As a teenager, it can feel like you are constantly moving on from things - hobbies, friends, schools, ways of thinking, and more. This can be exciting, but also sad or confusing. In this episode, the teens discuss things they've had to move on from and the emotional dimensions of the process. 

For folks applying to college in the United States, applications are almost due! This time can feel incredibly stressful and overwhelming, but having conversations with peers going through the same thing can help. In today's episode, the teens discuss various aspects of college applications - financial aid, social comparison, finding support, and advice that helped them. 

In this episode, the teens describe moments when they feel purposeful and their understandings of the idea of purpose. We speak with Dr. Tony Burrow, a professor who studies purpose and researches the health benefits of purpose. Through his research, Dr. Burrow helps us reframe and examine the many benefits of cultivating senses of purpose. You can learn more about Dr. Burrows work here.

Thank you to the Purpose Commons, a project of Hopelab, for sponsoring this episode. The Purpose Commons is a dynamic learning network where collaborators across the youth development ecosystem work together on projects that put the science of purpose to work for young people.

Small comments can really hurt, especially when they’re rooted in racism, misogyny, or other identity-based biases. In this episode, two teens discuss microaggressions, focusing, in particular, on actions and comments they’ve experienced about their hair.

Crushes can be fun, horrible, nerve-wracking, day-dreamy... they combine all the feelings and they're different for everyone. In this episode, we talk about how crushes make us feel, how we feel about them, and some cultural differences when it comes to talking about crushes.

In addition to being a medical issue, the pandemic has also led to a mental health crisis. In this episode, one member of This Teenage Life shares her personal story of isolation and depression during quarantine.

No one at This Teenage Life is a mental health professional, but here are some resources in case you or someone you know is experiencing depression:

Materials from the Child Mind Institute:

Overview of Depression: https://childmind.org/guide/depression-in-kids-quick-guide/

Depression in Teenagers: https://childmind.org/article/what-are-the-symptoms-of-depression-in-teenagers/

Depression Treatment: https://childmind.org/article/treatment-for-depression/

In case you or someone you know is having thoughts of self-harm:

Help-Line in India:
India http://www.aasra.info/helpline.html

Help-Line in the United States:
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

At This Teenage Life, we all experience anxiety in different ways — feelings in our chest, sweat on our palms, repetitive thoughts. On this episode, we talk about our experiences of anxiety and the various strategies and coping mechanisms we've developed to manage it.

They might make us look “better,” but they don’t always make us feel better about who we are and what we look like. In this episode of This Teenage Life, we’re hearing people’s perspectives and experiences with photo filters — like the ones we use (or choose not to use) on Instagram, Snapchat and Tik Tok.

Thanks to Raya, Sophia, Jayden, and Tori for inspiring this episode.

A lot of folks in This Teenage Life are going through post-high school changes right now, and with that, comes a lot of feelings of inadequacy. These feelings seem to always be present regardless of what we're doing, and in today's episode, we explore them and start to figure out how to reframe and move past them.

In a world with so much pressure to excel academically, make family proud, and maintain financial stabiliity, it can feel difficult to pursue creative passions. These passions often get pushed aside as school and career planning takes over. But what if creativity is part of your job? 

In this episode, the teens share their thoughts on favorite creative practices, how that's changed as they've gotten older, and whether or not they plan to pursue their creative passions in the future. We also chat with Peter Ha, a graphic designer in Canada, about what its like to pursue a creative career. He shares his journey of getting into the design field, thoughts on external pressures, and advice for young creatives. 

For more information on Peter, visit his personal website and Equal Parts Studio. 

Join us as we delve into the ways books transport and transform us.

This episode is extra special not only because of the topic, but because you'll hear from our new This Teenage Life chapter — listeners from an ocean away who reached out to come together and share their stories.

Here in the U.S., we're transitioning from summer to fall, from vacation to back-to-school. This Teenage Life is starting it's fourth season and the original crew members are starting new chapters in their lives now that high school is finished and new jobs and colleges await. At the same time, folks from younger groups are going through a big transition themselves: in-person high school for the first time.

In this episode of This Teenage Life, we're talking through our anxieties and hopes for our next chapter as we launch our fourth season.

Our hearts break for Kabul today as the Taliban take over the city. We stand with our friends there. Shame on world leaders for this tragedy.

This episode is a narrative piece by Cloe Moreno, the artist for This Teenage Life, and centers around her relationship to body image. Through her own reflections and a conversation with her mom, she tells her story about grappling with an eating disorder— how it started for her and how she is overcoming it.

Warning: This episode might be triggering for some. If that's the case, just switch to another great episode of This Teenage Life:)

Over the years, we've received a lot of emails from listeners about friendship — how to make friends, keep them, and how to processing friend breakups. In this episode of This Teenage Life, we're talking about friendship and some of the messiness that comes with being a human trying to connect with others.

With all their hip dips, pimples, stretch marks, and fat, bodies are cool and beautiful because of everything they do for us. How can we learn to love them despite societal critiques and unrealistic standards? 

In this episode, we talk about specific insecurities, the comments and comparisons that have helped foster them, and the practices we've developed to love our bodies just the way they are.

This episode contains some audio clips from a previous episode about body insecurities — we'll actually be adding some new clips soon as well but wanted to get something out this week:)

In this episode, inspired and hosted by a listener-turned-contributer named Lydia, we process feelings around parents' divorces. Check out Lydia's independent work at wildflowerszine.com.

For better or for worse, how feminine or unfeminine we are can define how we’re treated in the world — and how we think about ourselves. In this episode, Olivia discusses her relationship with femininity. 

President Biden signed into law that Juneteenth is now recognized as a national holiday. This Teenage Life contributors shared their feelings about Juneteenth and its importance to them, especially in the context of Black history being recognized as US history. 

Music credit: Molly Zucchet normally makes all our music but this episode sampled from Lobo Loco on Creative Commons.

Many of us grew up consuming tv, movies, or social media that portrayed teenagehood in a very specific way - parties, sweet 16 birthdays, first kisses, drivers licenses, sleepovers, and more! There can be pressure to do all these things while still a teenager, but is this realistic? In this episode, the teens discuss how they approach the typical "teenage bucket list," grapple with stress to be a certain way, and live authentically in the present. 

Access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world is still unequal and that needs to change. But in the US, despite the spread of some misinformation, vaccination has continued. Excitingly, sometime this week, 12-15 year-olds are set to be approved to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

In this episode, we explore our feelings about differences in vaccination status between already-vaccinated older teens vs. younger ones and we interview biologist, Dr. Lillian Cohn to answer some questions we have about COVID-19 and the vaccine.

Here are some RESOURCES if you want to learn more about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines.

Links to Articles:

• Articles from KidsHealth
• FAQ from the CDC
• Myths and Facts about the vaccine from the CDC

Some explanatory videos:

• How COVID-19 makes you sick
• What is a vaccine — a broad overview 
• COVID-19 Vaccine Explained by VOX

Sending our support to our listeners in India, given the dire Covid-19 situation there.

In this episode, we explore the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?", and share the anxieties it evokes in us. 

It has been just over a year since our quarantining and social distancing began on March 13th, 2020. We have experienced feelings of grief, loss, isolation, and now — with vaccines coming out — some hope. In this episode, we combine conversations from over the past few months with journal entries to reflect on our first year experiencing a global pandemic.

Because of the pandemic, we're no longer waking up and getting ready to go to school in the same way. What do we do instead? In this episode of This Teenage Life, which was inspired by a listener from Missouri, we talk about our morning routines.

There are all these weird implicit social rules while texting. Should I add an exclamation mark? What does their “ha” mean? In this episode of This Teenage Life, we explain some of the norms we abide by while texting.

Casual interactions are harder to come by in COVID. In this conversation, we talk about struggling to maintain friendships and struggling with ways to reach out to other people.

Hair can be a huge part of our cultural identities and sense of ourselves. However, as authentic, inner confidence grows, it can also become less important to us. In this episode, Cami and her mom reflect on hair loss and the connection between hair, race, and culture. Their conversation, while ostensibly about hair, also reveals a lot about the admiration and love between a mother and a daughter.

There's so much tied up in hair - cultural significance, identity expression, and more. On this week's episode of This Teenage Life, we're talking about our experiences with our hair.

We might be stuck inside during a global pandemic, but in our heads, we’re going places. We're rockstars, comedians, novelists, and boxers. In this episode of this Teenage Life, we discuss feelings of burn out and where we go to escape those feelings: our daydreams.

In this new series, we chat with individual TTL participants about their life as a teenager in this exact moment. This episode features Saniya, a 16 year old from Canada, as she discusses familial pressures, starting her junior year of high school, racial dynamics in her city, pursuing soccer, and more. 

We cherish connection but in the pandemic, we’re struggling to foster the kind of closeness that comes from casual interactions with people. In this episode, we talk about our feelings of disconnection and how we’re trying to reach out and reconnect.

Today was a historically jarring and upsetting day — a mob raided and vandalized the U.S. Capitol.

This isn't a normal episode. We made it in the last few hours and it's several of us processing our feelings and the surreal nature of today, trying to make sense of it all. 

It's a particularly weird holiday season. A lot of us are feeling particularly isolated right now. In this episode, we talk about our feelings of loneliness — when we feel lonely and what we do when we get these feelings.

Also, we'd love to expand creative communities like ours. We're thinking of starting a listener-based This Teenage Life club. Email us at team@thisteenagelife.org if you're interested in joining:)

Clear skin, slim thick bodies — we’re often taught to associate our self worth with how we line up with societal expectations about beauty. In this episode, we speak openly and honestly about our body insecurities, where they come from, and how we are working on them. Below are awesome resources that help to cultivate more self-love. Here's:

• A video and article about what body positivity is.
• An incredible video by Dove that shows how the beauty industry sets completely unrealistic expectations about bodies.
• A This Teenage Life blog post about acne and an article about acne positivity.

It can happen when you're filling out a form or checking out at the grocery store: an imposter-syndrome feeling that occurs when you're doing something "adult, while inside, you're still feeling like a total child. On this episode of This Teenage Life, we talk about feeling like awkward "pretend adults."

What does it mean to reach across the aisle and try to understand "the other side?" In this post-2020 election episode, we hear from two young people who founded a company called Civil Tea that's working to bring young people together to engage in dialogue.

We’re on edge. It’s a historic election, an extremely divisive moment in US history, there’s a pandemic and a climate emergency. We have all kinds of feelings as election day approaches. On this episode of This Teenage Life, we talk about our feelings about the 2020 presidential election.

Structural oppression is just that: structural. So without structural change, can our actions make a difference? In this episode, we discuss individual approaches to allyship and how these practices connect with our desires for a more just society.

Trader Joe’s meatballs in marinara sauce. Frozen grapes. Jalapeno chips. In this episode, we take a break from heaviness and talk about our favorite snacks.

Climate change is the biggest issue facing our world today, and has a special significance for young people as the generations most in need of change yet often without the opportunities to make change. In today’s episode, Molly and Olivia discuss climate change from a young person’s perspective.

Graduating from high school is an exciting milestone to celebrate, but it can also be overwhelming! No matter what path you take, there are so many new unique challenges to face like homesickness, “adulting” tasks, and building new relationships. In this episode, some of our participants in India share their experiences being out of high school and taking on the adult world.

Here at This Teenage Life, we’ve uncovered a phenomenon called “too muchness.” It’s a fear of being “too much” that can lead to self policing that holds us back from being our authentic selves. In this episode, we talk about our fears and critiques of “too muchness,” how it feels, and where we think it comes from.

It's a tough time. Fires. A pandemic. Political turmoil. When we're at home and feeling sad, angry, or anxious, what are some strategies we use to comfort ourselves? In this episode of This Teenage Life, we discuss what we do to make ourselves feel better.

Right now, many students and teachers are going "back to school," which looks very different this year. Many people will be experiencing school remotely, including us here at This Teenage Life. In this episode, we discuss our thoughts about remote learning, and explore our ideal scenarios for remote projects.