1 Minute Monologues For Teens (CERTIFIED)

"Step one: Be confident." Okay. Great. Step one is literally just tell me to be the thing I am not . That’s like giving someone a map to Atlantis and saying, 'Step one: breathe underwater.'

(Blackout or exit)

(Beat. Quieter.) So I’m supposed to just… perform calm while my brain is doing parkour off a cliff? I’m supposed to know who I am when every five seconds the world tells me who I’m not? 1 Minute Monologues For Teens

(Looks up, directly at the audience, for the first time) You know what? Rip the manual. I’m not a project. I’m not a step one. I’m just the kid who figured out that if you can’t be perfect… the only thing left to be is real . And that’s terrifying. But at least it’s mine. "Step one: Be confident

(Tone shifts to clipped, mimicking a robotic voice) "Step two: Make eye contact, but not too much. Smile, but not like you’re happy. Stand up straight, but don't look like you're trying." That’s like giving someone a map to Atlantis

Wry, exhausted, building to quiet frustration. Setting: A student sitting on a stool, holding an imaginary phone or a crumpled piece of paper.

(Staring at the paper in disbelief)