You know, being a parent really does change everything. When I was a teenager, I thought I should take literally any job offered to me. Today, I realize that a lot of those jobs are not worth the money they pay.
Some jobs for teens are great. Others are predatory, taking advantage of teenage naivete and dire lack of common sense. As a parent, there are certain jobs I think are too dangerous for teenagers to take.
You might be surprised at which jobs are actually the most dangerous for teenagers. If you’re a parent, you may want to sit your teen down if they say they just got any of these jobs below.
The Most Dangerous Jobs For Teens
Let’s start talking about the jobs no teenager should have, okay?
#1: Exotic Dancer
So, you might be wondering why this is on this list. Teenagers aren’t allowed to be dancers, right? Wrong. It’s alarming but it’s true. Depending on where you live, teens as young as 15 or 16 can actually be legally allowed to work as strippers.
I want to point out something alarming: in many states, it’s legal for people under the age of 18 to become exotic dancers. How do I know? I met someone who stripped for money when she was a junior in high school and it messed her life up immeasurably.
This article talks about how legal loopholes are often exploited by unsavory club owners. As both a parent and person with common sense, you owe it to society to report and expose clubs that employ people under the age of 18.
The dangers that come with this job are fairly obvious. So speak up if you see something happen in a club and support legislation that helps ban workers under 18 from working in adult entertainment venues.
PRO TIP – Parents, please know where you kid goes for work. If they just “go somewhere” and show up with a lot of cash, please insist on seeing where they work. Don’t just take their word for it.
#2: Pizza Delivery/Delivery In General
Ah yes! The ol’ high school job of being a delivery person. It’s a classic job, right? You might want to think twice about letting your kiddo do this as a part-time job. It’s a downright scary job depending on where you need to deliver the food.
Believe it or not, Vice noted that pizza delivery staffers tend to have some of the highest injury rates in the workforce. It’s not just the risk of getting into a car accident, either. Delivery guys (and gals) run a higher risk of getting robbed, assaulted, or even shot by sketchy people.
Considering how low the wages are for pizza delivery, this should be a no-go for parents. The risk isn’t worth the reward in most neighborhoods.
#3: Door-to-Door Sales
While we’re on the topic of dangerous jobs for teens, it’s important to point out that almost any job that requires you to go to a large number of random peoples’ homes will be dangerous. This is one of the top reasons why door-to-door sales is starting to die out.
The first safety issue comes from teenagers dealing with paranoid homeowners. In recent years, people have become far more aggressive when it comes to guarding their property. Depending on where you live, homeowners might claim “Castle Laws” will give them the right to shoot someone for just knocking on the front door.
This isn’t a hypothetical situation, either. One teenager recently died because they knocked on the door of a person who assumed they were trying to rob him. The killer is using Castle Laws, which state that you have a right to defend your property with physical force, as his excuse. Another salesperson on Reddit also discussed having a gun pointed at them by a homeowner.
But, it’s not just paranoid homeowners you have to worry about. Young women, in particular, have been warned to stay away from door-to-door sales because of past cases that involved homeowners assaulting, raping, and threatening them.
Moreover, there’s growing evidence that suggests that door-to-door sales companies are generally very sketchy. Some door-to-door sales crews have been linked to forced labor trafficking organizations. So please, don’t let your kid get involved with this type of malarkey.
#4: Construction
So, I’m actually kind of split on this. For a lot of families, teenage sons getting construction jobs is a rite of passage. It actually can be a good way to get kids into the family business and give them a reliable trade career.
On the other hand, it’s common knowledge that construction jobs have some of the highest death rates among all careers. If you are a parent in construction and can work right beside your teenage son or daughter, why not?
I suppose this is one of those career paths where a parent truly knows what’s best. It’s one of the best-paying jobs for teens as well as one of the best jobs for high school dropouts. However, it’ one of the worst jobs for teens in terms of safety.
#5: Modeling
Modeling!? On this list? In theory, modeling should be one of the best jobs for teens. In practice, modeling is one of the most dangerous jobs for teenagers and one of the worst jobs for teenagers with self-esteem problems.
As someone who has worked both in front of the camera and behind the scenes in the modeling world, I can tell you that modeling agencies are absolutely brutal to kids. Since working in the industry, here’s what I’ve seen happen:
- Eating disorders, lots of eating disorders. Around the time I was a runway model, one of the top models in the world died on the runway from starvation. Literally. On the catwalk. I had a severe eating disorder as well.
- Self-esteem issues leading to psychological problems. If you have ever dated a model, you likely have noticed most of them have guttered self-esteems. Modeling agencies will pick apart the smallest flaws in a model and expect them to grin and bear it. I remembered what a model from Wilhelmina once told me, “If they berate you, that means they think you have promise and need to work on it. Otherwise, they won’t give you the time of day.”
- Sexual assault. I was actually warned not to work with child modeling agents or as a booker because of how so many acts were decided behind closed doors. To put it lightly, i was told what happened with Dan Schneider at Nickelodeon was the rule rather than the exception.
- Educational abuse. Adult-style runway models are not scouted at 18. They start scouting at 13 to 14 years of age, with the oldest ones getting gigs at 22 years old. This means you have a small window of time to make a name for yourself, traditionally speaking. A lot of top models are quietly discouraged from attending school or going to college when they turn 18. Guess what happens when their looks run out…
Parents, do not let your kids become models. Please.
#6: Content Creators/Influencers
If you are a parent who thinks your kid has “star quality” for YouTube, please do not be a #momager. Do not make them pursue this full-time. Do not make them into influencers and pressure them into videos, make them record stuff, or manage their YouTube channnels.
In recent years, child content creators and kidfluencers have become increasingly stigmatized because of the damage it does to kids. A lot of family vloggers (including the notorious Ruby Franke 8 Passengers family) push their kids to the point of abusing them as a way to get content.
The link between child abuse, overworking, and child exploitation is very known by now. There is even a new series on Netflix detailing the bad side of the family vlogging/kidfluencer world called Bad Influence.
As scary as it is for me to say, kidfluencers and family vlogging stars are the most exploited, unprotected acts in the mainstream world. That makes content creation the most dangerous job for teenagers that still gets mainstream acceptance.
Child models have more protections than child influencers and child content creators do. The same can be said of child actors. Most child actors still get abused, too. The truth is that content creation is the “Wild West” for kids and that means that even the most intentioned parents can’t protect them well.
If there was any job I’d tell parents to insist on waiting until the child is 18 for, it’s this one. The FBI has gotten involved a bunch of times with this influencer circuit for the worst of reasons. That’s why I surmise that some may actually have more safety as a model…and that’s saying something alarming, for sure.
#7: Meat Processing/Dairy Farming
Yes, slaughterhouses, food processing plants, and dairy farms illegally hire teenagers and child laborers for high-risk, high-mortality jobs. This is a great job if you want your kid to suffer, develop PTSD from killing animals, and work in squalor.
For the most part, this is only done in the South. However, it’s still good to point out that food factories and meat processing plants aren’t for kids. In fact, they aren’t even decent working conditions for many adults, either.
If you want your kid to explore agriculture, go into a farm that needs ranchers or people to collect berries or cashiers for their locally-grown honey.
Did I miss any major ones?
I feel like those are the most hazardous, though I’ve heard parents get wary of having kids with their own pet-sitting routes too. Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.
Leave a Reply