With the global jobs market falling on hard times, many teenagers are looking to alternatives and working for themselves instead.
The New York Times has noted in an article entitled Teenagers Are Building Their Own Job Engine the case of 18-year-old Laura Durst who has created a jobs website for teenagers looking to find a new role.
Ms Durst set up her site, WorkInMyRoom.com as a portal for teenagers to find jobs that can be done from their very own bedroom.
Utilising Google Ad Sense, which displays relevant ads on her website, she is earning around $250 a month.
She told the NY Times that she was inspired by her entrepreneurial mother.
"Seeing her work from home, where she could be her own boss, I liked the idea of that," she said.
There are many jobs around for teenagers that want to work for themselves and are finding themselves sidelined because there are more experienced and out-of-work older people also applying for roles.
Faith Borden from New Jersey decided to sell Avon products after finding herself devoid of job offers, while 14-year-old Max O'Dell has made $170 from painting shirts on his driveway and hanging them out to dry.
"Business is very steady and I would much rather work for myself than at a fast-food place or something like that. It feels really good to be my own boss," he said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in the 16 to 19 year old bracket is at its highest rate since 1992, with 22.7 per cent currently out of work.
Donna Fenn, who has interviewed 150 young business entrepreneurs for her new book, said: "This is a generation raised to believe they can do anything and the first to grow up with entrepreneurial celebrities like Steve Jobs of Apple and Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google."
Areas that have proved strong in the teenage entrepreneurial arena include everything from selling jewellery online to non-internet based work like house cleaning and dog walking.
Amy Rosen, the chief executive of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, said that her group has been overwhelmed with applicants for spring-break and summer camps.
"These kids are concerned that the world their parents grew up in no longer exists and the notion of taking control and owning your own future is really appealing," she concluded.
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