Amber Holt: Heroic Failure

By: Alex 

Art by Alex 

As a teenager, failure is a concept that we all know well. Between going to school and getting put down by our classmates AND teachers, and then finally getting out of school and realizing the pressure to succeed doesn’t end, failure is all too familiar to someone growing up.

Television very rarely depicts teens in this light. Today, we find many shows about teens fulfilling their dreams without complications (even more unrealistic, most of their dreams are to be pop stars). The fact that these characters are so unlikely robs kids of an outlet to show them that there is someone out there just like them. Instead, they feel alone, which is totally unfair.

One show that really does a good job at depicting teens in all of our glorious failures and gives us someone to relate to and believe in is Parenthood. On this show, Mae Whitman plays a girl named Amber Holt. Amber is on the brink of going to college, and as an intelligent, rebellious, underachiever, is under a lot of pressure to apply to schools.

And after all her hard work, Amber doesn’t get into college, and she’s forced to watch all of her friends around her get accepted to schools of their dreams and leave her behind. Amber, like a true teen, failed. She felt like she wasn’t good enough, and she could compare herself to everyone who got something she didn’t. Amber, of course, felt sad, worthless, and defeated. But, there is one moment of the show where she proves to be the most successful teen I’ve ever seen. At one point, one of her friends asks her where she decided to go to school, and Amber tells her, matter of fact yet with a little attitude, that she doesn’t know where she’s going to school because she didn’t get into school, and then she makes her triumphant exit.

At that moment, Amber did what I have wanted to do in so many situations of my life. Sometimes, we just don’t want to talk about stuff, especially stuff that we feel we’ve failed at. Amber had the courage to prove that her failures weren’t going to keep her down. She wasn’t going to dwell on something she couldn’t change. She would move on. And for me, that is so inspiring--it’s so atypical of any teen on TV or in real life.

EVERYONE fails at something. Bad people fail. Good people fail. But great people fail, move on, and try again. It’s how we measure our failures and our successes that make us who we are. It’s how we deal with what brings us down, and it’s how we turn something that makes us feel small into an opportunity to be big and realize what we really stand for.  

I’ve failed at a lot of things, but I’ve also done a lot of great things. I’ve learned from Amber that I have the power to walk away from what I’ve failed at, and I also have the power to take control and move on into a situation where I can accomplish something I’ll be proud of. Yes, teens fail a lot, but Amber has taught us that we can do much more than fail, we can have the choice to override any failure by leaving a mistake behind and moving onto a better day.