In the coming-of-age story, Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a conflicted teen just trying to figure out his life and what he is meant for. Quickly in the book, it becomes quite apparent that Holden does not want to become an adult, as he thinks that they are all fake 'phonies'. At the same time, he also doesn't get along very well with his own age group, as he does not have many friends and often bickers and fights with other boys. So, what is Holden? This is was his conflict is. He is at this awkward stage between resisting the grown-up world, but trying to separate himself and stand-out from his own age group. This conflict of Holden's relates very nicely to this TED talk presented by Tavi Gevinson, who is a young teen herself. In the presentation, she talks about many different examples of teens, whether they are normal, weird, successful, cool, fictional, it does not matter, but they all have one thing in common; they are just trying to figure life out. Later on in the talk, she brings up an article that her magazine had written, relating to 'how not to care what people think of you'. This also perfectly relates to Holden. On a daily basis, Holden wants to stand out, do what he likes, and have no care in the world for others' thoughts. At the same time, there are certain scenarios where he just wants to fit in, be one of the normal kids. This is extremely ironic, as it kind of makes him one of the 'phonies', which he hates very much. In general, the life of Holden Caulfield has several parallels with Tavi Gevinson's TED Talk.