An elusive and constantly changing constant in teenagers' minds, coolness is "achieved" (in the words of Parker Lewis) by doing something cool. Only cool kids can do something cool: Once a cool thing propagates down to the uncool kids and they start doing it, it immediately ceases to be cool. When that happens, the cool kids find another completely different cool thing to do, which usually is to use a cool word, such as "coolness".

You know after thinking long and hard about this, I think that coolness is achieved when one has a certain amount of ability in a specific area (usually performative) accompanied by a large degree of self-confidence.

I mean, think about it. If coolness was merely whatever the cool kids did, then supercool icons (at least for me) such as John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Marlon Brando would never have been cool in the first place. Plus it begs a paradox: what did the cool kids do in the first place to get themselves into coolness status?

Perhaps it helps to think about what coolness is by considering that which it definitely is not. Anything that reeks of dependency or anxiety is definitely not cool.

Unless you somehow were to wear these traits as a sort of fashion. Then you would be not only cool but also a future stand up comedian.

Cool"ness, n.

1.

The state of being cool; a moderate degree of cold; a moderate degree, or a want, of passion; want of ardor, zeal, or affection; calmness.

2.

Calm impudence; self-possession.

[Colloq.]

 

© Webster 1913.