This Teenage Life

Summer break is wrapping up in the US and college application season is on the horizon for many high school seniors. This time can bring about immense pressure, stress, and self-doubt. It can also be very exciting. This episode documents the emotional dimensions of the application process for two college-bound TTL participants as they reflect on this past year.

Join This Teenage Life participants for our first creative workshops in partnership with Culture Therapy! If you have ever wanted to learn how to make comics, write calligraphy, or meet and hang out with our team, please fill out this  interest form .  In this episode, you will get to know our first workshop leaders, Kashika and Cloe, and learn about their experiences with their respective art for...

Birthdays can be a special time to celebrate the love and joy that comes with being alive. They can also be kind of...weird. Between planning parties, finding the perfect gift, navigating social media posts, being the center of attention, and a general expectation that it needs to be the best day ever, birthdays can often lead to stress or disappointment.  In this episode, we hear from the teens a...

In times of stress, sadness, or loneliness, many of us turn to art to find solace and belonging. Whether it's a visual art practice, a musical experience, or a new hobby, creative pursuits can connect us to ourselves and others, supporting emotional wellbeing and mental health.   In this episode, the teens share how they use art in their lives. Our friends from  culture therapy  also share their e...

For several of us at TTL, games like Minecraft and Roblox offer expansive digital universes in which we can make our own worlds and find other people with shared interests. In this episode, we hear from TTL participants along with members of the ExperienceCraft community, who use Minecraft as way to connect in the face of grief. Check out ExperienceCraft and and  Connected Camps if you're looking...

For many young people, it can be hard to avoid the gossip, drama, and rumors that pass through the halls at school. While engaging in these behaviors can sometimes bring excitement, drama often leads to misunderstandings, hurt, and feelings of isolation. In this episode the teens discuss their thoughts on gossip, stories about rumors they have dealt with, and how to avoid school drama. 

It can be isolating and lonely to feel different from your peers, whether that's because of your identity, social and political beliefs, or simply the way you think about the world.   Fortunately, there are so many others out there who don't fit within various social norms who ar ealso working to construct community.   In this episode, TTL participants team up with hosts from the Future Perfect Pr...

The media is filled with stories about the global teen loneliness crisis. Yet, we rarely hear from teens themselves. In this episode, sponsored by Learning Enterprise at Arizona State University, we hear from teens around the globe about their experiences of contemporary loneliness, and how they're navigating it.    We hope this episode helps to destigmatize loneliness so people realize: while you...

High school seniors are about to graduate, and many will head to college.  Starting college can come with a whole set of uknowns and distorted expectations of how the transition "should" go. In this episode, This Teenage Life contributor, Ummul, shares voice recordings of herself and her frieends from their freshman year. They share about their experiences navigating the transition to their new ac...

Grown-ups can often talk about teens and social media in a way that fails to capture real teens' experiences. The directors of the Center For Digital Thriving (CDT) are different — they get it. In this episode, TTL teens meet with CDT directors  Emily  and Carrie to discuss the mental gymnastics of navigating our relationships with tech and social media.    We hope this episode can inspire more co...

In celebration of Earth Day, we made this episode about a person who, in the face of climate change, chose to take a risk and make something new.  In partnership with UNICEF USA, This Teenage Life teens speak with Alexia Akbay, founder of Symbrosia , a company that grows seaweed. When fed to cows, Symbrosia's product reduces cows' methane emissions.  To learn more about UNICEF's Innovation30 effor...

This past March, TTL celebrated its 5th birthday! In this episode, the teens share stories of how they joined TTL and what the community has meant for them. All our current participants used to be listeners. If you want to join us too—or reach out and request and episode topic or say hi—feel free to email us at team@thisteenagelife.org

How do we stay resilient in the face of procrastination shame and test anxiety? When our bodies are in fight and flight and our brains are not thinking straight, what should we do? In this episode, the teens teams up with Arizona State University professor Jamie Valderrama, who teaches various stress management courses, to learn about the neurophysiology of stress and techniques they can use to se...

In this episode, the teens discuss their experiences on group chats — sharing stories about social dynamics and feelings of inclusion and exclusion. This episode features the amazing work of Emily Weinstein and Carrie James at the Center for Digital Thriving (CDT). Their research inspired this episode. Learn abotu their work at: Behind Their Screens , their amazing book CDT's website and their res...

In this episode, the teens chat with Aleeza and Fonzo, the hosts of The Moth's teen podcast, Grown — here on Apple podcasts and Spotify. We discuss our daydreams and anxieties about growing up and becoming people we want to be.

In this episode, TTL participants reflect on their varied experiences throughout the pandemic, from its beginning to what things are like now. The teens discuss anxiety, social changes, and dealing with complex grief. Some of the participants featured in this episode helped create a Teen Vogue article about high schooler's experiences during the pandemic, which you can read here: https://www.teenv...

This week's episode is about climate and eco-anxiety. The teens discuss their grief about the climate emergency and other environmental crises. They then talk about transforming their feelings into shared action.  Thank you to UNICEF USA and Anya Kamenetz. Look out for a future episode about young climate innovators and their inspiring solutions.

Inspired by one of This Teenage Life's newest members, this episode is about one young person's experience navigating identity development and middle social dynamics while also grappling with her experience of autism. If you are interested in sharing a story or want to request an episode — email us at  team@thisteenagelife.org .

Yesterday was Valentine's Day in the U.S. and so it feels apt to revisit a topic from a previous episodes: crushes. In this episode, we share our thoughts on having crushes (or not), what it feels like, how and with whom to talk about our crushes, and much more.c

In this episode, TTL participants explore their own insecurities and interview Gracie and Clyde Lawrence from the amazing band, Lawrence— here on Youtube + Spotify —about how music can serve as an outlet for reframing past and present insecurities.  This episode was made in collaboration with  PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs ' podcast  On Our Minds ." 

This is an episode about two teens who have experienced being bullied and who are working to overcome it. Being bullied can take a toll on self esteem and mental health. It can feel like you're the only one going through it and it will never end. Even though it does end, there is still more we could do to stop bullying and to support people being bullied. At TTL, we are all about destigmatizing sp...

In this episode, Rani, one of the teen contributors to This Teenage Life, shares about her relationship with poetry. She describes how it became an important outlet for creative and emotional expression. Overcoming criticisms, she has stuck with writing, and it continues to be a faithful friend. Check out Rani's work on Instagram @a_brokencorwn .

The holidays are a complicated time for many people. They bring up all kinds of feelings — nostalgia, cozyness, goals for the future, and anxieties about those left behind. Two days before the commencement of our next cycle around the sun, we share an episode with you that we made exactly a year ago. It's reassuring to hear this and reflect on the cyclical nature of time. We are so grateful to hav...

For many folks, January is a theoretically a time of goal setting and self-improvement aspirations. Of course, many of us want to grow and change, but do we have to do it in a particular way in a particular way? In this episode, teens from This Teenage Life discuss their fraught relationship with the idea of New Year's driven goals/resolutions and share ways that better help them become the people...

Is the idea of productivity helpful? Harmful? How does it affect our mental health and well-being? How do the teens relate to productivity culture? In the midst of New Year's resolutions and goals, we revisit this episode about the pressure to be productive and how it affects us. We're working on new episodes for 2024. If you have any ideas you'd like to share, email us at team@thisteenagelife.org...