If you walk into any high school, you will most definitely see couples holding hands, sneaking a kiss, or just staring at each other. You can’t go down one hallway and not see a couple hiding out in different spots. The words “I love you” are thrown around everywhere like the common cold. But this calls into question either or not teens really understand love at all, or are they just eager to grow up and jump the gun on a crush?

There are many examples of teen relationships that work out after high school and even lead to marriage, like Cory and Topanga from the iconic show “Boy Meets World.” On the other hand, it goes without saying there are countless relationships that go down in flames. Many parents and other adults look at teen love as something to look back at and laugh. They see it as ” puppy love,” and nothing to take seriously. But to teenagers feel it very deeply. Yes, some teenagers are to careless when they throw around the L-word, but that it is not enough to label us all of not understanding love. There are many different kinds of people, and that applies to teenagers to. There are some that goof around, some take things seriously, headstrong, weak, basically every adjective in the grammar book. That can affect the way you see things like love and other feelings. It really depends on someone’s maturity level, their personality that really affects someone’s ability to understand love.

Teenage love is a thing. but it is rare if it lasts through to marriage. In 2014, one website conducted a poll of high school and college students about their relationships. Of the nearly 5000 respondents,  61% have reported being “in love.” 64% of teenage boys have said they have been in love, while 59.6% of teenage girls have said they have been in love. 94% of teens, male and female, believe in true love. 49% of teens believe in love at first sight. 50% of teenage boys believe in love at first sight, while only 48% of teenage girls believe in it. Even though teen love is rare, teens believing in it isn’t. On the other hand, according to an article from Huffington Post, only 2% of new marriages in North America are made from “high school sweethearts.”

However there are some teens who don’t believe in teenage love. Sarah Pember, a freshman, believes, “I don’t think at our age and mindset that we are mature enough to be able to understand the concept of love. Though there are few that really reach the maturity level to understand the concept of love, and are able to express it.”