Is Max a typical teenager?

From the beginning of the montage it is clear that Max would not be considered your everyday typical teenager. The differences between him and your normal teenager are quite startling. Most people would consider a typical teenager to be a hooded youth, walking around the streets, swearing, smoking, and all sorts of other mannerisms. There is of course the other view of a teenager that most directors seem to depict, and that is the usual spotted faced video game addict, without a girlfriend. From first glances we begin to think that Max could in fact be a typical teenager like these. But we come a bit more uncertain as we take a look at the various social clubs and activities that he is apart of.
The difference between Max and your typical teenager suddenly becomes quite obvious as we look at the groups and clubs that he is part of, not only are most of these of a strange nature he is also part of a vast array of activities from beekeeping to flying.

We could of course look at these activities from another view, possibly the view his mum holds, we could in fact take it that Max is an extremely ambitious, social character, not much dissimilar as how we would all like to be. He may in fact want to exceed further than his peers and excel in every field possible. But there is of course the other factor that maybe Max sees himself as a social outcast and maybe he feels that the only way to feel popular is by being in a variety of clubs. Its also worth noting that Max appears to be either the leader or creator of the majority of the groups he is a part of, this shows to me that he feels that he needs to be in charge and on top of his game at all times.

Only when we view the montage again, and really take notice of these groups, do we soon become aware that Max may in fact be nothing like a typical teenager. The reason being the company he keeps, everyone in his groups, as far as we can tell, appears to be younger than him. But not by just a few years, there seems to be a dramatic difference in ages. Most typical teenagers would not like to associate themselves with younger 'children' as it may make them seem week, and socially inept.
But it seems to be the opposite for Max; he seems to strive from the fact that his is the elder of various groups of children. In fact it may be that he enjoys the power and responsibility that he gets from these younger figures as they look up to him.

It is quite clear that Max strives to be great in pretty much any field of activity that he comes across, but we also see that he may be a social reject among his peers, and so he is forced to lead and be responsible for the young in his school.