyone else find this to be disconcerting?

Source [11] and source [12]