THEY may wear their dyed fringes long and their threads grungy but, whatever you do, don't call them emo.
Just as parents get their heads around the emo phenomenon - code for "emotional" - along comes another subcultural movement with its own fashion and music signifiers.
The Scene - or Scene kids - began on the networking site MySpace.
Newcastle teenagers Emma-Jane "EJ" Scott, Kirra Dare and Eliza Coughlan, all 13, identify as Scene.
Their fashion tastes range from tiaras to ripped stockings, leopard print and 1980s band T-shirts. Thick eyeliner and elaborately coloured, back-teased hair are mandatory.
It takes them two hours to get ready for a day at the shopping centre or skate park. A favourite pastime is recording the "death stares" they get from passers-by.
"It's really funny because we just count them," EJ said. "I think the record was about 22.
"We like getting stared at," she said.
EJ said they played '80s and early '90s music, bands which were popular when they had not even been born.
She spends $50 a week on clothes - almost all her pocket money - and buys at least one CD a week.
"We hate Supre and Jay Jays because it's all mass-produced stuff, because everyone ends up with the same stuff, which is pretty lame."
The girls refer to websites such as
http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Scene-Kid.
Tips include:
"Guys should find a decent-fitting pair of girl jeans ... the tighter the better."
Because the movement is still young, emos and Scene kids often find themselves battling for territory.
EJ said she, Kirra and Eliza received abuse from emos, who accused them of "ripping off their style".
"They go 'Oh, what are you doing here? This is our genre'," she said.
"Scene people are completely different. You've got to be really confident, outgoing and not shy."
Crystal McKenna, a 17-year-old emo from Warrnambool, south of Melbourne, is not a fan of Scene kids.
"They are like wannabe emos. It is more the fact that they change just to be in with everything that is going on at the time," she said.
Crystal has been dyeing her strawberry blonde hair dark since she was 13, favours black clothes, band shirts, a side-swept fringe and eyeliner, and listens to such bands as Blink 182, The Offspring and Rancid.
She resents the negative stereotypes associated with emos.
"When people think of emos, they think of people who cut their wrists and are all sad and depressed. We're not all like that." People just wanted to "look different", she said.
Her friend and fellow emo, Ballarat student Shardee Beekmans, 17, said she had heard of problems between emos and Scene kids.
"[But] it doesn't faze me," Shardee said. "I have got a lot of friends who are Scene kids."
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