I'm glad to hear that you have some family members in your corner!
It's kind of cool how these young people can see the hypocrisy and total BS in the organization.
But, unfortunately, a lot of them will get sucked back in due to a very normal adolescent behaviour. They will see becoming JW as a means of gaining approval from the adults around them, particularly their parents.
I went through very similar feelings during my adolescence. I realized that the WTS was no different from any other religion. I knew that Armageddon would never happen in my lifetime, if at all. I even went so far as to tell my dad (who was a MS at the time) that I was sure the JWs were a cult. I was about 15 at the time.
Then, things started happening. I stopped getting invited to spend time with JW friends, and they wouldn't accept invitations to spend time with me. I was dragged to the meetings by my parents. I did NOT want to go, and I let it show by sitting there with my arms crossed. I would roll my eyes and shake my head and give them such looks of unfiltered disdain and repugnance. When my father would say the blessing before meals, I sat there silently mocking his unheard prayers. It went on for MONTHS. I would write poems about how I felt. I also started liking a boy at school, and one of my school friends and I started exchanging notes in class. Those notes and poems and short stories were the things that I needed to sustain me until I could get out on my own.
Then one day, after school, my mom sent my brothers outside to play. Once they were outdoors, she started screaming at me. She had gone through my room and found my "stuff". She had a note that I had exchanged back and forth with my friend at school where I had said that I wished this boy I liked would go to the graduation party with me. She had read my stories about how I felt. She was hateful, and yelled at me with such venom, that I will never forget it (she has forgotten, of course). She called me a whore. She refused to give me back my things. She put them someplace and threatened that if I didn't "smarten up" she was going to show them to my dad and the elders. She said that if I was going to be a whore, that she would make sure I ended up on the street like the filth I was. When I said something to the effect that 'the Bible says that extortioners will not inherit the Kingdom', she started hitting me over and over and over; saying the most hateful vicious things a person could possibly say to a 15 year old girl. She only stopped when I collapsed. When I regained consciousness, I stayed still and quiet for a long time, and then silently made my way to my bedroom and went to sleep. Apparently, she lied to my father and told him that I was sick. And that was the first of several beatings that I received from my mother; eventually I just went through the motions of accepting JWism quietly, submissively because I was so afraid of what my mother was capable of doing to me. Even though I hadn't done anything bad, my mother always made a point of saying how 'untrustworthy' I was because I had serious doubts about the organization. Then it became my 'mission' to regain her trust again; and I thought the best way to do that was to become a R&F JW. Although I regret not having stood by my original decision back then, I really don't think I could have done anything differently. This was way back in the 70s, and kids now are a lot more savvy than then.
You are all very lucky to have the kind of support you have here and among your friends and relatives. I wish I had had it when I was your age. If we xJW grown ups can do anything to help you guys, I for one would be happy to do that. I've often thought that a scholarship fund for xJW kids of JW parents who've disowned them would be a great thing to do.
Love, Scully
It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as being false. - WT 11/15/63
