Eveyrone ignore him until he turns 17 and stops being a rebellious teenager. seriously, back when I was 15, I hated being lumped into the same category of deadhead, miscreants. But despite what I thought, I wasn't. I never was 'stereotyped' as a hoodlum or anything, and you, TC, shouldn't unless you did something to deserve it. The law recognizes 18 as that "magical" number as you put it, because on average, that's when a typical person is just about fully matured, including mentally. Is everyone below 18 immature? no. Is everyone older than 18 perfectly adult-like? No. it's just an arbitrary generalization, though necessary. They can't exactly introduce a test that everyone takes when they want to legally be declared an adult. It just wouldn't work.