For this generation of teens hugging [video | 02:35] seems to be all the rage at high schools around the U.S. “A measure of how rapidly the ritual is spreading is that some students complain of peer pressure to hug to fit in.” And in some schools hugging has banned. “Touching and physical contact is very dangerous territory,” said Noreen Hajinlian, the principal at a junior high school in Hillsdale, N.J., where hugging has been banned for two years.
posted by ericb on May 28, 2009 - 115 comments

The Problem With Young People Today Is... Self-described "crabby old fart" Donald Mills has some colorful opinions about "God damned teenagers." Via.
posted by amyms on May 24, 2009 - 70 comments

The 56-Euros-and-a-balloon teenage Catalonian space program.
posted by digaman on Mar 17, 2009 - 37 comments

What Girls Want - A series of vampire novels illuminates the complexities of female adolescent desire. (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless on Dec 1, 2008 - 226 comments

Evangelicals are very good at articulating their sexual ideals, but they have little practical advice for their young followers. Social liberals, meanwhile, are not very good at articulating values on marriage and teen sexuality—indeed, they may feel that it’s unseemly or judgmental to do so. But in fact the new middle-class morality is squarely pro-family.

The New Yorker discusses the red-state/blue-state divide in attitudes about premarital sex, sex education, and teen pregnancy: Red Sex, Blue Sex.
posted by Who_Am_I on Oct 31, 2008 - 153 comments

Joseph Szabo has been photographing his teenage students for the past twenty-five years, and has perfectly captured the ambivalence of that time of life. Samples from his books: Almost Grown, Jones Beach, Teenage, and Rolling Stones Fans.
posted by dobbs on Jun 30, 2008 - 20 comments

H.P. Papercraft (SLYT) "I knew putting internet in the basement was a bad idea!" [more inside]
posted by Del Far on Apr 4, 2008 - 15 comments

The Day of Purity is a day when youth can make a public demonstration of their commitment to remain secularly pure, in mind and actions. ... When you stand up for sexual pruity you send a message to parents, churches, communities, legislators, and the media that you want a better world. Be politically incorrect! Sponsored by Liberty Counsel. (via)
posted by mrgrimm on Feb 14, 2008 - 68 comments

The British documentary Britain's Youngest Brides follows five teen girls on their paths to the altar. My personal favorite is Catrina and her 308 pound wedding dress.
posted by miss lynnster on Aug 18, 2007 - 66 comments

A 15 year-old girl was dragged behind a van as punishment. Her crime was being unable to keep up on a forced run at an at-risk youths boot camp, Love Demonstrated Ministries. It's not the first time something like this has happened. These boot camps and reform schools are still in operation, so it will continue to happen.
posted by FunkyHelix on Aug 12, 2007 - 144 comments

Joey Lawrence. No, not that one.
posted by FunkyHelix on Jul 25, 2007 - 27 comments

Go skateboarding Day didn't end well for a bunch of teenagers in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Youtube Video. Unreasonable/Excessive force by the police? You decide.
posted by blaneyphoto on Jun 27, 2007 - 175 comments

Genarlow Wilson, now 19, had his sentence reversed today and is expected to leave prison shortly. He served two years of his ten-year-sentence for engaging in consensual sex acts with a fellow teenager. Previously discussed here.
posted by macrowave on Jun 11, 2007 - 52 comments

"For the quarter-century following World War II, a special kind of classroom film received wide circulation. These "mental hygiene" films thrived in a confused and nervous America. The rebellious behavior of young people challenging the social norms struck fear into the hearts of parents and educators, who saw dark futures for the teens who broke the rules and refused to fit in with society. These concerned adults embraced the metal hygiene film as a new means of delivering social guidance." Program One: Manners, Menstruation and The American Way; Program Two: Dating, Deliquency and Diversity; Program Three: Conformity, Safety and The Bomb

Special Bonus: Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, Mitch Rouse & Steven Colbert re-enact How To Be Popular (from Program Two).
posted by miss lynnster on Jun 8, 2007 - 28 comments

Are You There God? It's Me, Monica In equal parts a book review, investigative journalism and an autobiographical account; the author of this article takes on the topic of teenage oral-sex in the US today. There are no easy answers for the reader at the end, but it makes for fairly compelling reading. (Apart from some sexual terminology, the article is SFW) [via]
posted by your mildly obsessive average geek on Mar 16, 2007 - 71 comments

“We’re selling magazines to earn points in a contest to win a trip abroad,” begins the standard spiel. At any given moment there are roughly 2,500 of these fresh-faced teens travelling across the USA hawking subscriptions for periodicals door to door. Welcome to the violent exploitative world of the Magazine Crews. via
posted by maryh on Feb 22, 2007 - 98 comments

At a certain age, young people get seemingly uncontrollable urges. But, in accordance with God's plan, these urges must be controlled.
posted by punkfloyd on Nov 9, 2006 - 27 comments

Former Marine disarms 5 attackers They were teenagers, but still, 5 on 1, and two of them were armed? That's one well-trained Marine...
posted by tadellin on May 31, 2006 - 119 comments

73% of American Teens Experimenting with the Occult Fundamentalist religious research group the Barna Group has published the results of a study with 4000 teens that shows that a third of American teenagers have used a Ouija board, 1 in 10 have been in a real seance and 1 in 12 have cast spells or made potions. Also here, here. I for one blame this guy and this girl.
posted by tranceformer on Feb 5, 2006 - 77 comments

Rainbow parties were the big parent panic of 2005. Commentators have questioned the reality behind these representations, but a recent article in New York magazine describes the sex lives of a group of teenagers that seems consistent with the moral panic.
(More inside...)
posted by PeterMcDermott on Feb 3, 2006 - 123 comments

Teenager Repellant. Teenager Repellant. Kids loitering outside of your store? A Welsh inventor has created a device that emits a noise particularly irritating to those under 20 years of age (and no, it's not classical music.)
posted by fet on Nov 29, 2005 - 65 comments

Teenage tribes and Council sponsored "mayhem".
posted by lerrup on Aug 30, 2005 - 26 comments

It turns out that those boys who were hanged in Iran may not have been quite so innocent after all. [original post]
posted by dirtynumbangelboy on Aug 3, 2005 - 44 comments

Iran executes two teenagers. Their crime? Making love. Homosexuality is a crime under Sharia law. Meanwhile, newly "liberated" Iraq moves closer to embedding traditional Islamic laws in its new constitution, reducing rights for women. Will Iraqi gays be the next to suffer the wrath of "Allah's law" after years of secular oppression under Saddam Hussein?
posted by digaman on Jul 21, 2005 - 109 comments

Pity the parents of adolescent boys. Such creatures are horrible human beings -- unsocialized, inarticulate, sometimes savage little jerks with raging hormones and no judgment.
posted by Count Ziggurat on May 9, 2005 - 45 comments

"Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers" documents the findings and authors' conclusions from interviews conducted across 45 states.
A major theory in this study is called Moral Therapeutic Deism, a rather simplified belief system in which:
"God wants little more for us than to be good, happy capitalists...and to be good, happy capitalists, we should be good, unless if being good prevents us being happy." via via
posted by peacay on Apr 5, 2005 - 13 comments

Eminem is Right If yesterday’s rock was the music of abandon, today’s is that of abandonment
posted by konolia on Dec 11, 2004 - 96 comments

Bin Laden in Sweden Check out his HIP posse
posted by samlam on Nov 28, 2004 - 15 comments

Girl murders mother, posts about it on her blog. Oh yes, it's real. Many of the 1300+ comments on her last entry are defending her actions, or saying it's unfair to judge her. (via Waxy via Glassdog)
posted by zelphi on Nov 27, 2004 - 111 comments

Prussian Blue is a "white-power" band named after the color of the residue Zyklon-B leaves in a gas chamber. They do some originals, but mostly folk covers of neo-Nazi bands like Skrewdriver and RaHoWa. Oh, and they're twelve-year-old twin girls. (via Vice.)
posted by fungible on Nov 10, 2004 - 37 comments

American teens have spoken, and they want George W. Bush for president. Nearly 1.4 million teens voted in the nation's largest mock election, and the Republican incumbent wound up with 393 electoral votes and 55 percent of the total votes cast.
posted by Mick on Oct 21, 2004 - 49 comments

Attack of the Seven Teen Girls from Petaluma! Well, maybe not that title, but the story of teenage girls spending two years to convince developers to build a multiplex in their hometown would have made a great '80s teen flick. Armed with binders of business plans and black-and-white skirt suits, they succeeded, and broke ground Thursday. All because they were sick of asking Mom for rides.
posted by marzenie99 on Jan 30, 2004 - 13 comments

Weblogging, the fad most poplular amongst teenage girls, is dying. The "blogosphere" will number ten million souls by the end of 2004, but almost all of them will be dead.
posted by the fire you left me on Oct 8, 2003 - 31 comments

Ms. Gonick is a dooshe bag. Unfortunate experiences with a gaggle of teenagers in an enclosed space.
posted by kozad on Sep 3, 2003 - 43 comments

This review from ABC News, covers a new version of the New Testament - designed to look like a fashion magazine, and marketed towards teen girls. [more inside]
posted by ArsncHeart on Sep 1, 2003 - 130 comments

Sex between teenagers is illegal in Wisconsin. "Sex between kids is not legal," said Assistant District Attorney Lori Kornblum, who is prosecuting the case. According to the law, "Whoever has sexual contact or sexual intercourse with a person who has not attained the age of 16 is guilty of a Class C felony." There is no mention of consent. The boy's attorney will argue that children's privacy rights include the right to make "important decisions."
posted by Durwood on Aug 21, 2003 - 92 comments

Texting blamed for summer movie flops -Oh No! The good old days of 'Buying Your Gross' are gone. "No, the executives are not blaming such bombs as The Hulk, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle or Gigli on poor quality, lack of originality, or general failure to entertain. There's absolutely nothing new about that. The problem, they say, is teenagers who instant message their friends with their verdict on new films - sometimes while they are still in the cinema watching..." What's an honest marketing executive gonna do? [Via Arstechnica]
posted by kodas on Aug 20, 2003 - 35 comments

Teen abduction foiled by cell phone cam. And here I was saying that those phone cameras were simply gimmicky.
posted by zedzebedia on Aug 1, 2003 - 16 comments

Teenagers find the internet a frustrating experience A survey in the north east of England finds that teenagers are increasingly being alienated in their online experience because they aren't being given the skillsets to cope with finding or using the information. Seems to be the old story of schools buying computers but the kids not being engaged enough on how to use them (which has been the case since I was stuck in front of an Acorn Archimedes fifteen years go). Here is a similar article from Australia which describes how their eductation system is coping with the issue.
posted by feelinglistless on Jul 23, 2003 - 14 comments

Mississippi Gulag. Remember Tranquility Bay? Kids being forcibly deported to Jamaica, where they have to earn their right to speak by advancing in a perverted "level" system, with punishment ranging from laying on the floor for hours to painful "restraint" sessions? A report by Assistant Attorney General submitted on June 19, 2003 to Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove sheds light on two different "correctional" facilities, the Oakley and Columbia "Training Schools" in Mississipi. Boys and girls aged from 10 to 17 are hogtied for hours, pepper sprayed for disobedience, forced to eat their own vomit during exercises, or stripped naked and locked in a dark room for days because of suicide attempts. Between torturing sessions, they have to participate in good Christian prayers. These kids have to suffer abuse that would lead to a nationwide scandal if it happened to adults (or if sex was involved). AP has a brief summary.
posted by Eloquence on Jul 22, 2003 - 11 comments

Operation Teenage Angst Fest. Is all the war talk getting you down? Make like your younger self and wallow in some self-obsessed teen angst. You might even want to dig our your old journals and submit. Keep in mind the cardinal rule, though: it has to suck.
posted by maud on Mar 29, 2003 - 7 comments

On top of being a teenager, on top of surviving cancer, on top of losing a leg to that cancer, 13-year-old Lacey Henderson, formerly of East Denver's Hill Middle School, had to suffer death threats and epithets because of her condition. This is just sick.
posted by donkeyschlong on Feb 9, 2003 - 55 comments

Teenage Girls Not Getting Enough Meat... At least, not according to the American Beef Industry, which concoted this laughably ridiculous "lifestyle" site to appeal to god knows who, ostensibly focused on teen girl issues (prom? dating?), but with a thinly veiled meaty agenda beneath it all. Bonus points for the horrifically Avrilesque domain name. Marketing. It's what's for dinner.
posted by jonson on Feb 1, 2003 - 59 comments

Three Supreme Court Justices publicy oppose executing teenage criminals. In a rare move, Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Stevens made a public statement in a delay request to state their opposition to executing someone who committed murder before the age of 18. With the Court already banning the execution of the mentally retarded this year, is this another sign of a soon-to-be next step in the abolishment of the death penalty? Or does the average American still believe that regardless of what time, when you do the crime you walk the line?
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Aug 30, 2002 - 49 comments

Drug War Roundup III A 70% increase in the price of cigarettes seems to have dropped the teenage smoking rate by 7%. On May 15 you heard the Drug War Czar say anti-drug ads were a flop. He announced a new campaign the next day. San Franciscan test subjects in a medical marijuana study say they're given "low-potency ditch weed." Subjects in a similiar study in Canada say the weed they're given is way too good. Lastly, Canada is debating whether to decriminalize smoking pot on the heels of a committee conclusion that it doesn't lead to hard drug use, committing more crimes or driving fast.
posted by raaka on May 19, 2002 - 16 comments

"Children Drink 25% of Alcohol Consumed in the U.S." At least according to the attention-grabbing headline of a press release recently issued by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. The only problem is that it wasn't true. The organization had miscalculated the data, and the figure was actually closer to 11%. It was also misleading, since the word "children" included 18, 19, and 20 year-olds (who presumably do most of the drinking). Aside from yet another lesson in the inherent malleability of statistics, what conclusions should we draw from this study? Should we accept that teenagers are going to drink, and teach moderation? Or is stricter enforcement of the 21 age-limit the way to go? I'm also interested in the views of those living in (more enlightened?) countries with a lower drinking age.
posted by pardonyou? on Mar 1, 2002 - 22 comments

NY Times on female cruelty (subscription req'd) This is an insightful examination of cruelty by girls struggling for power in complex Middle School social hierarchies. Many points made about "girls" here also apply to young adult women -- at least the ones I know. In our tabloidized, materialistic culture, might adult women abandon such behavior someday? Link posted by Voyageman on a discussion page yesterday. Thank you Voyageman.
posted by mcgraw on Feb 26, 2002 - 10 comments

The nihilism of the new teenage criminal, as reported in this long, unsettling account in The Atlantic. Narcotized, unattached, deadened by imagery, "the goal for the bright ones is to truly mesmerize the middle class with violence." [via AL Daily.]
posted by argybarg on Feb 23, 2002 - 34 comments

"Why do so many young Americans end their own lives?" With so much attention focused on understanding why Islamic youths are so driven to suicide, this article I ran across about U.S teenagers really hit me hard: "The suicide rate for Americans aged between 15 and 24 tripled between 1950 and 1994.....but when it comes to working out why young people end their lives, much of the clarity of the research disappears."
posted by Voyageman on Dec 21, 2001 - 50 comments

Their learnding. "American 15-year-olds rank average in reading, math and science skills among their peers in highly industrialized nations, results the U.S. education secretary says are unacceptable." The article does not speculate on the causes of the poor performance. What do you think? Underpaid, under-qualified teachers? Too much TV? Math-Class-Is-Tough Barbie?
posted by gazingus on Dec 4, 2001 - 41 comments