Letter: Not so sweet

Sir: Your cross-section of society is unrealistic ("Sweet sixteen", Magazine, 5 September). It describes a generation of politically-correct, anti-drink and drugs, mummy's boys/girls. If you came to a working class area and asked the same questions of 16-year-olds, your replies would be very different. In an area like this teenagers go to the pub, smoke, do drugs and have sex, all on a regular basis. They are all parts of our society and shouldn't be so harshly condemned.

We don't get money handed to us on plates and if I told my parents that I was going to leave college and join a band and travel the country looking for fame and fortune, I would be told to "wake up and smell the coffee". I can rely on their support to a degree, but as for me living off them, this would be unfair and unreasonable.

SUSAN MARKS

Ripley, Derbyshire