With all their hip dips, pimples, stretch marks, and fat, bodies are cool and beautiful because of everything they do for us. How can we learn to love them despite societal critiques and unrealistic standards?  In this episode, we talk about specific insecurities, the comments and comparisons that have helped foster them, and the practices we've developed to love our bodies just the way they are. This episode contains some audio clips from a previous episode about body insecurities — we'll actually be adding some new clips soon as well but wanted to get something out this week:)  

This Teenage Life

Body Image

In this episode, inspired and hosted by a listener-turned-contributer named Lydia, we process feelings around parents' divorces. Check out Lydia's independent work at wildflowerszine.com.

Processing Divorce

For better or for worse, how feminine or unfeminine we are can define how we’re treated in the world — and how we think about ourselves. In this episode, Olivia discusses her relationship with femininity. 

Exploring Femininity

President Biden signed into law that Juneteenth is now recognized as a national holiday. This Teenage Life contributors shared their feelings about Juneteenth and its importance to them, especially in the context of Black history being recognized as US history. Music credit: While Molly Zucchet normally composes and produces our music, today we sampled from an artist named Lobo Loco featured on Creative Commons.

Juneteenth

I felt invisible and was bullied in high school and now I'm moving on. This is my story. 

Thank You, Next: Becoming My Best Self

Access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world is still unequal and that needs to change. But in the US, despite the spread of some misinformation, vaccination has continued. Excitingly, sometime this week, 12-15 year-olds are set to be approved to receive COVID-19 vaccines. In this episode, we explore our feelings about differences in vaccination status between already-vaccinated older teens vs. younger ones and we interview biologist, Dr. Lillian Cohn to answer some questions we have about COVID-19 and the vaccine. Here are some RESOURCES if you want to learn more about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines. Links to Articles: Articles from KidsHealth FAQ from the CDC Myths and Facts about the vaccine from the CDC Some explanatory videos: How COVID-19 makes you sick What is a vaccine — a broad overview  COVID-19 Vaccine Explained by VOX 

Getting Vaccinated

Sending our support to our listeners in India, given the dire Covid-19 situation there.

A Message to Our Friends in India

In this episode, we explore the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?", and share the anxieties it evokes in us. 

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

It has been just over a year since our quarantining and social distancing began on March 13th, 2020. We have experienced feelings of grief, loss, isolation, and now — with vaccines coming out — some hope. In this episode, we combine conversations from over the past few months with journal entries to reflect on our first year experiencing a global pandemic.

A Year in Quarantine

Because of the pandemic, we're no longer waking up and getting ready to go to school in the same way. What do we do instead? In this episode of This Teenage Life, which was inspired by a listener from Missouri, we talk about our morning routines.

Morning Routines

There are all these weird implicit social rules while texting. Should I add an exclamation mark? What does their “ha” mean? In this episode of This Teenage Life, we explain some of the norms we abide by while texting.

Text Etiquette

Casual interactions are harder to come by in COVID. In this conversation, we talk about struggling to maintain friendships and struggling with ways to reach out to other people.

Maintaining Friendships During Quarantine (...or trying to)

Hair can be a huge part of our cultural identities and sense of ourselves. However, as authentic, inner confidence grows, it can also become less important to us. In this episode, Cami and her mom reflect on hair loss and the connection between hair, race, and culture. Their conversation, while ostensibly about hair, also reveals a lot about the admiration and love between a mother and a daughter.

Hair Reflections

There's so much tied up in hair - cultural significance, identity expression, and more. On this week's episode of This Teenage Life, we're talking about our experiences with our hair.

Hair Part 1

We might be stuck inside during a global pandemic, but in our heads, we’re going places. We're rockstars, comedians, novelists, and boxers. In this episode of this Teenage Life, we discuss feelings of burn out and where we go to escape those feelings: our daydreams.

Quarantine Daydreams

This Teenage Life is a podcast made by teens about their ideas, stories, and unique perspectives in the middle of their own growth as humans.

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This Teenage Life

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