[brudgers]

As soon as you put "teenage" in front of anything, the expectation is lowered.

Do things that are hard for programmers. Learn Emacs. Read Knuth.

The people who will take you seriously as a programmer will be people worth having take you seriously as a programmer.

[closavia]

So do I have to know more than someone who went to college and has been in the industry for a few years now in order to get taken seriously?

I find that very unfair. If it is the only solution, however, time to start reading Knuth's books.

[brudgers]

I am taking you seriously.

You can hold yourself to some absolute standard as a programmer or you can choose a sliding scale, and nobody can fault you for it, yet. But in the end, what really matters is what really matters, and I don't see any reason to recommend waiting.