Most items mentioned are available in sizes XS-XXXL.

This stuff is not just for teenagers! Wear the dress to work with a cardigan; the trench with trousers. Pretend you didn't see those pre-torn jeans.

These are the jeans that you should wear with the previous trench. Plus: The Karmann-Ghia is my dream car!

Cotton blouse with lace inset! Under $32! Actually, everything on this page — except for the pre-torn jeans — is pretty great. And that includes the vintage luggage, which, sadly, is not for sale.

While all of these are cute, your best bet is the Sackrace dress. Cotton. In white or black. Up to XXXL. Forty bucks.

I have this dress. I get so many compliments on it. It's so crisp and easy and looks cool with silver bangles and gladiator sandals. Highly recommended; now on sale.

Skinny jeans! I know they are much-debated. I think they can be slimming. You may disagree. But check this out:

Wide leg, trouser cut and boot cut. From sizes 1-25. Awesome fall colors. All under $40.

More dresses! I've already ordered that drop-waist one on the left. I'll let you know how it goes.

The top and the dress are pretty great. Ixnay on the eansjay and the ootsbay.

I also ordered this blouse. Cotton! 35 bucks! I'll pair it with a pencil skirt and the kooky oxford heels I got at Payless.

[Alloy]

Look at how happy they are! Not a care in the world! I want what they have! And by that I mean $45 skinny jeans.

Cardigans are my life. Winter, spring, summer or fall. With dresses, pencil skirts, A-line skirts, jeans, sneakers, heels, evening gowns and pajamas. $39.50? I'll take one each in berry, black, oatmeal and heather gray, thanks.

Oh, and one of each on this page.

Whoa. Pass. They can't all be winners.

Even if you live in a place called OverThirty, as I do, and therefore probably won't wear this stuff, you can appreciate that there's something refreshing about these images. It's almost enough to quell a jaded soul.

Each one of these darling summer dresses is under 35 bucks. You're welcome.

Happy happy, joy, joy.

[Delias]

Los Angeles Times:

The tone of the pilot careens between an after-school special and "American Pie," with a bit of "Pretty in Pink" grabbed along the way. It is almost all about sex — and a little bit about family, but the subject there is largely sex, as well, and why it's not for the young. The sexually active kids we meet are either made unhappy by having it, or they're having it because they're unhappy. (Ricky's compulsion to sleep with every girl who crosses his path is shown to spring from his having been molested by his father.) Amy confides of her deflowering: "I'm not even sure it was sex. It wasn't fun and definitely not like what you see in the movies."

Or they're unhappy because they've never had it. In a most improbable conversation (in a show full of them, nerdy wiseacre Ben (Kenny Baumann) — who has decided almost arbitrarily to pursue Amy by getting himself into the marching band — tells his guidance counselor: "To be perfectly honest, Mark, it's all motivated by the fact that I'm 15, I'm a virgin, and if I want to have a sex life I've got to start somewhere."

Variety:

ABC Family's latest original drama wants to be a slow-motion version of "Juno" but settles for being an obvious, stereotype-laden teen soap, albeit more "North Hollywood, 91607" than the story of what happens in flashier, better-known SoCal zip codes. Series creator Brenda Hampton made family drama with religious underpinnings a long-running success on "7th Heaven," but teen pregnancy — especially on a youth-oriented network — is too important a subject for such shallow, ham-fisted treatment. The topic may find a receptive audience, but based on first impressions, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" should probably stay a secret.

The New York Times:

For a generation of young viewers raised on “The Simpsons,” “South Park” and “Degrassi Junior High” (not to mention reruns of “Sex and the City”) this kind of earnest, sound-out-all-the-syllables agitprop is almost comical, a parody of an after-school special. The occasional lapses into portentous symbolism are inadvertently hilarious. While Amy sneaks into the bathroom to take a home pregnancy test, her mother, played by Molly Ringwald, reheats Amy’s supper in the microwave. At the exact moment that the oven timer rings and reads “End,” Amy stares at the test results that will end life as she knows it.

That part is kind of fun. “Secret Life,” however, actually tries at times to be funny, and that makes it painful to watch. The peripheral presence of Ms. Ringwald, once the teenage heroine of John Hughes classics like “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles,” is almost taunting, a reminder that these teenage morality plays have been made many times before, much better.

The Hollywood Reporter:

Eschewing subtlety for overt exposition at every turn, “Secret Life” fairly screams, “This is a middle-age adult’s fear-mongering perception of high school life circa 2008.” And just in case we weren’t feeling quite old enough, it co-stars Molly Ringwald as the mother of our teenage protagonist. (Add your own “Oh, the humanity!” moan here.) An awkward cross between “7th Heaven” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” it stars Shailene Woodley as Amy, your basic band geek who naturally becomes pregnant after her very first sexual experience — this with the school stud, Ricky (Daren Kagasoff). The screw-’em-and-leave-’em Ricky also carries his own dirty secret, because this is the age of abuse and dysfunction and everyone is driven by internal demons too numerous to even imagine.

New York Daily News:

he Ben character is a smart move. But the real question is whether the writers can make Amy's story compelling or whether they will retreat into all those other soapy dramas.

For what it's worth, about half the teen actions and exchanges in the first episode ring true. So this could go either way.

On the bright side, the show treats the religious teen with respect, not giggles, and a Down syndrome child has an honest and sympathetic role as part of a family. It almost deserves an extra star just for having Ben refer to Blind Lemon Jefferson, a blues legend from the 1920s.

Syracuse.com:

Although the dialogue in the pilot episode was somewhat stilted, possibly owing to the need to hit all of the important issues in the choices teens face in being sexually-active or not, the episode did an excellent job in establishing characters and their familial relationships. Although some older teens might find the show preachy, "The Secret Life..." seems strongly suited to help spark dialogue between junior/senior high school students and their parents.

'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' premieres tonight on ABC Family at 8 p.m.

Earlier: Writer Blames Second-Wave Feminists For Failing To Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Washington Post:

What's wrong with "The Baby Borrowers," NBC's new domestic reality show? For starters, everything, and then again nothing — nothing that isn't wrong with most reality shows of similar bent.

Once you accept as givens the many foibles and failings of the format — exploitation and humiliation packaged as entertainment — "Baby Borrowers" is not without value, and value beyond whatever ratings it might earn for NBC, king of the have-no-shames. Insights into human behavior, particularly stress-driven behavior, are not beyond possibility. And at a basic, manipulative level, the show is bound to have you rooting for some of the contestants while hissing and booing others.

The New York Times:

Only one of the young women, Kelly, a student at Auburn University in Alabama, demonstrates a real knack for parenthood. She is horrified when Morgan, a fellow mother-in-training and a surfer from San Diego, changes a diaper without wiping the baby’s bottom first. Morgan, who is blond and sullen and dismissed by her boyfriend for her laziness, seems consistently surprised by the digestive habits of the very young. She constantly wears an expression of confusion, as if to say, “I auditioned for ‘The Hills’ and still don’t understand why I never got a callback.”

The experiment, which can get repetitive, also tests the solidity of each relationship. Morgan and her boyfriend, Daton, acknowledge their shakiness upfront, but the other couples seem to assume that they are strong enough to withstand the stresses of regurgitation and tantrums.

Los Angeles Times:

With its emphasis on the domestic, "The Baby Borrowers" has the potential to be that rare animal — a show for the whole family. Even the youngest children can appreciate a baby spitting out food or how gross it is to change a poopy diaper, teens will like seeing their peers mouth off and mess up, and parents, of course, will emerge feeling victorious, validated at last for all their unsung heroics.

But the take-away is probably sweetest for women over 30. All the young women on "The Baby Borrowers" are lovely to look at, with their flawless skin and unlined faces. But watching them whipsaw between independence and petulance, confidence and narcissism, those of us who have reached adulthood with our faculties intact can exult in the fact that, no matter what else happens in our lives, we will never, ever, have to be 18 again.

USA Today:

And that's the mind-boggling question at the center of NBC'sThe Baby Borrowers, TV's latest life's-a-joke assault on the boundaries of bad taste: Who in heaven's name would lend their infant out as a reality-show challenge? Yet there they are, five babies given to five teenage couples in a "groundbreaking experiment" that, as the show progresses, will find the same couples caring for toddlers, pre-teens, teens and, in the end, senior citizens.

Tonight at 8 ET/PT, Baby Borrowers wants to have things both ways, teasing you with the quickly dismissed possibility that the babies might be at risk while ignoring the cold, hard fact that they are at risk, no matter what safeguards exist. If the borrowers drop those babies, how could the show's "shadow nannies" catch them before they hit the floor? And even if the babies aren't in danger, what is the upside for them in this arrangement? They certainly don't seem very happy about it.

Variety:

As a consequence, viewers who endure the first few episodes will probably find themselves pulled along if only for the final crawl to see which couples survived the experiment.

At one point, as a toddler drives one couple to distraction, the kid's real mom — watching a monitor — wryly muses that this is the point where the pseudo-parents "run screaming for the condom aisle."

Newsday:

The conceit, and joke, of "The Office" is the idea that a documentary on office life is an absurdity wrapped in an inanity. What happens in an office? Well, people push paper around, and gossip, and go out after work, and ... In a sense, "Baby Borrowers" has embraced this conceit without embracing the absurdity. What is it like to raise a baby, whether you're a teen or adult? Well, it's really hard work, and babies burp and cry and you don't sleep much, and ... Yes, this is life, and yes, as subject matter for television, this is also boring. NBC clearly has serious intentions here (producer Tom Kelly, a "Survivor" alum, is a master of the form). Teenage pregnancy does exist (have you heard?) and this show wants to serve, on some level as a reality check. Such checks are fine. That doesn't make them watchable.

NPR:

Realism just isn't Baby Borrowers strong suit. The show's idea of simulating pregnancy is having its teenage contestants don fat suits. And even such a simple challenge is enough to drive a wedge between one couple, Kelly and Austin. [audio of Austin making fun of Kelly in a "suit like a pregnant lady," Kelly throwing a tantrum because he laughed at her and refusing to wear the fat suit] Yes, there is plenty of crying, whining, and whimpering on this show. And sometime you'll hear from the babies as well If poor Kelly can't deal with a fat suit, can you imagine her attempting breast-feeding?
[...]
A show like Baby Borrowers should really function as a gut-check for any teenager contemplating early parenthood. But too often it just goes for silly sight gags like dirty diapers.

"The Baby Borrowers" premieres tonight on NBC at 9/8 c.

Perhaps this study will help authorities take teen depression seriously, as I think youthful mood swings can often be dismissed as hormonal or intrinsic to adolescence. I had my first (and only, to date) period of serious, clinically-diagnosed depression at age 18. Afterwards, it made me mentally rewind and review all the other depressed phases I had been through.

That time when I was fourteen and cried for an entire summer — was that early evidence of my burgeoning depression, or was it hormonal? That month I couldn't sleep junior year of high school: Was that SAT stress, or suicidal ideation? I never came to any definitive conclusions, but hopefully with these newly released statistics, teenage depression will be explored more thoroughly.

More Than 2 Million U.S. Teens Depressed [Reuters via MSNBC]

Earlier: Are Men Less Likely To Be Depressed Because They Don't Even Know What It Is?
British Women Twice As Likely To Suffer From Depression; Three Times As Likely To Write About It

• Whoah. Prada Fall 2008 Menswear: Now featuring skirts! Oh yes, this is something guys would totally buy. [Chic Report]
  
• RIP Miu Miu menswear: The line will be discontinued as of the Spring 2008 collection. What, Miuccia just couldn't top skirts for men? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• WWD headline on Isaac Mizrahi's move from Target to Claiborne is: "Will He Hit Or Miz?" [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• And in other Claiborne news, the company is rumored to be in talks to license of its Dana Buchman label to Kohl's. [WSJ]

• Aeropostle, in an attempt to save the world and increase brand awareness, is launching a campaign called Teens for Jeans, encouraging its customers to donate their gently worn jeans at any Aeropostle store, to be given to homeless kids. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Anna Wintour must be a really good American Express customer: The credit card giant has just donated $500,000 to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which provides cash prizes to those young designers whom La Wintour deems worthy.
• Try to contain your excitement: Rihanna is doing a second umbrella line for Totes. [WWD, 2nd item]
• The after-party alone for Kate Moss's birthday last night cost approx. $40,000. [Vogue UK]
• Designer Charles Nolan on his latest philanthropic endeavors: "In the spring I'm hosting a group that's all about microlending...do you know that if you lend money to people, the 98 percent that pay you back are women? The two percent that don't—men!" His heart is in the right place. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Lily Donaldson, and Theodora Richards have been "brought on" by fashion label Joie to host a party for the house during Fashion Week to make the line seem hipper, cooler, younger, etc. Incidentally, Joie hired Vladimir Roitfeld (Julia's bro, Lily's beau) to put the party together. Incesterfuckin marvelous. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Saks Fifth Avenue's spring advertising campaign features not models but illustrations. Didn't Nordstrom just do that? [Sassybella]

"By the spring of the tenth grade, the [sexually experienced] teens were twice as likely to report a positive outcome from not having sex, when compared with adolescents who became sexually experienced during the course of the study." So yeah, the non-virgins are all, dude, don't do it. Sigh.

Tell it to Cheryl Tunney, an 18-year-old girl from Essex, UK. She says she lost her virginity at 16 and has slept with 50 men in the last two years, mostly from internet dating sites. She admits "that does seem quite a lot" and can "only remember about 40 of their names" but thanks to a BBC show in which she had a session with a sexologist, Cheryl has decided not to sleep around any more. "I now want to concentrate on my life and my future and try to make a career in hairdressing," she says.

Teens Find The Benefits Of Not Having Sex Decline With Age [Science Daily]
Girl, 18, Confesses In TV Documentary: 'I've Slept With 50 Men In TWO Years [Daily Mail]

A second study from the University of Minnesota suggests that girls who eat dinner with their families are less likely to develop eating disorders. A press release about the study says, "Among teen girls, those who ate five or more meals with their families each week in 1999 were significantly less likely to report using extreme measures (such as self-induced vomiting and diuretics) to control their weight in 2004, regardless of their sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index or family connectedness."

It goes to show that immediate social factors — your friends and family — are just as important in the developing body image as cultural factors like vaunted size-0 celebrities. So tell the teen in your life that you love them, and then go eat dinner.

Study: Girls' Self-Image May Affect Future Weight [AP via CNN]
Disordered Eating Less Common Among Teen Girls Who Regularly Eat Family Meals [EurekAlert]

i do it all the time it just feels so good and ou cant get and sexualy transmitted diseases by doing so just have fun this is TMI but i used a zucchine once o wow it was so good

• "Hah, I had this friend (she moved last year) who used to masturbate in public and she thought she was totally under the radar, but everyone noticed. It was really just odd, like in math class. Just odd. It's fine in privacy or with another person, but I cannot imagine a situation in which masturbation is appropriate in public."
• "yeah i have like 8 guys in my science class that all do it IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS. disgusting. it's a private thing seriously. we have a pretty young science teacher and she's pretty and skinny... i guess they can't help themselves... pfft."
• "i just wanted to ask you guys if mas.turbating makes you "half a virgin". i've heard it before and i'm wondering if it's true?"
• "ummmmm, whats eating out?"
• "when someone puts their tounge down there"
• "okay this might sound really dumb.. but what exactly is m.asturbating?? i dont know exactly what it is.. in detail can you explain it?? haha sorryyy."
• "its totally normal." but later in life you could become like, a sexaholic. yes those do exist lol
• haha i just keep thinking about that episode of sex and the city when charlotte wants to stay home with her vibrator instead of going out
• "..i had my period reeally heavy like last month and so i really wanted to be clean down there so i washed it in the shower and it ended up feeling good haha..but like idk what else!"
• "omg, thats like exactly how i found out about it. Actually, i didnt even kno what masterbating wuz when i started doin that. haha."

obsession with mastur.bating [Teen Vogue]

Doctors Blame Unwanted Pregnancies And STDs On Booze [Daily Mail]
Teenage Risks, And How to Avoid Them [NY Times]

Related: Girls 'Sell Themselves For beer' [News.com.au]

"Sometimes in the middle of our workout, we head down to the 7-Eleven to buy a hot dog."

Beg your pardon? Is this recommended? Perhaps the kids are confused. They don't realize that they're supposed to be focusing on exercise. And it could be because one chain of video game-based gyms has an environment in which:

"[t]he word 'exercise' doesn't appear in trade materials. Why? Mr. Hanson said his energetic clientele want to think they are just playing games."

Mom, I'm at the Gym Doing Homework (Really!) [NYT]