This actually is a big issue. I read Seventeen magazine, and an older issue (Maybe a year or so old?) had a rather lengthly article on this.
But first of all, we need to seperate real depression and 'emo' style. They two do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. My best friend in the universe, whom I've known since we were about eight, is a victim of abuse at the hand of her father. She used to live in a trailer with both her mother and her father, and her father beat on her mother all the time. Eventually they got a divorce, and her mother put a restraining order on the house when Shannon's father moved out. However, Shannon still has to see her father every other weekend, and, without going into much detail, it isn't really a great place for her to be.
She said in just third grade, the year we met, she tried killing herself, because her father told her that everyone's lives would be better if she never existed. Ever since then, she's been struggling with depression and self-harm. Easter of last year she started seeing a therapist, because she cut herself often and so deep that multiple times she could have bled to death, and she was drinking bleach. :| Since then she's been doing better, and she says that the therapy helps, but it is still a constant struggle.
THAT'S being depressed, and with a reason. Shannon doesn't dress in all black, or go around glamorizing this type of thing. She suffers in silence, wearing normal jeans, sweaters, and cute t-shirts. She's extremely intelligent, and most wouldn't even know that she's gone through this type of thing, or has these sorts of issues.
You CAN be depressed without a specific reason though. Depression doesn't always come with post-traumatic stress. Sometimes it's a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that's serious and legitimate, too.
I was depressed and self-harmed around this time of last year. Peer pressure and stress were just too much, and I needed somewhere to channel my emptiness. In hind sight, I can see that I felt lost and had no direction in life, and I needed something consistant. I felt as if I couldn't control anything that happened in my life. One thing I could control however, was what I did to my body. When I cut, it gave me a sense of security; that I COULD control some aspects of my life. (This is similar to those who have eating disorders, which I have also struggled with in the past.)
Eventually I saw past myself and stopped, though I do occasionally still harm myself. But I can truthfully say that this is one of the most happy times of my life now.
But then there are those people who wear Tripp pants, My Chemical Romance shirts, and dye there hair black and purple, who walk around whining about how much their life sucks. No matter what, there is ALWAYS someone out there who has it worse than they have it, but they're so selfish and narrow-minded that they can't see that. I would never want to date or get to know a person that can only see their own pain and struggle, and is oblivious to others'. They aren't TRULY depressed. They could get over themselves if they wanted to, but the problem is they DON'T want to. They want the attention, and that's it.
And the numbers of those types of posers are growing.
The media and pop culture are the cause of the epidemic. The media glamorizes drugs, sex, and depression. Young people absorb things like a sponge, and whatever they see in the media, whatever is 'cool', is what they do. A little bit like zombies, if you ask me. Be individual, please.
Um... I feel like I have more points to make, but I feel like my brain is melting, so if I think of more, I'll let y'all know.