Health & Wellness

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

As a teenager, you’ll be starting high school, making new friends, and most likely dating. Your hormones are racing the most in these few years, so it can be quite a roller coaster ride, but by the time you are a junior or senior, they are settled. Make the best of it by taking the advice below, so that you can remember good things from the past when you are an adult. You will be an adult soon enough, but you will experience many different changes on the way!

Steps

1. Have a healthy social life. As simple as this may be, a healthy social life is the key to enjoying your life in spite of the stress of school. Shop with friends; enjoy buying clothes and accessories. Go to a theme park, water park, or a few trips. Try to make at least two best friends, and try to make many friends from your gender and two or three the opposite gender for diversity. Go to arcade places, bowling, or teen clubs and places; this will be the best interaction with other teenagers or people around your age.
2. Have hobbies at home. Sew, read, play computer games, draw, or do yoga. Get a MySpace and/or Facebook account, but try not to get addicted to it. Make videos with your friends and post them on YouTube. Check online to see the hottest new music and the coolest new artists and songs of your genre of choice. Be a fan of your favorite sports team. Find whatever you enjoy doing and do it! Start a movie or book collection.
3. Be Creative — Show off your talents. Write music, write stories and poems, create cool drawings, learn how to create web pages and computer programs, create your own clothes, cook, bake, work on a car, anything.
4. Get the latest accessories. Get cable TV and watch shows and films of your preference; family-style programming such as Disney Channel, ABC Family and WGN, or maybe intense drama the likes of Burn Notice or

Justified. If you are more of a carefree, light hearted person, maybe anime or animated sitcoms such as Family Guy or The Simpsons will be good for you. Get an Xbox 360, PS3 or a Wii to play fun and interactive games in your spare time. Most importantly, get a mobile, PDA, iPod, PSP, MP3 player, iPhone, BlackBerry, or digital camera. Ask for these for your birthday or on Christmas, or any other day you celebrate.

1. Think of your own fashion. Be yourself and see what looks good on you (makeup and clothing attire). Whether it’s face makeup (lip gloss and mascara) or body lotion, you got to be decent out the door, right? www.polyvore.com is a great website to get inspiration for a outfit for every day of the year!
2. Watch what you eat. Eat healthy foods and use junk foods either in moderation or as a treat. Try to have a good amount of water in your system and eat at least one big meal a day; more if you have high metabolism or in sports.
3. Study hard in school. Always turn in your homework on time and do well on tests. Education is the most important thing in your life; doing poorly, not trying, or dropping out of school can hurt your future in a significant way. If you are getting bad grades because you are struggling with something, get help. But if you are sluffing off, it might affect college and career opportunities in the future.
4. Get involved. School has many things for you to become involved in and have fun doing. Getting involved will help you in future years(look good on your college application) and you’ll meet alot of people. Like chess? You can be in the chess club, if the school doesn’t have a club you wish you were in (say bowling club) you can create your own! This will help you be motivated in school.
5. Listen to your parents. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, it will make your life so much more easy and enjoyable if you just listen to your parents, so you don’t have to hear them keep yelling at you! Obeying them will actually be an easy way into getting what you want, remember it has to be a 50/50 cooperation, not 80/20. You parents might be not be as up to date as you, but they may give you good timeless advice. They are in the real world, not the “surreal teen world”.

Tips

• Enjoy it with all your heart and soul, because your teen years will one day be a memory in history and never come back. Take pictures, keep a journal, etc.
• Exercise! It helps with stress, and may even make you happier than usual.
• Many teens have trouble understanding that one does not have to have a boyfriend or girlfriend to have a good teen life. Many singles are having fun, too. Being single will give you more time for your friends, your activities, your education, your job, and your hobbies.
• Please be a smart and safe driver when you are learning/getting your license. Never drink and drive. It will scar you forever if you do something you wish you didn’t.
• Don’t pretend to be something you’re not, eventually people are going to realize you’re not being sincere. Get ideas from that person, but don’t try to be like that person.

Warnings

• Face it, your teenage years aren’t going to be great, your hormones are going to run crazy, but remember that when it’s over everything gets better
• Do not even think about skipping school. Education is very important for you, as it will help you prosper in adulthood.
• Do not drink. It’s illegal and has a very high idiot factor.
• Do not try to buy cigarettes It’s illegal if you are under 18, and eventually it will cause you health problems. Keep in mind that one out of two long-term smokers die earlier than they would if they had not smoked.
• Do not do drugs, period!
• Never give in to negative peer pressure. Consider their point of view when you’re under positive peer pressure.
• Be careful of who you meet.
• Make sure your new friends are really who they say they are.
• Swearing does not make you cool. It just makes you sound stupid, immature, and unapproachable. But you don’t have to be like you come out of the 700 Club.
• Have some maturity. Try not to get amused at every little thing. Don’t gossip or be mean to other people. Respect others.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Have a Good Teen Life. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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We came across this very interesting story at Scarleteen.com with a 17 year old teen visitor who basically asked if she should take nude pics of herself to send to her boyfriend. The issue discussed in this article was not only that the girl was uncomfortable taking nude pictures of herself, but that she was underage and he was 22.

Heather from Scarleteen goes into detail on why this is NOT a good idea for personal and legal reasons.

If you have ever delt with such a question, boy or girl, we recommend you read and let us know what you think

My boyfriend wants naked pictures of me: should I do it?

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By John W Sheridan

A book entitled “Bullycide: Death at Playtime” by Neil Marr and Tim Field states that a child commits suicide as a result of bullying (referred to as bullycide) once every half hour. It also says that over 19,000 children attempt suicide every year due to the direct result of bullying.

A large number of these are cyber bullycide victims.

These victims are those children who suffer bullying attacks online. It is far more difficult to detect and therefore makes it difficult to intervene on the child’s behalf.

It is found through surveys compiles by law enforcement agencies that one third of our children are victims of online bullying. One out of every three kids!

Unfortunately, the same survey shows us that only about 41 percent of those children who were victims never informed a parent, relative, teacher, or authority figure of the assault that took place.

Yes, I said assault! A cyber bully attack online can be devastating to a child. It only takes one occurrence to cause significant and long term effects that can affect your child’s emotional well-being.

So just how do we counter such a danger to our children. The answers are not the same for each child or situation.

Obviously, bullying on the playground, school, neighborhood etc… can be controlled much more easily than the internet bullying that might take place.

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A lot of articles that are created on being a healthy teenager, are mainly for girls. Well, whether your a boy or a girl, this article is for you! From personal hygiene to healthy eating it explains everything for you!

Steps

1. Learn about hygiene basics. The more you understand about hygiene the more likely you are to follow the rules on it!
2. Take showers everyday. No, not every other day: every day. Because of puberty, your sweat glands are becoming more active, which are creating different chemicals that cause sweat to turn into a disgusting odor. So, to make sure you’re getting rid of all this smelly odor you should use a mild soap and warm water! Even if it’s hot outside you need to shower in warm water, because that opens up your pores which means you get to clean more of that smell off of you. Then rinse off in cold water to shut your pores and eliminate the amount of bacteria that makes you stink.
3. Wear clean clothing and apply deodorant to your now clean armpits. Boys, that means changing your socks and underwear every day. Girls, that means washing your bra every other day, unless you have more than one.
4. Brush your teeth at minimum two times a day. Strive to try and brush your teeth after every meal! When brushing your teeth, hold your brush at an angle so it lines up with your gum line. Brush back and forth making sure to get every single tooth. Be sure to use a soft bristle brush so you don’t damage your gums. And either use your brush or a tongue scraper to get rid of all the bacteria on your tongue. If you don’t know this, bad breath mostly comes from either poor eating habits or poor brushing habits. After you brush for three minutes (yes, three!),

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