Well I'm 18, I started about 1 and a half years ago, but only actaully been playing for a year... um.. I know what your saying about little teenagers.. it's awful to hear some little kid has just figured out how play that solo from [fill in the blanks] song by steve via... it does get you down sometimes, and then you hear them in thier little bands..:D
The great thing is though, that your learning curve is far far far steeper than that of a 13 or 14 year old... I mean I over took alot of younger players who had been playing for years, not because I'm amazing or anything, it's just your learning curve differes at different ages... plus I think learing to play when your older gives a more mature side to your music (your not just another 12 year old wanna be constantly practicing scales or playing that Steve Via song over and over), the disadvatage is you (normally) wont have as much free time cos you've got commitments...
I'm pretty much self taught.. I lack any decipline what so ever, I just improvise alot... and I only do anything complicated or whatever when I'm struck with an idea... still I'm fairly happy with the way I'm I'm going, I'm learing some music theory, and starting to REALLY listen to music and try to play along (cos I had a problem with certain rythems like blues.. the books I've got explain blues rythem very very badly, and jazz in general isn't explained too well either)...
What does make me smile is listening to a 13/14 year old singin' something they wrote... 9 out 10 are rip offs, or just plain crap... then at 16 something magical happens to them, they become adventurous (so not every band at sounds like blink 182/ sum 41 etc having said that tough there is a band called thundermonkey in the year below us, when i used to go to school, that are just plain ripp off cack, so really the music is really is as individual as the person)... and it goes up from there..
sorry about the length of this thread...
