When most people my age started getting addicted to normal shows like “Friends,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost,” I somehow stayed stuck on the shows less appropriate for my age.

While I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I haven’t seen a single episode from any of those series, I’m surprisingly proud to say some of my favorite shows are mostly on Nickelodeon, Disney channel or ABC family.

This week marked the beginning of the fourth season of one of my girl night ritual shows: “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” which airs on Mondays on ABC family.

It’s a ridiculously dramatic teenage soap opera I’ve been watching religiously with my best friends since the series began in 2008. I won’t even bother giving a synopsis—the plot and characters are far too entangled in each other to give you one that’d make remote sense. The point is, Amy Juergens got pregnant at band camp when she was 16, and everything and everyone in her life is drastically screwed over because of it.

I’m not sure which part of watching this show is more entertaining: the part where we tear apart the horrible acting skills of the entire “Secret Life” cast, or the part where we become so involved in understanding the characters and the story that we can’t stop watching it.

If you ask me, those are the kinds of things that attract everyone to their favorite shows, whether it’s “Spongebob” or “CSI.” We relate to the reality (or the illusion) of what’s happening in the show, judge how well the actors portray that reality and get hooked into the pace of the plot in a weekly routine.

So, I never got addicted to any of the “normal” shows. But a person’s favorite shows should be a reflection of who they are as a person. While I don’t consider myself similar to Amy Juergens, we do share values: friends, family, love, music, to name a few.

I might be stuck in a phase with too many TV shows completely inappropriate for my age, but they’re shows that make me laugh. There’s no higher entertainment value than that.

Secret Life Season 4 Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSBWDwLLFzk&feature=pyv&ad=11293486423&kw=american%20teenagers