This is one rule about mixing boys and girls: that a date always comes first.

One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No ‘poof.’ No flash of light. No explosion.

As girls, we will do anything for the person whom we love. We will scale buildings in the rain or run through fire if it means saving our love’s life. There is absolutely nothing more...

As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes,...

Embrace your beautiful mess of a life with your child. No matter how hard it gets, do not disengage… Do something—anything—to connect with and guide your child today. Parenting is an adventure of the greatest...

And although I broke a lot of laws as a teenager, I straightened out immediately upon turning eighteen, when I realized the state had a legal right to execute me.

Dear Teens at Starbucks wearing ‘Abstain from Sex 2 Attain Ur Goals’ t-shirts: Doesn’t it depend on what my goals are?

If she had looked into his eyes at that very moment she would have seen the inferno that she had thrown him into.

We sat there smiling at each other, shimmied to a standstill, thinking about all the boys that had wanted us that day, and how none of them had got us, not for a minute; how...

just on the verge ofbecoming a woman, and in these three years and almost five months, I’dreached maturity. I was older than the mountains outside. The wisdomof the attic was in my bones, etched on...

Have you ever really wanted to be able to do something, but you came across a roadblock of some kind?You have a difficult choice. I made that choice once and it changed my whole life,...

When a zashiki warashi came to live with you, good fortune smiled upon the whole house.

I guess I had always sort of fantasized that a guy would see me and get past the ponytail and the glasses and the giant sweatshirt to discover how insanely awesome I am, then come...

I never want you to deny anything about yourself because you have grown up thinking it’s unacceptable or inconvenient for the people around you.

Why is it that when you don’t want to think about something, you can’t stop thinking about it?

Respect should be found in your own heart and never demanded, sacraficed, begged for or negotiated. If you have to explain why you deserve it then you never had it.

Sleep is the only thing I stay awake for.

How would Elijah ever understand a life that is dark more than light? Or a shadow of someone who follows her around, and when she least expects it, taps her on the back and asks,...

I would make an anonymous call and say, this is someone who cares, do you know what kind of children you have?

Not for the first time, I wonder what it would feel like that, to be so beautiful that you don’t even realize people are watching you, to be so confident that you don’t even have...

I lost my innocence very young and it had nothing to do with sex.

Teenagers read millions of books every year. They read for entertainment and for education. They read because of school assignments and pop culture fads. And there are millions of teens who read because they are...

I always finish what i start

Frodo. It’s Frodo. And he’s not hot!

At some point, you just pull off the band aid and it hurts. But when it is over, you are relieved.

Everything around her was in a fog; the intense light that always shone in his aqua blue eyes was the only thing in focus, but it was suddenly unknown… different… almost embarrassing.

When you know truly know that God loves you it won’t matter when others don’t. And when you know truly know that God accepts you it won’t matter when others won’t.

The only stupid question is the question that is never asked.

Always live the adventure.

Teens in the ’90s had the same basic desires as they do now.

I’d felt this before, when my granddad was in the hospital before he died. We all camped out in the waiting room, eating our meals together, most of us sleeping in the chairs every night....

Love is my drug of choice, even if it comes laced with pain and disaster.

I’m like any other kid; I’ve seen the monsters in the closet and under the bed. The only difference between me and other kids is…the monsters are afraid of me…” (Angel)Night School: A Dasheen “Angel”...

With his dream of a theater program for young people, Larry Wentzler had inadvertently done an amazing thing for all these squirrels. They had a place where they belonged, and, even if it was because...

The weekends are too short for sleep!

He reflects on all the times he thought she wasn’t sure of her feelings for him, when perhaps she might’ve been taking a leisurely stroll across Elijah’s heart, leaving footprints behind that he’d never seen.

I half-expect to check out, but I’m really there for it. It’s not like at the dance, angry and forced. It’s terrible in its gentleness and he’s just wasting it on me.

I could be the lone Eskimo, friend of whales and seals.”The Panopticon

We make people into Gods, desperate that they never leave us and hopeful that someday, if we ever deserve it, maybe they’ll love us back even half way.

[On hearing that 86% of gay teens have experienced harassment] Eighty-six percent? Eighty-six per-fuckin-cent WERE harassed?! That means fourteen per-fuckin-cent WEREN’T harassed? WHAT?!At MY school a hundred percent of the children – gay, straight, transgendered,...

Are you imperfect, romantically irrational, ridiculously fearless, and utterly illogical? You’re my ideal reader, friend, partner. I’m your fan.

I’m going to take off your gag.And if you try to bite me or grab me or anything, I’ll hit you with this thing as hard as I can as many times as I can....

When adults say, “Teenagers think they are invincible” with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken....

He’s not yet realized that by giving away nothing but barefaced lies he’s come to wither and rot inside. But she’s still looking for him into the void of his cold heart.

we’re teenagers,” Sylvia said. “we’re all depressed.

Never give up. Dare to Dream. Dare to believe.

It was only high school after all, definitely one of the most bizarre periods in a person’s life. How anyone can come through that time well adjusted on any level is an absolute miracle.

I became conflicted in my late teens.

A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It’s a stage all girls go through. If you’re lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.

Starting over can be the scariest thing in the entire world, whether it’s leaving a lover, a school, a team, a friend or anything else that feels like a core part of our identity but...