This Teenage Life

I felt invisible and was bullied in high school and now I'm moving on. This is my story. 

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 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: into our daydreams.

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.