Our generation has been branded a mess - high on sex, drugs and violence. Read
any newspaper, and the headlines scream of the latest teenager gone astray. The
articles overflow with musing expert analysis, reducing kids and their problems
to coffee-table chitchat. Images of weapon-wielding children playing dictator
over their cowering classmates make adults struggle to figure out what went
wrong, wondering what poison congealed this child's morals. While psychologists
and journalists scribble on notebooks with knitted brows, teens across America
are neither brooding over the bad nor basking in the good, but rather
contemplating all aspects of life. And, more important, they are preserving these
invaluable thoughts in diaries, web pages, zines, and here - in Teen Ink's third
book in its series of teenage writing.
These books, completely authored
by teens like you and me - not annoying adults - take giant strides in the
movement to give teens a voice with which they can shout to the world. Over a
hundred entries freshly document our experiences with friends and enemies, family
and strangers.
Whether you paint your toes to *NSync or rock out to the
Ramones, prefer Magic Markers to Picasso, shop at Salvation Army or The Gap, this
book represents you - your feelings, your aspirations, your pain. And as a
collection of some of the finest writing from teenagers in America today, Teen
Ink Friends and Family delivers.
Each piece has been experienced by a real
person; the smiles, the tears, the disappointments are all genuine. Even in the
fiction pieces, traces of the authors' vulnerability and experiences are bright
and plentiful.
As every new author knows, writing is more contagious than
a cold before an important date. If you gain nothing else from this book, gain
the desire to write - to stay up all night, feverishly scrawling thoughts. The
desire to scream your words into the ear of every passing person, to stand up and
make others listen, to "make things happen."
Prove the cynical critics
wrong. Prove to them that the new generation of teenagers are not lazy
couch-mongers, but intelligent and progressive people ready to start ironing out
the country's problems.
Let the raw words from this book envelop your
mind with their creeping tendrils and inspire you to take action. Let the soulful
stories and poems inspire you - inspire you to write, inspire you to speak, and
inspire you simply "to live."
Teen Ink: Friends and Family is the third
book in the Teen Ink series and is the next exciting step in presenting and
honoring the writing and art of teenagers. Our first two books were compilations
of the voices and visions of teens exploring the broadest range of issues,
experiences and creativity. And as with all the books in our series, these
authors are all young people whose works have been published in Teen Ink's
national monthly magazine during the past twelve years.
After reading more than 300,000 teen submissions since the late eighties, it is
clear that teens, like the rest of us, care the most about friends and family
which is reflected here in their prose, their poetry and artwork. This shouldn't
surprise us since what is more central, more important and, at times, more
painful than our friends and family? Who hasn't felt the sting of a friend's
anger, the exhilaration of that special moment with a parent or the pain of
losing a grandparent? Who has not been blessed with at least one good friend,
the love of a sibling or family member or the warmth of an older person's
understanding?
Teens feel deeply, passionately and honestly about all these relationships, often
speaking in a louder voice and more candidly than most adults. Teenagers are at a
stage where they need to share, need to feel important and unique; and what
better way to fill this need than through their words. Teen Ink: Friends and
Family provides this opportunity for all of us to learn from these gifted and
courageous writers and artists who remind us how much young people have to offer,
if we are only willing to listen. The power of these voices may at times leave
you breathless, or even in tears, as you recall that similar moment in your own
life, but you will always be in awe of their amazing ability to add insight and
perspective.
We are all bound together in a elaborate web of friends and family, with just
"six degrees of separation," and these teens help guide us through its
intricacies. We have divided the book into various chapters based on
photographic images and exposures. We believe that as you read these pages,
clear visions will emerge that represent familiar and unfamiliar landscapes. You
will discover an entire family and friends album unfolding within you as these
authors reveal their mental pictures for us to develop and process within our own
experiences.
We hope you will find pieces in this volume that speak to you whether you are a
teenager, a parent trying to better understand your adolescent, an aunt or uncle
trying to become closer to that special niece or nephew, or a grandparent who
only wants to know how to communicate better with that odd creature they see
periodically but love continuously.
We, as parents ourselves, have gained enormously from our own friends and family
through times of triumph and tragedy. And we are also enormously enriched by the
writings from teens across the country as they continue to share their feelings
and submit their work to our magazine and for future books in this series. Their
insights reinforce our belief that this country has a very bright future since
these young adults already have revealed such a unique understanding of what it's
like to be a friend and family member. We again want to thank all the teens who
have shared their stories, whether published or not. We only hope that more and
more of you will open your hearts and minds to those that love you most - your
friends and family.
Imagine you are on a precarious rope bridge, high
above a gorge. You can't go backward, you can only inch forward, and the bridge
keeps swaying. That's what it is like to be a teen. You are forbidden to return
to the land of simple comforts of childhood. Instead you are driven forward to
the unknown world of adulthood. This new world might be fantastic but may also be
frightening. One thing you know for sure: it is going to be complex.
As a
teen, your relationship with your parents, siblings, and friends are the most
treasured and complicated aspects of your life. They are a source of comfort yet
confusion. At this age, you are trying to strike that exquisite balance of
independence from your family while you are still dependent on them for so many
things. On top of that, you are trying to decipher who is a real friend and who
is not. Making things even worse, you yourself are trying on different personas,
trying to figure out who you really are.
This book hopefully has helped
you begin to cross that gorge with more confidence. Teens writing for teens in
these pages have shared your fears, your bewilderment and your sheer exhilaration
about the journey you're on and the adventures that await you. But most
important, this book has shown you that even though the bridge may sway
sometimes, you are not alone.
About the WritersAmber Bard, a high school junior, has been published in Teen Ink magazine, and her poem, "Ohio," is in Teen Ink: Friends and Family.
Stephanie and John Meyer are the compilers of the Teen Ink book series and the founders of The Young Authors Foundation, which publishes Teen Ink Magazine and www.TeenInk.com.
Brett Elizabeth Larkin, a high school junior, wrote her first "novel" at age six. Her story, "Sara on the Wall," is in Teen Ink: Friends and Family.
Teen Ink PO Box 30 Newton, MA 02461 (617) 964-6800 editor@teenink.com
Copyright 2008 by Teen Ink, The 21st Century and The Young Authors Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written
permission of the publisher: The Young Authors Foundation, Inc.
Teen Ink is a national teen magazine, book and website featuring
teen writing, information, art, photos, poetry, teen issues and more. All
articles are written by teen authors who are students at schools. The monthly
print magazine is appropriate for any teenager -- teenagers age 13 to 19
attending secondary school: junior high school, middle school and high school.
This publication is used by professional people including English teachers,
writing teachers, language arts instructors, journalism teachers, school
newspaper advisors, librarians, guidance counselors, K-12 principals in addition
to the PTA or PTO. Each issue of Teen Ink magazine contains a wide variety of
student work: we publish nonfiction, fiction, poems, community service, sports,
heroes, interviews, college essays, college reviews, book reviews, concert
reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, video reviews, video game reviews, the
environment, opinion, sports, pets, cars, automobiles, travel and culture, jobs
and money, health issues, artwork, photographs, cartoons, short stories, essays,
writing contests, a college directory and the website also has a bulletin board
and resources for teens and educators. Subjects include racism,
eating disorders, depression, death, suicide, family, relationships, jobs,
grandparents, violence, the college process, college information, colleges,
driving, self esteem, the arts, movies and more. Teen Ink is also a book series
published by HCI Teens. Subjects covered in the book include Friends, Fitting In,
Love, Challenges, Family, Heroes, Loss and Memories. Teen Ink was established in
1989 as The 21st Century magazine by The Young Authors Foundation, a nonprofit
organization. More than 25,000 teens have been published in the magazine and its
companion Poetry Journal. Teen Ink runs a London Summer Program for teenage writers.
