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| Weekend Reads: Those Terrible Teenage Years | Weekend Reads: Those Terrible Teenage Years |
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| I watched the superb movie “Eighth Grade” this week, a film about the awkward inner life of a girl about to finish middle school. Her agonies made me squirm and recall my own emotional roller coaster at that age. The mom in me wanted to let her know that everything would be O.K. | I watched the superb movie “Eighth Grade” this week, a film about the awkward inner life of a girl about to finish middle school. Her agonies made me squirm and recall my own emotional roller coaster at that age. The mom in me wanted to let her know that everything would be O.K. |
| So this weekend I wanted to share some favorite recent pieces on the fraught teen years. Several I found revolved around the anxiety many teens feel. What can adults do to understand what they are going through? What should we remember as we try to guide them through rough times? These might be a starting point for answers. | So this weekend I wanted to share some favorite recent pieces on the fraught teen years. Several I found revolved around the anxiety many teens feel. What can adults do to understand what they are going through? What should we remember as we try to guide them through rough times? These might be a starting point for answers. |
| Other writers were grappling with issues like racial bias and the cultural forces that contribute to school shootings. All I could think was that our young people deserve a better world than the one we’re leaving them — and I hope we can create it. One of my favorites in this collection argues for lowering the voting age to 16. A little power at the ballot box could go a long way. | Other writers were grappling with issues like racial bias and the cultural forces that contribute to school shootings. All I could think was that our young people deserve a better world than the one we’re leaving them — and I hope we can create it. One of my favorites in this collection argues for lowering the voting age to 16. A little power at the ballot box could go a long way. |
| Teenagers are struggling with anxiety more than any other problem, perhaps more than ever before, the psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary writes. There’s a good chance that it is anxiety that is driving teenagers (and the rest of us) to escape into screens as a way to flee fears. | Teenagers are struggling with anxiety more than any other problem, perhaps more than ever before, the psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary writes. There’s a good chance that it is anxiety that is driving teenagers (and the rest of us) to escape into screens as a way to flee fears. |
| There is a darker side to adolescence that, until now, was poorly understood: a surge during teenage years in anxiety and fearfulness, the psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes. Largely because of a quirk of brain development, adolescents, on average, have a harder time learning how not to be afraid than either children or adults. | There is a darker side to adolescence that, until now, was poorly understood: a surge during teenage years in anxiety and fearfulness, the psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes. Largely because of a quirk of brain development, adolescents, on average, have a harder time learning how not to be afraid than either children or adults. |
| When it comes to electing lawmakers whose decisions about gun control and other issues affect their lives, high schoolers lack any real power. This needs to change: The federal voting age in the United States should be lowered from 18 to 16, argues Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor. He explains the studies of cognition skills that support his argument. | When it comes to electing lawmakers whose decisions about gun control and other issues affect their lives, high schoolers lack any real power. This needs to change: The federal voting age in the United States should be lowered from 18 to 16, argues Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor. He explains the studies of cognition skills that support his argument. |
| When black boys become teenagers, their parents face hard choices. To keep a child safe, they may have to tell him that he risks being targeted by the police, simply because of the color of his skin. How should parents impart this information while maintaining their child’s pride and sense of self? | When black boys become teenagers, their parents face hard choices. To keep a child safe, they may have to tell him that he risks being targeted by the police, simply because of the color of his skin. How should parents impart this information while maintaining their child’s pride and sense of self? |
| Gay kids, especially closeted ones, don’t necessarily have the real-life opportunities for intimacy that straight kids do. So they go online. What can we do to help them stay safe? | |
| Michael Ian Black, the actor and comedian, wrote this reflection on masculinity after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “I believe in boys. I believe in my son,” he writes. “Sometimes, though, I see him, 16 years old, swallowing his frustration, burying his worry, stomping up the stairs without telling us what’s wrong, and I want to show him what it looks like to be vulnerable and open, but I can’t. Because I was a boy once, too.” | Michael Ian Black, the actor and comedian, wrote this reflection on masculinity after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “I believe in boys. I believe in my son,” he writes. “Sometimes, though, I see him, 16 years old, swallowing his frustration, burying his worry, stomping up the stairs without telling us what’s wrong, and I want to show him what it looks like to be vulnerable and open, but I can’t. Because I was a boy once, too.” |
| From the columnist Charles Blow, writing about teenagers and self-acceptance: “Life is an endless negotiation with ourselves and with the world about who we are — the truest truth of who we are — and whether we have the mettle to simply be us, all of us, as we are, backlash notwithstanding.” | From the columnist Charles Blow, writing about teenagers and self-acceptance: “Life is an endless negotiation with ourselves and with the world about who we are — the truest truth of who we are — and whether we have the mettle to simply be us, all of us, as we are, backlash notwithstanding.” |
| Also from Laurence Steinberg: We lament the delayed entry of young people into adulthood. But prolonged adolescence, in the right circumstances, is actually a good thing. It fosters novelty-seeking and the acquisition of new skills. | Also from Laurence Steinberg: We lament the delayed entry of young people into adulthood. But prolonged adolescence, in the right circumstances, is actually a good thing. It fosters novelty-seeking and the acquisition of new skills. |
| Josephine Sittenfeld, a photographer, was sorting through her high school bedroom and created this poignant photo essay about what she discovered. “My takeaways from a weekend visiting my former self? I was boy-crazy. I worked really hard in school. I yearned for a bigger, more exciting life.” | Josephine Sittenfeld, a photographer, was sorting through her high school bedroom and created this poignant photo essay about what she discovered. “My takeaways from a weekend visiting my former self? I was boy-crazy. I worked really hard in school. I yearned for a bigger, more exciting life.” |
| New research corroborates what black women have long known: People across gender and race see black girls as more adultlike than their white peers. Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociology professor, writes about how that contributes to people excusing violence against black women and girls. | New research corroborates what black women have long known: People across gender and race see black girls as more adultlike than their white peers. Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociology professor, writes about how that contributes to people excusing violence against black women and girls. |
| After the March for Our Lives rally, the historian Jon Grinspan wrote about times that young Americans changed the country's politics, even in periods of bleak partisan divide. Will they do it again? | After the March for Our Lives rally, the historian Jon Grinspan wrote about times that young Americans changed the country's politics, even in periods of bleak partisan divide. Will they do it again? |