The scapgoats of insanity

Throughout western society, and probably eastern too, there is a stereotype on the stereotype of which we label "emo". The goths with feelings, the depressed, the sad, lonely teenager hiding behind thick eyeliner and dark fringes, supposedly prone to self harm. Now, being a teenager, I can name you hundreds of people who would argue against that, but is it true? In Russia, it was certainly considered to be so, and law's were passed against such sub-cultures, as it was considered dangerous. I'm not here to debate about that though, what I'm here to debate is, is thing singular stereotype simply taking the blame?

It is true that an alarming amount of teenagers who consider themselves to be amongst the darker stereotypes and social groups to resort to drugs, and self harm, but surly, they cannot be the only ones. In the UK, 84% of teenagers admitted to either self harming, or knowing of someone who had, now, you cannot tell me that all 84% were dressed in black skinny jeans. Has the label of someone who will self harm been thrown onto the most likely candidate to cover this up? If so, what effect is that having on the others?

People would perhaps consider the "popular girls" to be in hospital with an eating disorder, so does that make getting help harder for them? No such studies, to my knowledge, and therefore google have been carried out, so how would we know? Seeing as they play such an important (although, definitely not right) role in a teenage life, should sub-cultures and stereotypes be taken into account, or is it safer to ignore the lot? Just how big of an effect do clothes have on our mental health?