What an attack at an Ariana Grande show means for teen girls and their world

THE pink balloons, floating above the maelstrom of panicked concertgoers, are what struck me first. Images of innocence, bumping along above hordes of shrieking children, many of whom refused to release their balloons even as they fled the arena.

Do you remember your first pop concert? That first time you watched a female hero belt it out onstage without apologies? I was in eighth grade when my dad agreed to drive me and my best friend to see Garbage, a Scottish pop band led by the coolest woman of all time, Shirley Manson. Her anger, confidence and sexuality stood in for stirrings of teenage passion that I had no way of expressing.

I was awkward and insecure - weren't we all? - but when I stood in the presence of a woman who stared down the system with a growl in her voice, I forgot how weird it felt to be 13.