WE ARE A TEAM

On the same page, we all sail,

That forces us to spurge through,

The world where we live in,

Seems much more than we foresee.

On the same trails, we all walk past

People say experience the haul,

But we want to fantasize

Every fact, that isn't right

On the same pond, we all dive in

Fish bowling every situation

Rebels are what we hear of us

But strange words don't bother much.

That's why we are a team !

As they call us "Simply a Teen"

That's how different we are

And it will take time for them to reach that far.

 LETTER FROM A GUY WHO ONCE WAS A TEEN

Neglected by parents and never had a friend,

Never had a true love, Never had a love to end.

My advice for such a Young man,

Is first cry and be blue;

For this time will soon bend,

Into a world of Do and New.

Don't say "Well at least I'm Grateful",

For this thing and that,

For gratitude leaves no Solitude;

To change things that go Splat !

Instead, make a list of ten things,

To help you to move forward,

And make a list of another ten,

To help you to move Toward.

TOP TEEN GIRL PROBLEMS

1. Appearance:

This probably features as the number one problem on every teenage girl’s problem list. This is the time when her body is constantly changing, and she must cope with it. To top it, she keeps seeing and hearing about these figure-perfect bodies. Media and peer pressure also play havoc.

Solution:

1) Monitor your teenager very closely.

2) Discuss how these ‘looks’ are more of fads.

3) See to it that your young girl doesn’t adopt unhealthy eating habits.

4) Ensure the people she spends time with do not act in an adverse manner.

2. Education:

This is a time when your teenage girl must constantly prove her mettle by scoring high, doing well in exams and on other educational fronts. This creates immense pressure on your young girl and leads to stress and undue pressure.

Solution:

1) Make your teenage girl understand that she should study well and score good marks, but that grades are no way of judging someone. Low grades do not make anyone less educated or less talented. There is always another test she can prove herself in.

2) Encourage her to take up extra-curricular activities that she likes. This will help her unwind while building more focus and concentration power.

3. Dating:

Teenage already comes with a lot of problems and challenges. The sudden increased flow of sex hormones inside the body makes it even worse. You might find your girl falling for her first crush and vulnerable to romantic liaisons. A lot of teenage girls experience healthy crushes and early-age love too. However, peer pressure, changing times and the advancement of media has sort of associated sex to such teenage romantic relationships. This makes your teenager girl feel that sex it but natural in romantic relations even at an early age. Also, this is an extremely confusing time for her, in terms of precautions, safe sex and how much involvement is okay and by choice.

Solution:

1) Tell her it is perfectly alright to say no to sex.

2) Educate her on the sex front. It is very important for you to pass all relevant information about sex as and when she grows. Be open and discuss sex with her, it is not a taboo.

3) Teach her how to be safe and all about precaution too, as you may not always be able to control her relationships.

4. Bullying:

Bullying is one of another teenage girl issues which bothers them a lot. This starts affecting their personality and behavior. Your teenage girl might also feel depressed and reac

t strangely by keeping to herself.

Solution:

1) Make sure your teenage girl discusses everything with you.

2) If you feel she is being bullied, advise her on how to face it and stand up against it.

3) Teach her how she can come out of such situations and how you too were bullied sometimes when young. Children should know that they are not the only ones who face such problems. This eases them out a bit.

5. Friendship:

Teenage makes every relation seem complex. Even the beautiful bond of friendship often meets shaky grounds. This is because as a teenager, your child is developing social skills. Your daughter might love her best friend one moment and might pick an ugly fight the next. This may result in aggression and mood swings.

Solution:

1) Teach your teenage girl that it is alright to fight with friends. But fights don’t make any friend bad.

2) It is alright to have problems and difference of opinions. Even her best friend might not always agree with her on something.

3) The best way is to discuss these problems and then forget about them.

4) Monitor the kind of friends she makes. Ensure she is in the right company.

5) Teach her that it is okay to apologize when wrong.

     A day in the digital life of teenagers

With each generation the public consciousness conjures up a new fear for our youth: where once it was rock ‘n’ roll, today the concern is that teenagers’ lives are dominated by digital media. The worry is that the digital deluge may affect their capacity to learn, to converse, to spell, and more besides. Have they no time for the leisurely face to face conversations of old, for spending time with family, or even for a good night’s sleep uninterrupted by the glowing screen of a smartphone? 

The walk home from school turned out to be a significant moment for the teenagers – a relaxed time in between one thing and another, away from adult scrutiny. It was often the last chance to talk to friends face-to-face before returning home – where the teenagers would reconnect online. They liked to stretch this journey out, unwinding from the demanding rhythm of the school day. While their phones were in hand frequently checking for messages and sharing updates and jokes, the point was to spend time together, face to face.

This insight into the lives of 28 teenagers reveals how diverse their lives and approaches are. While most possess phones and use Facebook, they use them differently to pursue different interests, sometimes deployed to connect with others and sometimes to tune them out. There are many reasons for this, but the more we know about teenagers’ lives the clearer it becomes that young people are no more interested in being constantly plugged in than are the adults around them. What they want is to have the choice of when and where to disconnect from the often rule bound and conflicted world of grown-ups they find themselves in.

Digital devices and the uses they put them to have become teenagers’ way of asserting their agency  – a shield from bossy parents or annoying younger siblings or seemingly critical teachers, a means to connect with sympathetic friends or catching up with ongoing "peer  drama". In fact the overriding importance of agency to teenagers is shown in the way they avoid the growing of their digital embrace of school – teachers’ use of digital media in class or email or the internet to contact them at home is met with whispers and even slower walks home, so as to extract the maximum time spent with friends and unobserved by adults.

As adults and parents, we might spend less time worrying about what they get up to as teenagers and more time with them, discussing the challenges that lie ahead for them as adults in an increasingly connected world.