Being 18

Benjamin Kawaller, USA

Benjamin was born in Brooklyn, where he is in the 12th grade at Packer Collegiate Institute, a private high school. His mother is a psychiatrist, his father an economist.

I turned 18 on September 30 - got my draft card. But I'm not going to war - I don't have an objection to war, but I do have an objection to what's happening now. Although I'm not sure if I know enough about it. Everybody around me is against it, so I feel I should be against it, because I generally trust them - well, I don't want to say I follow them blindly. But this Saddam Hussein guy, you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.

I'm not sure how political I am, though. That's so lame, not to be political. People should know what's going on. I feel like I do - I watch the news - but this war in Iraq, it's such a complex issue.

I'm a big procrastinator when it comes to work, but I'm still a good student. I'm not a huge fan of work, but I'm a fan of learning. I guess I just wish it could be easier. My favourite course is probably maths. I'm doing a writing elective, too, and I think I'd like to be a writer. But something frivolous, like an advice column.

Socially... what do I do? Not bars, because the minimum age is 21. Lots of kids have fake IDs, though. I had a fake ID, but as soon as I got it I ran to my mother and said: "Look at this cool fake ID!" She took it off me. I was astounded. I've done a lot of pot this year - that's always a fun thing to do.

I've been to Europe. I like London. But when it comes to American cities - this is so snotty to say - but every city you go to feels like, well, nice try, but the real deal is New York. Why would you live anywhere else, except for maybe Paris or London?

I'm the head of my school's gay-straight alliance, so I've done some activism things. I haven't really changed the world. But I think I've changed the world of this school - people think a lot more about these issues.

The only discrimination I've ever had was at summer camp when I was 11 or 12, and I probably deserved it because I was singing showy said. I did hear the word faggot a lot... but only at summer camp, so I feel like I can't really complain.

I got very nostalgic this year - it's like it's the last year of my childhood. But I'm ready to leave. I'm not the kind of person who doesn't take risks, I don't always hang back. And I know that college will be good, and I'll probably be happy anywhere I go. It's college: there'll be people there, and they'll be cool. I'm not hesitant about becoming an adult. It's cool. Though I'm not sure what the immediate benefits of being 18 are. Voting. That's one thing. That's probably the biggest thing.
Oliver Burkeman

John Mungai, Kenya

John, who graduated from high school last year, spends his days at Kangemi junction, a stinking rubbish tip on the edge of Nairobi's main highway, touting business for minibus drivers.

There's a lot of talk about the election, but most people are just praying there'll be peace. The politicians are arguing between themselves, but no one is talking about what to do for the common man. The truth is, they are very wealthy men, making millions. They are all self-centred, they have no interest in Kenya's young people. We need education, but also we need jobs.

I used to work as a casual labourer in a pharmacy, and I hoped I would be a pharmacist. But it costs 120,000 shillings a year (£1,100) to go to college, and even if I had the grades I do not have this money. My father cannot help at all. He is a driver for someone and he is already paying to send my two brothers to school. He has no money left for me. There are some scholarships for colleges in countries like the US and the UK, but there is a lot of corruption with them. Even to apply you have to cough up a bribe.

I am surviving on handouts or what I pick up here from the matatus (minibuses). On a good day I can get 200 bob (£1.80), but on a bad day I get nothing. That's working from 5am until dark. Even now, I've spent all day here and I don't have a penny in my pocket.

Aids is a big problem for us. Even today I heard bad news about a young lady who is a very close friend of mine. She's very well-groomed and well-behaved and I thought one day I would make love to her. So I was very shocked to hear she is a carrier. If you want to have an affair with a woman you have got to get her tested to guarantee she's not a carrier.

I read and I watch movies. I like thrillers, films with Denzel Washington. I like football also, especially English teams like Manchester. Being a Christian is my big strength. I go to church twice a week and I pray and I have faith that things will change.
James Astill

Brenda Whelan, Northern Ireland

Brenda, a Catholic, lives in north Belfast near an interface with a Protestant neighbourhood in the nationalist Ardoyne district. Last year's loyalist protest against the Catholic Holy Cross primary school took place a few streets away.

I left school last June with six GCSEs and an NVQ in information technology and I've just started an A-level course in art and design. I've always painted and drawn, and I particularly like doing still life and modern stuff. I hope to get to Hull University to do a HND and I want to be an art teacher.

I don't remember an awful lot about the Troubles, but we had to leave our house when I was about three years old, and there were shots fired at the house next door. I remember the Shankill bomb [which killed an IRA bomber and nine Protestants in 1993]. It was a big shock, all those innocent people killed, and then I realised I knew the bomber, Thomas Begley, who died too. He was from Ardoyne and I used to see him hanging around the shops. I was worried loyalists would do something here in retaliation.

Sometimes I don't think things are much different now. My uncle and his friend were shot and badly injured by loyalists a few years ago, and during the Drumcree protest, my brother needed hospital treatment after loyalists stopped his car at a roadblock and dragged him out of it. The Holy Cross protest was horrible, and loyalist gunmen came to my school last year and smashed up teachers' cars.

I used to play camogie [an Irish sport] for Ardoyne Gaelic Athletic Association but now I like clubbing and going out at weekends. We mostly stick round here as you worry about being attacked because you are a Catholic from Ardoyne. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to walk into a Protestant area without being afraid. I go to church regularly and it is important to me. I have Protestant friends and they are great but some of my other Catholic friends don't want to go out with them.

I watch the news on television but it is hard to take it all in. The politicians always seem to be arguing and saying the same thing. I haven't decided who I would vote for.

I think the police would be a great career but no one says anything good about them, especially Catholics. You couldn't join and live here, you'd have to move, because you and your family would get terrorised.

I want to travel, maybe go to Camp America and work with kids, and then come back to north Belfast and teach art. I know people say this is a bad area but my family and all my friends are here and I don't want to move away.
Rosie Cowan

Debora Gomes Peres, Brazil

Her father is a driver and her mother a maid. She divides her time between living with her family in the Rocinha favela in Rio and with her mother's employers in nearby Ipanema. She is at school, studying for the Brazilian equivalent of A-levels.

When I think about the future I think, God, I'm going to have to really bust a gut. It's going to be difficult. I think most people around my age think that the future is lost. But you have to get used to it and work harder and harder.

Living in Rio used to be good, but not any more. You don't have the freedom to go out in the street because of the violence. I think it's got a lot worse in the past year.

In my school there are about 2,000 people. About 200 girls are pregnant. Lots of people in my school are already working. They don't bother about wanting to study any more. If I had one wish for the country, it would be to improve the education system.

I go out once a week. Usually to a bar. But going out is expensive. I want to earn enough to have a good future. To have the spending power to eat what I want to and to wear what I want to. To have money to go to the cinema. I reckon to earn about Br$2,400 (£550) a month.

We live in an American culture. Everyone of my age just wants to eat in McDonald's. People are not politicised because there is no education. Everyone just wants a house and a job.

I wouldn't feel that I was a success if I ended up doing what my mum does. I want something that empowers me as a person. I want to be a Portuguese teacher.
Alex Bellos

Ivan Balashov, Russia

Ivan is from Malakhovka, 30km outside Moscow. A sculpture student, he lives with his parents and studies at a Moscow university.

I want to stay in Russia. Of course you can be paid more if you work in America, but I studied here, and this is where my culture, my roots and my parents are. Americans are stupid, and many people here do not like them. It is nothing to do with the cold war. It is their culture that we do not like.

I do not like politics because it is a dirty field. I do not like Putin though I know lots of people who think he will do great things for Russia. I believe that if the state are bandits, then the biggest bandit of all is the president - Putin.

Men aged 18 are supposed to be conscripted into the army, but generally we don't want to join up. Relations between soldiers are scary - the older ones beat the younger ones. I do not have to serve in the army as I have a skin condition - dermatitis. You can avoid conscription if you have a medical condition and I have heard that some people even pay for doctor's certificates.

Sex for our generation is not a big deal. People can be promiscuous. It is as you want. I have a girlfriend and maybe one day, in about five years, I will marry her. If you want a family in Russia, you are expected to marry.

Our culture in Russia is a mix of American, European and Russian. I like hip hop and jazz - a mix of the Wu Tang Clan, jazz and Radiohead. In our spare time, we go to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, play football, like kids in Europe do. We have laws against selling alcohol to young people but nobody adheres to them. I had my first beer at 13, and I am not a big fan of drink, as people who drink tend not to do anything in their lives. There are lots of drugs about, too. Heroin and cocaine used to be everywhere, but these days it is more marijuana, which my friends all smoke.
Nick Paton Walsh

Marie Usui, Japan

Since graduating from high school, Marie has been working as a hostess to save up for a trip to Australia, where she plans to study English for six months. She lives with her father (a robot maker), her mother (a nursery nurse), her sister and her grandparents in Saitama, near Tokyo.

Last week, my friends and I hired a car and then drove to Tokyo Bay. We had such a great laugh, singing, dancing and gossiping about our boyfriends. It was brilliant.

Loads of boys and old men tried to chat us up but we ignored them. This was a time for mates. We carried on chatting and swimming until dawn and then drove back to my home, but once all my friends had crashed out on my floor there was no room for me so I stayed awake, filling out all the documents I need for my trip to Australia next month. It wasn't drugs that kept me awake - I don't do them - it was excitement.

I've been saving up by working as a hostess. It is good money - about £800 a month - but we work hard until 2am almost every night. There is no sex involved: just pouring drinks, lighting cigarettes and chatting to middle-aged men in high-paid jobs. I used to be upset if one of them touched my bum, but now I put up with it. I look at it as a burden of being born a woman.

My generation doesn't believe in anything except money. They don't trust anyone. I used to be like that. My dream is to establish a company and then buy an island, which would just be for me, my family, friends and orphans. But I can only get it by hard work. I don't have much time for religious people who think they can get what they want simply by praying to God. My parents are Buddhists, but that is not for me. All I believe in are ghosts, spirits, aliens and Santa Claus.

I'm really looking forward to living overseas. I prefer western music such as Britney Spears and U2 to Japanese pop music. And I like western men more than Japanese men because the latter are so indecisive. I think Japan needs to change.

Women have more freedom - my mum would never have been allowed to talk like me or wear makeup like mine - but we are weak. Nobody wants to do anything by themselves.
Jonathan Watts

Candra Dwi Prasetyo, Indonesia

The son of an oil company employee and a housewife, he used to attend a state school but after failing to get in to the senior high school of his choice, he joined the private Al Azhar 3 Islamic school in south Jakarta.

The most important thing in my life is my religion. If someone is not religious then they have no meaning to their life or future. Take, for example, drinking alcohol; not drinking alcohol is one of the rules of Islam and if I were to violate it, my future would be ruined. I have tried it once but never again.

It does not matter if one's faith is not perfect because one can always strive to improve - by praying more often, for instance. However, you cannot live only with religion, which is why money is probably the second most important thing for me. But money and faith have to be balanced - if you concentrate on money without prayer then your life will lose meaning, but if you only pray, you cannot live.

Personally, I really want to be a professional footballer. I already run my own team outside school and whenever we play games we always do our best because there could be scouts watching from professional teams. My favourite club is Inter Milan because I like their policy of bringing people in young and training them up into much better players.

The chances of that happening though are very small because I am injured. I have problems with my lungs which will be hard to cure. So as a back-up I am going to apply to the University of Indonesia to study management or Japanese. I have no idea where I will be in five years, perhaps an accountant because you get a good salary. At least I am lucky that my parents say my future is up to me, they let me make my own decisions.