A RECENT poll has revealed that the One Direction split will help teenage girls grow into women.
The results of a survey conducted by Dr Beckmann revealed that a boyband split is one of five traumas that are character-building.
They also include the first love break-down, leaving home, falling out with a best friend and getting a dodgy haircut.
These five life events go on to provide invaluable life lessons, with 65% of women admitting their favuorite band splitting up reduced them to tears.
The five traumatic teenage events and resulting life lessons learned:
Life Event #1: Boyband Split
Life Lesson Learned: Life isn’t always a bed of roses
Two-thirds (65%) of British women believe coping with the trauma of their favourite band splitting up as a young teenager was the first time in their young lives that they were forced to face the fact that life isn’t always a bed of roses.
Almost half (49%) of those polled admit their favourite boyband splitting up reduced them to tears. But four in ten of those teary-eyed teenage girls became more realistic about their dreams and ambitions, as a result.
Life Event #2: Leaving home
Life Lesson Learned: You are stronger than you know
The second most important life event to help shape their character, according to 43% of those surveyed, was moving out of home for the first time to start life at university.
While that gave 57% of young women a new sense of freedom, it also taught almost the same number (56%) an invaluable lesson about how much they were capable of without the help of anyone else and how they were much stronger than they realised.
Life Event #3: First love break-up
Life Lesson Learned: Time heals all wounds
The third life event, for a third (34%) of British females, was when they reached their late teens – and their first true love broke down.
The end of their first proper relationship brought heartbreak and tears but, for 41% of British women, it brought clarity on the cliché that time really does heal all wounds.
Life Event #4: Falling out with a best friend
Life Lesson Learned: Saying sorry is a strength, not a weakness
Falling out with a best friend while a teenager was an early life event that really resonated with 29% of those women polled. For 37% of those who highlighted the issue, it was the first time they learned that saying sorry was a strength, not a weakness.
Life Event #5: Getting a dodgy haircut
Life Lesson Learned: Confidence comes from within
And even suffering a catastrophic haircut while all their teenage peers were preening perfectly coiffed and painfully trendy hair-styles, provided 23% of women with a happy ending – teaching them that regardless of appearance, confidence comes from within.
Dr Beckmann spokesman, Susan Fermor, said: “Women are becoming ever more independent with each passing generation and our research was designed to uncover the events in their formative years that helped make them strong, independent women.
“All those young teenage girls who are this week mourning the loss of One Direction might take some heart from the fact that the only way is up from here.”
*Dr Beckman polled 2,000 women aged 25 – 50 from their customer database in August 2015.
