I’m Marrying My Middle School Crush
In the seventh grade, there was this boy. There are a lot of “boys” at that age, but he was different. He was the only…
My Friends Are Dead
Scrolling through Instagram in bed a few months ago, I saw a picture of my friend Anthony*. Before my brain processed…
Remembering My Teen Bully
The bully moved to town in fourth grade, when social groups were already solidified and best friends were already…
An Interview with the Boy (Now Man) Who Rejected Me in Seventh Grade
Of all the emotions, it’s humiliation that scars the most deeply. The memory of an embarrassing moment that happened…
All the Stupid Shit I Wore In High School
Throughout my teen years, I went to a small K-12 school in Kentucky where the bulk of my peers wore more-or-less the…
Emily's Teen Diary: 'Um... So... Casey Anthony.'
Having just moved back into my childhood bedroom in my parents’ house after graduating college, I’m in a whirlwind…
An Ode to Teen Hangout Spots
Everyone had their spot. They were the places we went to chill, escape or eat, to laugh, make out or decompress, to…
Ellie's Teen Diary: 'I Seriously Danced My Ass Off'
You really would not have been able to tell, from my barely touched and poorly-written teen diaries, that writing was…
What Do Teens Think About When They Think About HIV?
Teens today have never known a world where HIV was a certain death sentence. They missed the “plague years” of AIDS—the…
The Return of Brio, the Christian Teen Magazine I Hated to Read
When Focus on the Family launched Brio, a publication aimed at Christian teen girls in 1990, it was destined for…
Julianne's Teen (Drug) Diary: 'I Feel Like the Floor Is Padded'
I was 17 years old when I first experimented with LSD, late one weekend night while my mom was at work at one of her…
Animals Are Teenagers, Too
Animals, they’re just like us: they breathe, they eat, they like rubbing their genitals on things, they look cool in…
What a Bonkers Book About Horny Cave People Taught Me About My Own Body
Tough as it may be for the modern teen to believe, once upon a time—back in the technological dark ages—we did not have…
Do Teens Still Drive Around With Bulging, Battered CD Cases Full of Crap?
A question inspired by Teen Week 2017: Do teens still drive around with large binders full of CDs?
An Interview With the 18-Year-Old Taking Over New York City Politics
When I met Sarah Shamoon, I asked her what she was up to this summer like I was a cool adult trying to make a teen feel…
A Playlist of Bands We Pretended to Like As Teens
At an “Oktoberfest” carnival in 8th grade, I met a boy with blonde tips who was in an awful band and had a reputation…
Blood and Guts in High School: How Seventeen Made 'Traumarama'
As a teen, you could have read the wholesome Seventeen magazine for a lot of reasons. Maybe it was the tasteful fashion…
The One YouTube Video That Can Guide Me Home
Some people have a lot of personal or family adolescent traditions, customs centered around summer camp reunions,…
Kelly's Teen Diary: 'I Feel Like Bridget Jones, Except Without the Alcoholism'
I spent a huge amount of high school wishing I had a boyfriend and self-consciously pretending I didn’t care about boys…