I recently inherited my brother’s Honda Civic and was psyched to finally have a car of my own…until I opened the glove box. It was overflowing with empty CD cases, old candy wrappers and Mapquest directions to restaurants that went out of business two years ago. The trunk was a similar story, filled to the brim with a deflated air mattress, one lone sneaker, two beach chairs and (inexplicably) a flag. It was revolting but the deal was that if I wanted the car, I had to clean it.
Turns out it isn’t all that hard to take a gross “boy” car and make it pretty. Armed with rubber gloves and two giant garbage bags, I cleaned out all the old papers, water bottles, wrappers and other debris. Then I went to town with the Dustbuster, sucking up stray leaves and dirt. Finally, I had to attack the smell—a lovely mixture of salami and feet. I doused the floor and seats with Febreze and, as a final touch, replaced the creepy dragon hanging from the rearview mirror with a vanilla-scented air freshener. When my brother came home for the weekend, even he had to admit that his car now smells like flowers and freshly baked cookies.
Driving around in my made-over car with the windows down and the radio on has been great for my self-esteem, but not so great for my wallet. It’s so much easier to spend money now that my friends and I don’t need to ask our parents for rides to the mall, out to dinner or to the movies. And then once we’re out, it’s tempting to drive across town and grab frozen yogurt, or to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie on our way back to someone’s house.
Inevitably…unfortunately…I will probably have to drive myself to a part-time job. But at least I’ll be driving!
Tags: blockbuster, brother, frozen yogurt, honda, mapquest
creativecommons.org/by John LeGear
We teenagers often think that we aren’t capable of making a change in the world, but that is where we are wrong. Teenagers’ actions can make a difference on a global scale.
I have personally witnessed the importance of community service in making a difference in the world: Three summers ago I went to Thailand for a community service trip and saw first-hand the poverty there and also saw what teenagers are doing to help those in need. While I was in Thailand, I helped build a house for a homeless woman, I cooked food for the poor and delivered the hot lunches to the villagers in person, and I taught Thai children English as well as how to swim. Of course, not every teen is able to travel to Thailand to help the less fortunate there, but everyone can make a difference staying right where they are.
In 2005 Matthew Cortland and Tina Liu, both juniors at Cherokee High School in Marlton, N.J., founded Students Together for Autism Research (S.TA.R.). They began the organization by raising money in a small group and walking in an autism fund-raiser, but the club soon blossomed into S.T.A.R. The group encourages students to raise awareness about autism and to create clubs in their own school so that those, in turn, can raise money for the cause. This club works through volunteering and community service. These two teenagers are an example of what we can do to change the world if we have a passion and a plan.
Even if you start small, as long as you are aimed at having a positive impact in your local community and across the globe, the small steps can take you very far, as in the case of Kimmie Weeks. Weeks was born in 1981 in Liberia, where he has seen human suffering, war and unnecessary deaths his whole life. When he turned 14, he began to work to minimize poverty and human suffering in his country and surrounding areas. He has led organizations that have lobbied to disarm more than 20,000 child soldiers, provided education to thousands of students and provided health care and other supplies to students. He saw tragedies around him and decided that he wanted to make a difference in the world—and then he went about making real changes.
Whether you are fighting for the right of speech or raising awareness about an illness, find your passion and make a difference. Teenagers have the potential to be some of the most powerful people in our world today, so stop wasting time thinking, just do it!
You know that quote used at every graduation or concluding ceremony, something like “It is not about the destination, it is rather the journey that makes an experience…”? Well, this applies very well to the prom process. The actual prom is not as involved and fun as the preparation.
The whole journey begins about three months in advance. You can’t wait until only a few weeks before the event to buy your prom dress, because all of the good ones will be taken, and you may end up wearing the same outfit as someone else (the horror!). The person asking you to prom needs time to think of the perfect way to ask you (or if you don’t have a date yet, you need time to find a back-up). The arrangements for pre-prom and after-prom need to be planned. The corsages and boutonnieres need to be ordered. The shoes need to be broken in. And your prom tickets need to be bought! Then there is the actual day of prom, which includes doing your hair or getting it done, polishing your nails and making your makeup look fabulous in every which way possible. This happens to be one of the busiest days of the year! (That is why it all needs to be planned out in advance.)
This year I did many things to prepare for my prom. Every sunny day that I was free, I made it my job to get to the beach to try to create that summery glow everyone talks about. I used Crest Whitening strips to whiten my teeth—which, by the way, worked incredibly well. I’ve tried other kinds of whitening techniques, but these particular strips worked so fast and made my teeth look whiter than they’ve ever looked! I kept the strips in two times a day for a half hour (maybe a littler longer just to make sure they did their job) while talking to a friend on the phone, going on Facebook or watching a movie.
One night I had them in late at night and I fell asleep with them still on my teeth. I had set my alarm so that after 45 minutes I would know to take them out. I woke up to take them out, and when I was done, it was completely dark in my hallway and room (because everyone was sleeping). I was walking back to my room from my bathroom and being basically asleep, I walked toward the stairs instead. When I thought I was stepping into my room, I actually fell down a whole flight of stairs. I ended up being just a bit bruised, left with no real injuries, thank God. I now know never to fall asleep with whitening strips in my mouth!
It felt funny when I spent so much time preparing for prom, when the actual event only lasted about three hours (not including pre-prom or after-prom). I had such a great time through all of the preparation, though, so overall, it really was the journey that made the experience what it was.
With all of millions of people participating in social-networking sites and programs today, it can be hard to remember sometimes that this common hobby can still be dangerous. You may think that the only people who are able to view your information are the “friends” on your page, but that is a common misconception. Child predators, police officials and the government all have their ways of accessing your pages—putting you at risk of possibly attracting unwanted attention or, at worst, getting busted.
Facebook, for instance, is a great way to meet new people, reconnect with old friends and stay in touch with people from out of town, but you never really know who you are communicating with behind that computer screen. I personally think that putting information on Facebook such as your telephone number and e-mail address are far too personal. You never know who will try to contact you, and what they will do with that contact information. Finding the right balance between letting others know what is going on in your life but still staying safe and private at the same time is key to not putting yourself in danger.
One test for knowing when enough is enough: Is there anything on your social-networking sites or pages that you don’t want the entire world to see? You may think a comment or picture is deleted just by pressing the “delete” button, but trust me, it is in cyberspace for good. So the next time you put a new piece of info on your page, just make sure you’re comfortable with you and—potentially—the whole world viewing it.
Tags: Facebook, friends, high school, social network, teenage girls
How many times has this happened to you? It’s midnight, and you’ve been out since 9 P.M. with your friends. The night is winding down, and all you want is some greasy goodness that comes in the form of a 24-hour diner or McDonald’s. You and all your friends pile up into a car and soon find yourselves at the mercy of a giant menu and your cravings. How about a Belgium waffle with three scoops of ice cream on top, or a double bacon cheeseburger? When all your friends are getting the same thing, it is just so hard to resist.
Okay, you reason with yourself, it’s for just tonight, and tomorrow you will do 1,000 crunches to make up for it. You finally decide to get a stack of chocolate chip pancakes, shoving the little voice in your head telling you to order a salad instead far into the back of your mind. The pancakes, of course, end up being delicious, and once the check has been paid you go back over to your friend’s house. Then after much debate as to which movie, you decide to order The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants from the TV. You end up crashing on your friend’s couch in the middle of the movie at 2:30 in the morning.
Waking up Sunday is never fun, yet somehow you make it home, just to go back to sleep and wake up who knows when! So what happened to the 1,000 crunches? And more importantly, was it really just for that one night? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in this situation far more times than just once.
Now it seems like it’s almost every other weekend, increasingly more as more of my friends start to drive. Now, I am not one for counting every calorie until I get so psyched out that I will only nibble on celery, but I am a fan of healthy eating. This extra meal every weekend is an easy way to get myself into trouble. I tell myself I won’t do it again—until the next time I’m out with my friends on a late-night snack run…
Tags: Diner, friends, Movie, Night, Snack
Every teenage girl has her own routine when it comes to getting ready in the morning. From makeup to clothes to simple teeth brushing, the products girls use before they leave the house are numerous and varied. One of the most important aspects in that daily routine is a girl’s “signature scent”—i.e., the fragrance she chooses to wear.
After recently discovering two exciting new fragrances: Paris Hilton’s Tease and Jessica Simpson’s Fancy Nights, I was immediately captivated by the sweet smell of Tease. I usually wear sweeter smelling fragrances, so I was a bit biased towards Tease. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that Paris’ name was on the bottle. After this realization, I decided to go around the office and conduct a survey on the two fragrances. I randomly selected 10 boys and 10 girls throughout Euro RSCG Life and asked them to smell both fragrances and tell me which one they preferred, without knowing the fragrance or who created it. They curiously tested each one and recorded their preferences. After they had a good smell of each fragrance, I told them the name and the creator of the two samples. Their reactions were as expected, and sometimes changed after hearing the creator’s name (as mine did).
The results that I found were extremely interesting. Eight of the 10 boys, after smelling both products, said they preferred the smell of Tease on a woman as opposed to Fancy Nights. On the other hand, seven of the 10 girls, after smelling both products sided with Fancy Nights, stating Tease was better suited for younger girls. Most of the girls who participated were in college and they preferred Fancy Nights because it had a more sophisticated smell, closely compared to Chanel. Using both boys’ and girls’ opinions in this experiment was an interesting way to explore these two new fragrances.
The two new fragrances are made with exotic and captivating ingredients, adding the perfect touch to your daily routine in the morning. Within Jessica Simpson’s Fancy Nights, you’ll citrusy bergamot, blended with the opulent green note of Egyptian papyrus, Indonesian patchouli, Bulgarian red rose, while night blooming jasmines, vanilla and sandalwood surface, along with velvety notes of amber and oak moss. Together these ingredients make the fragrance feel and smell glamorous. Paris Hilton’s Tease contains ingredients such as fresh fuji apple, white peach nectar, sparkling bergamot, golden amber, blonde woods and much more captivating smells, making this fragrance practically irresistible (at least to me, and probably to others who prefer more floral fragrances).
Both Tease and Fancy Nights are suitable for teenage girls, and I strongly encourage trying out both of these enjoyable new fragrances. They’re not only a fragrance, but an experience.
Tags: Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, perfume, routine
For nine months I had been seeing this boy. And for seven of the nine months he was my boyfriend. Then he suddenly became my ex. It was the most out-of-left-field experience I’ve ever had. I spent my entire weekend in the same clothes, surrounded by tissue and wishing it was all a dream.
I can honestly say that it was the most horrifying experience of my life. He was my first real boyfriend, the first boy I loved and the first boy to break my heart. For nine months he was my best friend and my confidant. And all of a sudden he was not. I’m sure some of you have been in my shoes and, unfortunately, all of you will be there.
But there are two things you can always count on: your friends and yourself. Going through this made me realize how much my friends love me and how much I love them. More than anyone else, my friends were there to listen, even though most of the time they couldn’t understand me through the sobs. When I wanted to rant and be angry, they slammed my ex. When I wanted to just be sad, they brought me fro yo. And when I didn’t want to talk at all, they were there to watch Grey’s Anatomy reruns and marvel at McSteamy’s abs. Ben and Jerry helped too!
In the few days I’d had to reflect on the situation, I realized that in the end, he didn’t care enough to make us work as a couple. I didn’t want to be in a relationship in which I gave my all and didn’t get that in return. Yes, I was devastated, but being pushed aside so he could hang out with his friends would have been worse. I know that I deserve to be treated better than that, and while I was still in utter shock and despair, I came out okay.
So ladies, be sad. Cry. Yell. Punch a pillow. Eat some ice cream. Stare at McSteamy’s abs. You deserve it. But don’t forget that someone will find you and love you and treat you like the princess you are. Don’t let one person ruin you. I know that it hurts, and I know that it feels like your whole world has fallen apart, because I felt the same way. But then I remembered that my friends are still there, and that in the end I was going to be okay. I know you will be too.
Tags: boyfriend, break-up, Relationship
To say the least, Facebook is taking over! Almost everyone has a Facebook account,
especially, it seems, teenagers and young adults, but the age ranges from middle school to grandparents!
I sign on everyday, and the first thing I look at is my homepage, which gives a glimpse of my friend’s latest additions to their profiles. Most of the time there are pictures added from the birthday bash the past weekend, or a day at the beach with friends. Everybody adds Facebook albums and tags each other in pictures for everyone to see what they have been up to.
As I was going through old photo albums it occurred to me, am I going to have photo albums? Where are my pictures going to be in 35 years? On the Internet? We hardly print pictures nowadays as we simply add them to Facebook in a virtual photo album. My friend responded, “Well, they aren’t going to delete Facebook, so they will always be online.”
Is our generation going to be showing our photos on the computer? It is so cool how technology develops; my grandparents had their black-and white photographs, and I’m busy uploading to a virtual photo album with one click of a mouse.
Tags: Facebook, internet, photos
I love infomercials. I’ll admit it. I am the proud owner of a Snuggie, a Chia Pet, a ShamWow, a Perfect Brownie Pan and other various “As Seen on TV” products. It’s not really my fault, though—those commercials make every product seem like so much fun. Who wouldn’t want to curl up in a cozy pink blanket but still have your hands free to hold your book? Who isn’t amazed by the prospect of perfectly square brownies that glide effortlessly out of the pan? Everyone on TV has perfect skin, everyone is smiling and everyone is in great shape. I want to live among the TV people.
The fact is, everything looks better on a 42-inch screen. On television, you can’t tell that a product is made of flimsy plastic that will break in five seconds, or that the people on the exercise equipment have been going to the gym every day for the last 15 years. However, despite several bad purchases, I still get sucked in by the commercials for all the things I never realized I needed. I’m beginning to think this is a genetic disorder; my mom recently told me she absolutely had to have a hair straightener she saw on TV. It has revolving plates and promises to individually polish each strand of her hair.
My friends all talk about how once they turn 18, they’re going to run out and buy lottery tickets or pursue other unsavory activities. I plan on calling the 800 number at the bottom of my screen to order my very own Bedazzler.
Maybe this is why my parents won’t let me have a credit card.
Tags: Infomercials, television
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