While I do think the Ariel hate goes overboard sometimes, I don't think "she's just a teenage girl! they act selfish, defiant and boy-crazy!" is a valid OR fair excuse. I was nothing like her growing up (not saying I was perfect, just that I wouldn't do anything she did and we're quite different). And just saying, Aurora is 16 and people always say she acts nothing like a young girl...

A lot of *people* have these traits (well, sometimes girl-crazy rather than boy-crazy of course) so I have no idea why young girls are generalized like this. though people, especially teens, are very prone to selfishness indeed.

I dont think any of the Disney teenage Princesses act like teens today. I would however add that Ariel is not selfish BUT the teens of today certainly are. -Most of them, its rare to find a non-selfish teenager. Even so, on a side note as a club we need to get away from that word-- we throw it around to much, when it really doesn't describe any of the Princesses.

She's just a slightly exaggerated representation

I do consider every single girl in the whole DP lineup to have selfish tendencies. It's a human trait, and to make these characters "life-like and relateable" some selfishness is required. All of the Disney Princesses are selfish, just as past generations of girls were in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Current generations are selfish, and future generations will be. Selfishness is a flaw among many flaws in the human psyche.

Boy-craziness does not equal selfishness. Ariel is selfish and boy-crazy. Tiana and Merida are both selfish, and non-boy-crazy. Selfishness has nothing to do with romance.

I'm not even gonna start with the comparisons to Ariel....but most teenage girls R empty idiotic sluts...I'm sorry but they are! I tend to forget that cuz I spend alot of time at home and on the Internet, like I'm sure the rest of fanpop does too...lets face it, our little group here on the Internet is a minority compared to the rest of the world, but I get reminded every time I go out or I watch a reality show....I get reminded how unbeliveably blind, selfish and stupid the world is...girls and guys alike

^if that was said about a race or religion I don't think it would be any less unfair or mean really. come on. you can't generalize people like that especially while making yourself and us sound superior.

^^ It's unfair to judge people, especially huge subsets of people, based on what they watch. Watching reality TV says no more about who you are than reading does.

The question is not really that well worded. Yes, I think that Ariel acts like a typical teenage girl. But that doesn't mean that I also think that every teenaged girl has the same desires as Ariel. What is typical about her is that she thinks she knows more than she actually does (which is very typical, a lot of teens of either gender think that they know better that age and feel that they are smart until the enter college or university and suddenly realize that they are only small fishes which have now reached the ocean), she has no concept of danger (some teens do, but a lot of them use this age to test their boundaries), and the way her emotions are all over the place is also typical. Plus, Ariel is depicted as someone who wants to stand on her own feet, which is yet another thing typical for that period in which most people start to disconnect themselves from their parents step by step.
In this sense Ariel is typical teenager. Not a typical teenaged girl, but a typical teenager, period.

Besides what I've said about selfishness, I also heartily agree with everything Swanpride said.

I agree with Swanpride!

well, I don't know how else I could've worded it. I'm just going by what I see other people say all the time, which is more about being a typical girl than a teenager in general (although that's common too)/