BOSTON — BOSTON — Singer/songwriter Janis Ian may have learned the truth at seventeen — but it wasn’t until 1975 she let the rest of the world in on that education. That summer, Ian scored her biggest hit: the haunting, heartfelt “At Seventeen,” which encapsulated a teenager’s struggles with loneliness.
“I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens.
And high school girls with clear skin smiles
Who married young and then retired.”
Ian, now 73, tells Boston 25 News the song was inspired by a New York Times article about a debutante
“She had thought that having a big prom and having all of these dues was going to make her perfect,” Ian remembered. “And she discovered that the more she did what she thought would lead to perfection the less perfect she felt.”
That search for perfection — and at the same time, to fit in — is the quintessential teenage struggle. One frequent by-product of that quest is loneliness — a problem among teens …