Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten

Welcome to a secret view into the world of the net-generation. I love writing to you (maybe a little too much) so enjoy, stick around and be sure to tell me what you think...and, duh, get on my email list quick! (on the right, "subscribe via email"). Or subscribe to my RSS feed.

Even though I can still give the younger/kid’s perspective, I am 23 and now 4 years from the last time I could call myself a teen.  I decided to take on teen interns as writers for two reasons:

1. I want to be able to give parents a really current and varied view into our world from actual teens, ages ranging from 13-17, boys and girls.

2. I want to encourage other teen writers! I am using the opportunity as a chance to really mentor, guide and teach aspiring writers and entrepreneurs.  I needed a lot of help when I first started writing professionally at age 16 and started my business at 20.  I want to be able to give these teens that help!

*If you know someone who would like to apply to be a writer or intern for OnTeensToday.com, have them email me here.

Teen Trendsetter Program

See our Flier (or text below).

Have you ever seen a commercial, movie or product that is meant for teens, but is totally awful–and you wanted to tell someone? Here is your chance!

This group is for teens who want to express their opinions, ideas and advice about teen trends, teens and their parents and anything that youth are going through today. We have carefully selected you as a teen influencor.  The group is secret for a reason, your answers will be given to thousands of parents, adults and companies around the world (anonymously of course)

Benefits for you:
-You can finally express your ideas and opinions to people who will listen and disseminate them on a large scale.
-You can put on your college application/resume that you worked as a teen influencor under Boost for Youth (we often give recommendations)
-Practice expressing and writing out your opinions
-Access to interesting trends before they come out

Teen Writers

If you want to practice reaching out directly to the audience, you can apply to be a teen writer.  Teen wrtiers actually write 1 to 4 articles per month on any teen trend of their choice or can pick from a bank of assigned topics.  Your work can be published under your name or anonymously.

Teen Advisors

Teen advisors start by simply answering one question a week submitted on our Facebook group.  They can also submit their own questions.  Teen writers will often use teen advisors answers to complete articles.
This is an easy way to make your voice heard, we are very flexible on the amount of time you put into this project and how many articles you wish to write–but it will always be great exposure, awesome practice and a cool opportunity.

How to Apply:

Simply send us your name, age, location and why you want to be a Teen Writer or Teen Advisor (You can always decide to switch later) and a writing sample (like an English or History paper) to vvanpetten@rrules.com.

Meet my current fabulous interns:

Nate

Age: 16

City: Los Angeles, CA

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Food: Chinese

Favorite Place to travel: between the Negev and the Golan (both places in Israel)

Least favorite thing about High School: Homework and Tests.

Most Favorite Thing About High School: All of the technology classes, Tech theater, and my friends.

He also has an awesome blog called Nate Rocks!

Juliette

Juliette is a 15-year-old high school student in North Carolina.  She is interested in pursuing a career in writing and in her free time enjoys volleyball, juggling, and photography.

-My name: Juliette
-My Grade: 11
-Home State: North Carolina
-Favorite movie: The Illusionist
-Favorite website: Wikipedia

-Favorite topic to write about: Topics that I have personal experience with or effect my life

-Biggest misconception about teens: That we are constantly trying to find ways to go behind our parents back and generally deceive them.

-What you wish all parents knew: Your teen’s behavior is highly guided by your own actions and this can be having either a good or bad effect.

I am in many ways in ordinary teen: going to the movies with friends, going to high school, and of course dealing with my parents.  However, I am rather unordinary in that I will be blogging about teenage life in order to help you understand the world your teen lives in.  I love to write and I am looking forward to blogging on this site very much.  Hopefully, my entries will be as enjoyable for you to read as they were for me to write.

Alia

Alia is a 13 year-old from Nebraska. She loves to play the Acoustic guitar and, wants to be famous musician and a famous actor in Hollywood.

My name is Alia. My home state is Nebraska (Go cornhuskers! lol). I love to play the Acoustic guitar. I am currently in the eigth grade studying concert band as my major and percussion as my minor.

I would have to say my favorite movie of all time is, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I absolutely love the message in that movie.

Like most teens these days, my favorite website is youtube.

The topic that I like to write about the most is The Everyday Lives Of Teens, from the relationships, to the gossip, to the hurt and pain.

I think the biggest misconception about teens is the thought that, we don’t don’t understand or we don’t care about anyone else but ourselves. Teens have feelings just like everyone else. We might not show it in the best way ever, but we still care about other people. The one thing I wish all parents knew is, that teens not only want them (our parents) to hear us, but to actually listen.

Shannon

My name is Shannon and I am at the ripe old age of sixteen. I have the fantastic privilege of interning for Vanessa Van Petten and I wanted to properly introduce myself by giving you a snapshot of my life and my view of the world.

I currently reside in Maryland, home of the Chesapeake Bay and Washington Wizards. I’ve found that it is a bit dull here when it comes to excitement. I mean, I’d never expect to have one of those “I was just walking down the street and you’ll never guess who I ran into…” stories. But on the upside, we do have exceptionally interesting weather and experience all four of the glorious seasons—spring, summer, winter, and fall.

I attend a private all girls High School. I usually receive a variety of interesting and sometimes peculiar comments about this because a) it is a private, all girls high school, b) it’s a Catholic school and c) the neighborhood where it’s located is a bit sketchy. Some of the more outlandish and humorous ones include: “Have you ever been shot?” “Are there a lot of lesbians at your school?” “Do you really have to wear those uniform shoes every day?”

So anyway, I’ve just finished sophomore year which I find both exciting and scary. Exciting because it means one year closer to freedom and scary because it means…one year closer to freedom. All I ever hear from my friends is that they want to get out of high school, onto college, and start “real life”. But to me real life doesn’t just mean being freed from the rules that my mother enforces. Real life means change. It comes with real responsibility, real decision-making, and the need to really know what you want. If you were to ask which me of those things I find both terrifying and exhilarating I would check the box marked “All of the Above”.

I am a total movie-holic. I don’t have a specific favorite movie because I watch so many so often that it changes all the time. I do, however, have a specific collection of movies that could be considered my favorites because I never get tired of watching them. They are as follows:

The Notebook— I always cry when I watch this movie. It makes me feel hopeful that true love might actually exist.

Pirates of the Caribbean— First of all, the fact that pirates get to do whatever they want is fantastic. Also, the sword fighting and the music during scenes are always in sync. That combined with the humor, action and romance makes for a very entertaining trilogy.

Ocean’s 11/12/13— It completely blows my mind that there are actually people in this world who are smart enough to pull off heists like the ones in these movies.

The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum— These movies always give me chills. To think that it is possible for the government to have that much power and that much control without the public knowing—scary. Plus Matt Damon is a total babe and the character he plays is practically a military robot which I think is super cool.

My favorite website is Facebook. Yes, I know that sounds like a stereotypical teenage cliché, but I can’t help it. The creator of this website is truly a genius. I’m not kidding when I tell you it’s an addiction. Every time I get on the computer my fingers are instantly itching to visit my profile and check out all the latest news and newest scandals. With the push of a button I have immediate access to all the intriguing lives of the people I know and love. Plus, it’s an easy way for me to keep up with my friends who are out of state or off at college. Who could want more than that?

I don’t think I could narrow it down to one topic that is my absolute favorite to write about. I like expressing my opinion about all sorts of things but there are a few that have earned the title of my favorites. They include: sex, true love, alcohol and drugs: condone or condemn?, equality—black vs. white, women vs. men, etc., and my all-time favorite: Nick Jonas. Yes, Nick Jonas. As for as boys go, NickJ is totally boss. My mind wanders to that shy-smiling, piano playing, finger tingling, singer/song writer quite often.

One of the biggest misconceptions about teens is that all teenagers are having or are thinking about having sex. I’m not saying that we don’t think about sex, but a lot of us aren’t actually interested in doing it. Our lives are busy enough! Trying to balance school and sports and clubs and social lives is already difficult. Throwing sex into the mix brings about a whole new list of complications that we literally don’t have time to deal with. Plus, the majority of us either don’t have jobs or don’t have jobs that pay well enough for us to support a kid or to pay for secret STD checkups.

One thing I wish all parents knew is how badly we, as teens, seek their approval. Most of the time we flat our refuse to admit it, but really and truly we just want to satisfy them. And one of the reasons it is so easy for us to pick fights with them is because we feel like we’re busting our butts trying to please them and all they can do is point out our flaws. It’s not that they say, “I think you suck” but small things, like mentioning the C we got on our paper instead of congratulating us on the A we received on our test, really hit us hard.

Samantha

-Grade: 12

-Home State: California

-Favorite movie: Sweet Home Alabama and P.S. I Love You

-Favorite website: TeenVogue.com and Forever21.com

-Favorite topic to write about: Fashion

-Biggest misconception about teens: “Teens don’t know….” I can’t count how many times I have heard the expression “Teens don’t know…” It commonly is said when parents are talking about the teen generation and how teens don’t know how the teen world is. Newsflash: We Are the Teen World. The misconception of our age and how we go about our day in the teen world, and how we should play a part in that world is built up by this image and understanding by adults on how teens should be in society.

-What you wish all parents knew: We don’t mean to make you hurt sometimes, we are immature and are still learning; developing into mature young adults.

-Hello my name is Samantha. I’m a 17-year-old aspiring fashion journalist who lives in the O.C.

Emma

Emma is a high schooler living in North Carolina (yearning to move to NYC.) She wants to be a writer. She believes in fairies.

Name: Emma

Grade: Ninth/Freshman/First year of high school (You get to hear all about my new high school experiences!)

Home state: North Carolina

Favorite movie: I’m currently obsessed with Sweeney Todd, but other favorites are: Titanic, Pride and Prejudice, Phantom of the Opera, Edward Scissorhands, Chicago and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. (There is a definite trend toward movies with amazing music, Johnny Depp, and Leonardo DiCaprio.)

Favorite website: http://vampirelibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/04/hot-commodity.html

Favorite topic to write about: Lovely little teenage idiosyncrasies. Like the slow up and down look that girls give you as they try and use x-ray vision to read the brand name on the tags/labels of your clothes. (Fortunately I cut the tags out of my clothing. I win!)

Biggest misconception about teens: We say “like” and “um” every other word out of pure spite and hatred of adults. Actually, most teens really wish they could stop this habit, but you try spending seven hours a day with teenagers and not pick up this terrible tic.

What I wish all parents knew: It’s really easy for today’s teens to get into situations way beyond what they can handle. Unfortunately, parents rarely can guess/notice what’s going on in their child’s life (frequently because the issue at hand wasn’t around when they were growing up.) Teens need and want (even if they won’t admit it) an adult to help them.

Sarah

Sarah is a 16 year old girl from Connecticut. She enjoys singing, dancing, and one day would like to be a teen fiction author.

Your Grade: 11

Home State: Connecticut

Favorite movie: Pride & Prejudice

Favorite website: Facebook

Favorite topic to write about: Insight to everyday teen issues

Biggest misconception about teens: All teens are rebellious and are only concerned with superficial things