Lies. Obviously teen hardships differ from parental and third-world country hardships, but most kids do go through them. The difference lies in how kids deal with it. My family is a prime example. Most of my immediate family on my dad's side is dead (dad, grandparents, and brother who is homeless in Nevada, if ya care to read this). The way my brothers, mother, and I deal with it are completely different. My older brother chooses to hide it and smoke pot for the majority of his day, my younger brother is extremely angry about it, I hold most emotions in (overwhelming at times; my mom and I are the only ones who have accepted the deaths), and my mom seems fine on the surface (but is actually pretty distraught on the inside). We all find different ways to cope with the unusual amount of stress not many teens have to deal with (outside of "ghettos," anyway).
Now, this may not be the same as wishing you'll find food the next day, but this is pretty fucked up (downright unfair in my opinion).
A little less extreme, but still stressful is having to deal with divorced parents, which many children across America --especially-- have to go through.
There's plenty of other stressful events happening in a teen's life. Low self-esteem, acne, hormones, you name it. Where the "retardation" comes in is how kids deal with it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying no kids have problems or hardships, but most really don't.
This is the thing, teens tend to think that there problems are real problems, when they really aren't. This is my whole point, a lot of kids, in any generation, ever, although it will become more common the less kids have to do (which is made possible by them actually being able to do less), never have to face real hardship, and therefore can become rather self centered.
I am talking about this through experience. I luckily learned about this fairly early, but I know that I myself did things like that. It's just kind of how things go. Some people persist, but usually having to actually support yourself can shock you part way out of it.