How is a teenager like a lobster?

After I finished Boy Toy for class last night, I remembered something I read years ago about lobsters that has stuck with me all this time: even though lobsters' shells are inpenetrable, when lobsters molt, they are extremely vulnerable while their new shell hardens. Wikipedia fills in the details: "American lobsters molt two to three times per year while juvenile, but only once a year or less often when fully mature, which is about four to seven years old. When a lobster nears its next shedding period, it will start to grow a new shell underneath the current one, and the outer shell will become very hard and darken. The line that runs along the back of the lobster's carapace will begin to split, and the two halves of the shell will fall away. Claws and tail will be pulled out from the old outer shell, as the inner shell is very malleable....In the first two weeks after molting, lobsters are very vulnerable, as their shells are so soft they can neither move very fast nor defend themselves with their claws."

I just realized that this is SO like what a teenager goes through. Their new shell is growing underneath their soon-to-be-old one, and after the old, outer one splits open and falls away, lobsters (and teens) must seclude themselves for a short period of time while their new shell hardens. Josh from Boy Toy, and all other teenagers I can think of, seem to be in a perpetually molting state; their adult selves forming and coming to the surface under their tween and teen selves. While their newer and more mature shells are hardening, we must all watch out for them and protect them. From predators, from preventable dangers, and even from themselves if we can. Even if they don't know it, they are depending on us to stand watch outside of their underwater caves until their shells are hard and the coast is clear...