WEBVTT - Teen Dream 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:08.280 M h. Welcome to the stuff of life. I'm your host, 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:18.239 Julie Douglas. The early teens are years of upheaval and turmoil, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.280 their years of physical and glandular change, new and wider 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.120 relationships with people, and new inner feelings in the early adolescents. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.640 In the book A Field Guide to Getting Lost, author 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.519 Rebecca Solnitt writes that when she pictures herself at age fifteen, 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.840 she can see flames shooting up. She says, she sees 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.559 herself falling off the edge of the world, and she 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.360 is amazed that she survived, not the outside world, but 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:51.479 the inside one. Parents of almost every child find the 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.320 age of puberty or early adolescence full of problems. The 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.120 knowledge that these difficulties are normal and usually only temporary, 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.920 helps fitter and family friction into more constructive channels. There's 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.800 no doubt that the teenage years are marked by turmoil, 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.480 but this betwixt and between stage is a relative newcomer, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.360 born out of the twentieth century, when increasingly wealthy nations 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.080 did away with child labor and instead focused on education. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.399 By the nineteen fifties, adolescents emerged as its own bona 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.959 fide phase of development. The adolescent is self centered, bills 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:33.960 responds to every situation that's concerned with how it affects him. Today, 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.200 we treat teenagers like another species, beings fumbling for the 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.319 portals into adulthood. We admire them, we fear them, but 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.560 mostly we forget that at our core, each of us 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.600 is still falling off the edge of the world. We 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.560 are still that teenager. In this episode, we talked to 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.640 a neuroscientist about the teenage brain. As a result of 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:02.400 the increasing activity of this biole logical stress system, UH, 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.880 teen and young adults seem to have a more robust 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.600 reaction to stress. And we talked to some intrepid teens 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.079 about what it feels like to be on the edge 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.080 of adulthood and what the media gets right and what 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.440 the media gets wrong. Well, of course there's a whole 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.240 other experience compared to back then, but there's even a 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.760 different experience because of your gender or like like your race, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.360 like it goes even deeper than just being simply that age. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.520 But first, let's take a step into the inner sanctum 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.840 of the teenage girl with photographer Ronya Matar. Have a 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.119 photo in the book about like a little teen age 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.320 girl in the Palestine refugee camp, and she's she's wearing 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.160 a headscar but she's addressed exactly like a picture in 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.400 her closet of Hannah Montana, as she's striking the exact 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.520 same places Hannah Montana, And there was something so endearing 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:59.120 about that. So I photograph girls in the United States 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:00.760 and in the Middle East. I mean, for me, this 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.720 was also the whole project about identity, but it's also 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.919 about my current identity at my daughter's identity as being 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.440 from the two cultures. And it so happened that anytime 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.040 you might put the news on now you're going to 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.639 hear about some terrorists, something happening in the middles or 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.080 about refugees, and we forget that there's the normal people 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.560 behind the scenes are just the same. So for me, 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:26.240 this work became really on focusing on that universality through 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.799 the girls and Ronne's book A Girl in Her Room, 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.720 An essay by Susan Minett describes the bedroom as the 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.760 first cocoon a girl will create for herself. This is 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.160 a chrystalis. If we could see inside, we would witness 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:47.280 one of the most extraordinary changes in the animal kingdom 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:54.480 metamorphosis the girls in a way are really growing up 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.560 and trying to to kind of get a sense of 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.320 who they are and how they are perceived in the 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.360 world by their friends, by other adults. By I mean, 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.720 they're really trying to come to terms with their identity. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:10.000 And I said that the room was the place where 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.080 they would experiment with that. What they surrounded themselves on 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.520 the walls, stuff on their bed everything. It was such 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.440 an intimate setting. The impetus for a girl in her 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:25.479 room came from Ronney's then newly emerging teenage daughter. When 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.040 my daughter turned fifteen, especially saw the change in her. 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.720 She had been a townboy soccer player before, and all 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.719 of a sudden, she was just like becoming this girly 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.840 girl who I felt I hardly recognized. So I kind 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.080 of became fascinated with with the changes she was going 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.880 to and thought I was one of photographs something. And 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.359 then her friends would come and I started kind of 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.800 photographing them, and then I realized that these girls are 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.080 in the case of my daughter, because I don't know 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.000 some of them as well, but my daughter was like 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.960 a whole different person that I had never seen, and 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.400 they all kind of started to sound all was the same. 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.840 It's the same expressions and ponalities and the same straight hair, 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.039 and um, so I decided, you know, maybe it would 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.159 be more interesting for me to photograph each girl by herself. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.440 And when I started photographing each girl, I kind of 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.640 started originally with that friends of my daughters or daughters 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.000 of my friends, and um, it so happened that we 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.200 did it in their bedroom, and I quickly realized that 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:31.000 this was my project. The room not only provided sanctuary, 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.400 but it reflected aspects of the girl's personality back to 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:36.760 the camera. When the girl was around in her room, 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.200 it was she was more she was being herself. Second, 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.679 I could see that there was such an interesting, really 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.799 organic relationship with this with the girl in her space. 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.719 And Ronne's book of photos Susan Mine Rights Pink gives 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.880 way to glitter, stuffed animals, to figurings. Pictures of animals 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.760 are replaced by pictures people and with objects no longer 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.840 selected by a parent. Then to the she adds her 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.200 own creations, and soon the walls are taken over and 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.400 the closets in the bed. The teenager's room is her cave. 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.800 So perhaps these scenes of girlhood morphing into womanhood are 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.680 so compelling because they reach across time and connect to 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.479 all of us who, at one time or another we're 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.640 grasping for who we were or who we wanted to become. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.520 You know. It's something very interesting happened because at that 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.840 point I was really interested in photographing girls in this 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.240 country and because this is where I lived and where 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.280 my girl, my daughter's growing up. And then somewhere as 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.039 I'm doing this project, it's really struck a chord with me, 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.600 like I was those girls when if I gave earlier 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.240 in a different country and different culture, but I was 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.360 I was the same, and there was something This is 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.400 when it tissed me at the whole universality of it, 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.359 and I decided to include girls in the Middle East. 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.560 But it's exactly what you say, like, um, it put 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.120 me back into my teenage here just like something. There 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.880 are things that never changed. And maybe the pictures on 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.080 the wilds are of different rock stars, but I also 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.800 had pictures of rock stars back then. I mean I 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.200 had something a little different happening. As I was growing 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.640 up doing the living in Civil Wars, I was collecting 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.720 sharpnell and bullets, bullets also from the street like whenever 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:24.280 they was fighting. The next day I would go out 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:26.160 with my friends and little collectors, and they were also 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.240 stayed in my room. But this was also part of 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:36.120 the identity I was growing up. The team's geographical locations 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:41.040 in socio economic status varied widely, but still there were 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.720 more commonalities than differences among them. The cover of the book, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.040 her name is Chris Pilla. I love this photo because 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.280 you you look at it and you really think this 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.120 is a young woman in the United States or anywhere. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.440 You would never think this is a living new girl. 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.560 She's blonde or faith blonde. She's so she has a 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.720 gigant to take photo of Marlin Monroe behind her, and 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.520 she has this kind of attitude playing down, which is 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.680 for another kind of universal teenage girl in her bedroom 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.720 attitude as and and it shows people off a little 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:13.760 bit because people assume that if she's going to be 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:15.520 from the Middle East, she has to be covered or 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.000 oppressed of blah blah blah with the whole kind of 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.320 rhetorically here all the time, and that's not the case. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:33.479 There are other markers of teenage universality beyond pop culture expression. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.640 And what was interesting is even in the refugee camp 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.000 and anywhere it felt like there was always the mirror 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.040 and often the laptop and Facebook. And for me, these 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.000 were like in some way the outside world coming into 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.679 the room, or because the mirror is like okay, all 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.840 they're kind of seeing how they want to portray themselves 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:59.320 to others right in some way, and and Facebook is 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.600 the way they come indicating with the outside words from 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:07.320 the comfort of their bedroom. In this sense, mirrors and 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:11.560 social sites like Facebook are conduits to identity. Think of 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.640 all the images and expectations that team girls are inundated 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.600 with now, think of all the attendant anxieties that come 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.720 along with living in a time where the gaze has intensified. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.200 But they put on the wall is often what they 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.760 want to be. And there's another young woman, her name 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.400 is Fianna, and she surrounded herself with all these beautiful 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.559 models in her wall, and there was something painful about 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:39.040 that in some way, and and she said something like, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.040 you know, as I was getting photographed, I kept thinking 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.160 how do I look? And compared to the pictures on 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:49.240 my wall. We tend to think of teenage girls is 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:53.120 armored up in their makeup and their defiant stances. But 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.720 as Ronya points out, that's often the condition of vulnerability. 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.640 I found with the the gut to have that they 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.000 have this armor for the outside world, and if you 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:04.600 take the time to really be with them in the 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.920 room and kind of whatever, you see how vulnerable they are. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.240 This was really a revelation to me. It was all 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.840 the girls. There was another girl in the book as well, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.640 and her name is Dizzy, and she was wearing a sweater, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.280 and as I was photographing and she got more at these, 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:22.760 she showed she took off for a sweater and I 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.680 could see that she had cuts on her arms, and 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.680 and she's somebody who when I saw on the street, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.280 looked like somebody who had build an armor, and she had, 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.200 you know, she had the attitude you might think off 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:35.840 a teenage girls, and all of a sudden, when she 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.520 took off that, I'm like, oh my god, she's she's struggling. 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.560 And it was really actually very powerful moment to me 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.679 because then she told me, I do want to photograph 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.960 them because when I look at them, it reminds me 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:52.240 of what I overcame, where I was, and where I am. 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.079 So there was something also very powerful about that that's 0:10:55.120 --> 0:11:00.720 also very vulnerable. Photographing the girls gave me a portal 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.120 into teenagers that helped her to reconsider her own children. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.199 With me spending so much time with them and really 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.720 building that trusting relationship, I could see the vulnerability and 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.200 how hard it is to be a teenage girl. And 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.800 it really made me so much more understanding of my 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.600 own kids in some way, to give them more space 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.760 in some way and to often ignore this kind of 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.199 um attitude that I could have worried about otherwise, because 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.920 I'm like, Okay, no, this is this is just part 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.480 of growing up and they have to do that part 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.280 of cutting the cord. And I'm their mom, and these 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.160 young women I was photographing there's no way their mom 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.960 could have taken the photos I took. So it was 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.840 something that really made me understand that quite a bit. 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.000 One thing that's interesting is as I'm photographing them, I'm 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.600 really bonding with them after the point that I think 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.800 I'm one of them, and I'm would pass the mirror 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.360 and I'm like, oh my god, what am I thinking? 0:11:58.040 --> 0:11:59.920 So what just wron? You want you to take a 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.120 way from what she saw through her lens. Some people 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.080 have a harder time looking young girls being photographed. All 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.840 of a sudden, people associate also of uh, you know, like, okay, 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.439 there's sexuality and those I'm like, there's nothing sexual. It's 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.200 it's there's something empowering about owning up to being a 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.360 girl and too. You know, you could be you could 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.560 go plase soccer the next day, but you still are 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:23.720 owning up to your body changing and all that. And 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.920 there's something I feel like, it's important for me to 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.439 look at the work with respect that the girls deserves. 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.960 To wear her hair and clothes, according to the latest 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.720 style is much more important than to wear them in 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.760 the most becoming ways. She's not mature enough yet the 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.640 world knows best, and she wants to be sure of 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:52.640 her place in the world. And the Wired article a 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:57.240 troubling adaptation the beautiful teenage brain. David Dobbs writes, quote 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.760 in scientific terms, teenagers can be a pain and ass 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.599 but they are quite possibly the most fully crucially adaptive 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.080 human beings around. Without them, human beings might not have 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:13.920 readily spread across the globe. In this segment, we talked 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:18.560 to Elaine F. Walker about vulnerability and the teenage brain. 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:23.079 Early teens are years of uneven development, that are spirits 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.320 of mental energy as well as physical and at other 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:35.120 times nothing seems to be happening. Research on adolescent brain development, 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:41.960 brain function and behavior is an area that is very 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.800 active right now and we have a lot to learn. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.080 I'm Elane Walker and a professor of psychology and you're 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:57.679 a science at Emery University. For thirty years, Elaine has 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.199 been conducting research on risk factors for aarious mental disorders, 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:05.760 especially schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. And guess what being 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.520 a team can be a risk factor, depending on, of course, genetics, 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.520 but also the kinds of stressors teams are exposed to. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.000 Not to mention certain drugs. Certainly, at this point, there's 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.840 plenty of evidence that adolescents are more responsive to certain 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:27.640 emotional stimuli than either younger children are adult. And then 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.040 there's the stress response as regulated by the hp A 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:37.040 axis or hypothalamic pituitary adrenal access. The main thing is 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.720 that cortisol, the stress hormone, is released, and the brain 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.560 gets wind of this hormone and tells the hypothalamus and 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.520 pituitary glands to chill out, which both puts the body 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.320 on high alert, but make sure that it doesn't go overboard. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.400 The problem is when there's a persistent elevated cortisol released 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.960 that left unchecked, can lead to changes in brain struck 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:06.040 and behavior in and of itself. That normative increase in 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:15.040 cortisol release may make adolescence a more vulnerable period because 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:21.240 the stress system hp A axis is ranting up its activity. 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.760 It's basically one part amped up emotional response to stress 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.720 and one part dicey environmental conditions along with the brain 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:34.080 still under renovation state that could present a tipping point. 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:40.120 The fact that so many psychiatric disorders have their peak 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.600 onset period during adolescents in young adulthood is probably a 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:51.880 function of the fact that brain maturation during adolescent is 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:59.840 playing a role in triggering the manifestation of vulnerabilities. This 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.920 means that for teens who are at the risk of schizophrenia, 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.040 puberty could set the stage for the disorder, and hints 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:10.720 of it can emerge in something called prodromal symptoms. Symptoms 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:16.400 that are associated with heightened risk for latter schizophrenia include 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:22.920 subtle version of the defining features of schizophrenia and and 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:28.200 other psychotic disorders. Uh The individual might report that they 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.800 think fromtimes that they're hearing their name called, but when 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:37.640 they check, there's no one there, and they attribute that 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:43.560 perceptual anomaly to just their imagination. Turns out that those 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.760 who go onto full blown psychosis have higher levels of cortisol, 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.320 have exposure to more stress, and are more likely to 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:56.680 use cannabis. The thing about this that's so fascinating is 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.800 that the same underlying plasticity that sets the conditions for 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:05.200 vulnerability to brain changes like psychosis. Maybe the saving grace 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:10.280 for the team who can be identified early on this 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:17.320 work is still in the investigated stages, so many of 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:22.320 the studies have not yet been replicated. However, it does 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:27.840 appear that the likelihood that an individual will develop a 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:34.080 psychotic disorder can be reduced if they are provided with 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:39.879 cognitive therapy after they begin to show the prodromal sign. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.960 This kind of neuroplasticity is in itself a big risk 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.920 by nature the idea that to ride the edge of development, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.199 you have to ride the razor's edge of a shape 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.840 shifting brain, negotiating the twists and turns of risk, reward, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:18:00.359 and emotion. Let's watch some of these youngsters as spend 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.040 Friday afternoon and evening we'll see what some of the 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:14.760 common troubles are. Oh no, I don't think they're ready 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:20.720 for these hot tracks. Good Ready. Box Communications is a 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:25.600 multimedia and journalism program for uncensored teen publishing and self expression. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.359 Four vox teams took over the studio to record their 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.919 thoughts on gender, how they're represented in the media, and 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.880 how media like you know, high school musical shaped their 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:44.119 ideas about adolescence. My name's Catherine, a k A. Cat 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:50.240 On eight seen my glorious gap years ending gloriously. My 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.040 name's Manuel. I am eighteen years old. I turned nineteen 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.119 on Sunday. I graduated from North Atlanta High School at 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.879 last year, and I also took a gap year. My 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.880 names some Eira. I'm seventeen. I go to the Cap 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:07.480 School of the Arts. I'm Caleb. I'm eighteen. I'm girl 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.800 in status now I go to Best Academy High school. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.400 What do you think the media gets wrong and right 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.679 about being a teenager? I don't know. I see a 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.200 spectrum really like I either see like teen celebrities like 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.520 Kylie or like local news teenagers that are only like 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:28.960 you know, oh you know, they were body slapped by 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.200 a police officer. In the classroom or you know, there 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.720 was something crazy on the streets. What I see our 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.440 minority teens only being reported on when something bad happens, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:48.960 and um, when non minority teens white people. Um, you 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.520 see things like these four college girls died in a 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.960 car accident. Well that's that's sad, of course, but that 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:02.720 happens all the time. Why are you following that? And 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.560 of course here in Atlanta we have a huge operiods 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:10.720 and jug abuse, but it's really only reported on minorities 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.280 who are doing it, when in reality it's the wealthier 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:22.680 areas of the city that have the highest use. When 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.240 I think about teams, I think about how we're portrayed 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:30.240 in movies. Yes, as if like every single high school 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:35.280 in America has this major peg mentality. Gods to your loaners, here, jogs, here, 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.760 the popular kids. I'm like, that never worked at my school. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.000 I just want to say that high school musical let 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:44.919 me down, because I thought it was going to be 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:50.920 exactly like that. It's not musical schools all boys, But 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.840 I just there are, like you, all the jocks, and 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:55.919 then there are the nerds and the geeks and like 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.159 the people that just don't do anything at all. But 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.520 I think that, like from from what I've been able 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.960 to experience from high school, Like, even though there's division, 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:12.480 I feel like teams now aren't judging like millennials aren't 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.720 judging each other based on like characteristics. More teams are 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.119 really now judging itself off of like what's our resume 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.359 look like girl? Or like what you're doing, or like 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.600 you like your status? Like it isn't really about like 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:29.879 I mean, physical appearance is still always going to be 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.359 something teams you know, if you think or not. But 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:37.200 other than that, I mean the whole like jocks versus nervousing. 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:46.720 That is, today's teams seem to be on the whole 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.919 better adjusted. In two thousand and fifteen, the Centers for 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.120 Disease Control released the results of the Youth Risk Behavior 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:57.000 Surveillance Survey and found that today's teens smoke less, drink less, 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.479 and have sex less in the previous generation. For instance, 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.000 ten point eight percent of teens today smoked cigarettes twenty 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:08.440 years ago. That was thirty four point eight percent. Today's 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.600 teens are also forty six percent less likely to be 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.560 in strength and teenagers twenty years ago. In fact, they're 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:17.680 twenty one percent less likely to have ever tried alcohol 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:20.800 at all, and yet they just can't shake the reputation 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:26.080 that they're overdoing it, especially emotionally. What adults have said 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.720 in my life like, um, when I overreact about things, Um, 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.440 they say, because by the time you're an adult, the 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.160 things that we think about are much are like small 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:38.520 things to them, like all that petty stuff that goes 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:41.200 on in school, that small stuff. At some point it's 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:44.879 kind of like it's non existent, like an adulthood. So 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:49.119 they don't really according to at least when my adults 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.600 like adults, But I feel like adults really just like something. 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.320 Adults probably just lied to you because adults have been 0:22:56.480 --> 0:23:02.119 justice petty teenager. I mean, since social media is huge, 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:04.960 adults are just as petty on Facebook as we are petty, 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:10.440 oh gosh, Like they're making memes just like we are, 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:13.800 and they're laughing at all the same things that go down, 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:21.840 just like we are. And if adults are exposing themselves 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.800 as petty and social media, even as a mirror points out, 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:29.040 they tell teens that the little indignities of life don't matter. 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:33.359 What exactly does it mean to be in an adult anyway? 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:39.760 For me? Adulthood isn't necessarily turning eighteen or getting a 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.440 car or a bank account. It's how you carry yourself. 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:46.720 It's how you react to situations, how you adapt to things, 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:56.040 how how you express yourself, and how you treat others. Yeah, 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.440 that's that's basically how I view it. As an adult, 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:03.000 you're only pushed to build relationships for other adults who 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:06.920 have opportunities for you. So understanding that whatever you say 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:10.280 or whatever you do has a consequence to it. I mean, 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:13.639 I think that's what adult means. Sometimes it's hard to 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.160 argue what adult hood means because you know, like people 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.760 are human, so they're gonna they're gonna slip up sometimes. Yeah, 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:23.680 Like adulthood has so many different nations to so many 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:27.720 different people. Yeah. I think I'm pointing to say, is 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:30.800 that adulthood has nothing to do with your age. I 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:34.200 think that's something that we all kind of agree on. Yes, 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:38.800 I remember when I turned eighteen, I'm thinking, oh my god, 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:43.000 there's gonna be this amazing flash of light, gains superpowers. 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:46.320 I'm gonna say, save the word. I was just so 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:52.760 in my imagination. I'm sorry, but like, but like, truthfully, 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:55.240 I feel the same way that I felt when I 0:24:55.280 --> 0:24:58.000 was five, when I was ten, and I was twell, like, 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:01.479 there's no grand transition to this. One day you just 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:04.200 look up in your eighteen and the first question, I'm like, oh, 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:12.000 I'm an adult. And then I'm like what, No, Like, wow, okay, 0:25:12.119 --> 0:25:21.240 new transition. Is there an an instruction? Man? This leads 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:25.760 to a discussion of expectations. I guess from the African 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:29.040 American point of view, as a black man, you know, 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:32.480 you're supposed to go out what's supposed to do and 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:35.960 come home and bring home the money to support your family. 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:42.000 Now I completely agree that, I mean from from the base, 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:45.080 from the baseness of that, as a man, you're supposed 0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:49.679 to do that. But I feel like, then, well, well 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:52.359 I'll take you along adding a black man to that. 0:25:53.920 --> 0:25:57.560 From what my family has shown me what a black 0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:02.000 man is supposed to be, I feel like in society 0:26:02.240 --> 0:26:04.400 and I'm not I'm not playing the victim here because 0:26:04.440 --> 0:26:08.440 I don't like playing the victim here, but black men 0:26:08.840 --> 0:26:11.880 are really like I'm not even gonna use exercise because 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:14.879 that's just such a huge and loaded word. Yeah, but 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:18.120