There is something magical about your teenage years. Some remember them and shudder, others need only the slightest catalyst to launch into a series of stories about their triumphs, cars,  waistline, bad hair and lovers.  In We Are Experienced, photographer Danielle Levitt captures the blank canvas age of preadulthood and takes us on the emotional time machine of our early teens reflected in striking portraits of today’s youth.

Levitt’s book explores the faces and worlds of suburban American kids that despite their locales, all align along the meridian of teenage angst. They appear to be still discovering themselves amid today’s complex high school caste systems and stimulation rich world. At the same time, Levitt exposes an idealistic quality that is difficult to isolate in a single shot, but she does and there are youths dreaming about the future as something magical and not yet tainted by credit card bills and college school loans.

While the photographs are contemporary, the grounding base is nostalgia. Some of the subjects have bad hair and an awkwardness that most can identify with at some point or another, while others-those blessed few-show the brightest smile and that special confidence that exists in the wistful way of our youthful memories. $55 Powerhouse Books.