History Main / BittersweetSeventeen

* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' books, the legal threshold for wizards' adulthood is at 17 (compared to 18 for the real/muggle UK) -- this is shown in ''The Goblet of Fire'' when the goblet in question will only allow for those 17 or older to come near it.

** She only allows Leni, Luna and Luan to come to her sophisticated party. She tries to make it an elegant affair,eschewing what she thinks of as childish. The party flops and everyone leaves until Leni posts a photo of fun with the younger sibs. Lori's teen friends weren't ready for a sophisticated adult soiree.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': At age 14, Isaac's father and Jenna's parents and brother are lost, when thieves break into the village sanctum and set off a trap that causes a giant boulder to fall. Three years later, the thieves return, stealing the Elemental Stars and kidnapping Jenna (Felix now working with them). Isaac and his best friend Garet are sent out to retrieve them, leaving the village for possibly the first time.

Trust this to be the age that people sigh dreamily back at when they turn on their NostalgiaFilter or sing their OdeToYouth. It may also be an important age in the relationship of HighSchoolSweethearts. Characters that are presently this age, if fitting the trope, will likely be self-reflective about their life and experience some horrific AgeAppropriateAngst. It may be the {{best|YearsOfYourLife}} but also [[TearsOfRemorse most regretful]] age.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Lori, firstborn and eldest is 17, and several of the episodes focusing on her involve this trope...
** Despite reminding her siblings she's eldest, she has a SickeninglySweethearts nickname for her boyfriend all the other kids know and use sarcastically: "Boo Boo Bear"
** She only allows Leni, Luna and Luan to come to her sophisticated party. She tries to make it an elegant affair,eschewing what she thinks of as childish. The party flops and everyone leaves until Leni posts a photo of fun with the younger sibs. Lori's teen friends weren't ready for a sophisticated adult soiree.
** "Driving Miss Hazy" Lori has been lording being eldest and the only licensed driver over the other kids so they band together to help ditzy Leni get her license. Lori becomes insecure that the kids won't need her anymore and sabotages Leni.
** Lori decides she needs her own space to get away from the chaos of 10 siblings. She realizes it's lonely and scary on her own and contrives to get back in the house without admitting her decision was hasty.
** "The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos:" when she finds out that Bobby is not returning to Royal Woods, she has a FreakOut and drives Lincoln to demand answers. After several abortive attempts to trick or convince Bobby to come back, she gives up and breaks down into InelegantBlubbering. Bobby explains his plan, and Lori comes around, maturely realizing they'll only be apart for a year until university...and that his plan will let them be together long term.
** "Change of Heart" Lori is caught between hating Clyde's obsessive crush, and wanting the attention because it boosts her self esteem.

->''When I think about you,''\\
''I think about seventeen,''\\
''I think about my old Jeep,''\\
''I think about the stars in the sky.''

-->''You are the dancing queen,''\\
''Young and sweet, only seventeen.''\\
''You can dance, you can jive,''\\
''Having the time of your life!''

-->''I wish I could freeze time at seventeen.''

-->''When I was only 17''\\
''I could hear the angels whispering''

-->''Seventeen went far too quick.''

-->''It was 1989 my thoughts were short my hair was long''\\
''Caught somewhere between a boy and man''\\
''She was seventeen and she was far from in-between''\\
''It was summertime in Northern Michigan.''

-->''I had a dream, we were back to seventeen,''\\
''Summer nights and The Libertines, never growing up.''

-->''Could never tell you what happened,''\\
The day I turned seventeen.''

-->''When I was seventeen\\

And soft summer nights''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Lori, firstborn and eldest is 17, and several of the episodes focusing on her involve this trope:

* In the US, it is the age at which one may rent/buy M-rated videogames and R-rated movies.

-->''According to the myriad references to being 17, the age isn't just one year in a life, but a symbol for growing up and all that comes with it. To be 17 is to be innocent but experienced, bold but afraid, naive but jaded or beautiful but lonely. The age, in the American psyche, is much more than the number of candles on a cake or a three-syllable word that's catchy to sing -- it's the ultimate time of transition and change. Age 17 is the lynchpin in a lifespan, holding together all of the opposites and contradictions exposed or created with age.''\\
''Or maybe it's none of these things, and being 17 isn't so special at all. One thing is for certain: an age has never sounded so good.''

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the events of her 17th birthday are in one of the most important episodes in the series. She loses her virginity to Angel, who is said to reverse to his evil self called Angellus when he is the happiest in his life, ie: having sex with Buffy. Buffy would finally realise that Angel is definitely not the man (or Vampire) she liked and realises he must be defeated.

* Music/BradPaisley's "Letter To Me" is a reflection on what advice the narrator would like to give to give if he could send a letter back in time to himself at age seventeen.

* Deana Carter's best known hit was "Strawberry Wine," describing the narrator's first experience with love at age 17, "caught somewhere between a woman and a child."
* Music/MartyRobbins sang "She Was Only Seventeen" (NOT to be confused with the [[NamesTheSame song of the same title]] by Music/RuckaRuckaAli). The Robbins classic has the narrator wondering if anybody has the right to tell a teenage couple they're too young to be in love.

In their late teen years, [[EaglelandOsmosis at least in the US]], kids become ''no longer kids''... but not quite adults.

* The song "Maritime Memory" from ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' is a bittersweet ballad that it only supposed to be sung by seventeen year olds. This implies that the otherwise [[VagueAge vaguely aged]] {{Idol Singer}}s Callie and Marie were seventeen in the first game.

''I think about my old jeep,''\\
''I Think about the stars in the sky.''

''I think about my old jeans,''\\
''Think about the stars in the sky.''

It's suggested that seventeen is the age at which people are [[OxymoronicBeing inherently dichotomous]]: both a child and an adult, also neither a child nor an adult; being [[TheIdealist idealistic]] yet also [[WeAllDieSomeday postulating on mortality]] (see: TheAntiNihilist); it's strongly when personal identity solidifies and they find who they are, but also when they feel most lost and searching. In RealLife and in media, expect (all of this, but in particular) that being lost in such a vast world feeling (especially in the more stylistic and thought-provoking age of TheNewTens) to actually be part of the person's identity.

->''When I think about you,''
->''I think about seventeen,''
->''I think about my old jeans,''
->''Think about the stars in the sky.''

Examples:

-->''You are the dancing queen,''
-->''Young and sweet, only seventeen.''
-->''You can dance, you can jive,''
-->''Having the time of your life!''

-->"When I was only 17/I could hear the angels whispering"

-->''It was 1989 my thoughts were short my hair was long''
-->''Caught somewhere between a boy and man''
-->''She was seventeen and she was far from in-between''
-->''It was summertime in Northern Michigan.''

-->''I had a dream, we were back to seventeen,''
-->''Summer nights and The Libertines, never growing up.''

-->''"According to the myriad references to being 17, the age isn't just one year in a life, but a symbol for growing up and all that comes with it. To be 17 is to be innocent but experienced, bold but afraid, naive but jaded or beautiful but lonely. The age, in the American psyche, is much more than the number of candles on a cake or a three-syllable word that's catchy to sing -- it's the ultimate time of transition and change. Age 17 is the lynchpin in a lifespan, holding together all of the opposites and contradictions exposed or created with age.''
-->''"Or maybe it's none of these things, and being 17 isn't so special at all. One thing is for certain: an age has never sounded so good."''

In late teen years, [[EaglelandOsmosis at least in the US]], kids become ''no longer kids''... but not quite adults.

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->''"Inside, we're all seventeen with red lips."''
-->-- Creator/LaurenceOlivier