May 9, 2008   

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A teen who overdosed on an herbal drink described his harrowing battle with hallucinations and the fight to keep a friend from swallowing his tongue while in convulsions from his own overdose

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It's a Wednesday night at The MUSE Community Arts Center, and a group of teenagers are stirring in an upstairs studio. Inside, they play games, tell stories and act out moments from one another's lives.

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Tania Luna, 15, didn't get much sleep last weekend.

Her baby cried into the wee hours of Sunday morning, keeping the Hilton Head High School sophomore up to rock, feed and soothe Rachel, a fussy computerized doll programmed to act like a real infant.

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Two 17-year-old girls – one from Princeton and the other from about 2,000 miles away in Wildomar, Calif. – each have a little silver bracelet with the word, “switched” etched onto the top

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For families who travel, the teenage years are the great divide. Suddenly, the 12-year-old who happily went along for a week at the lake has morphed into a sullen teenager with something a little cooler in mind.

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He has digitally scrubbed the braces from so many students' smiles that he now keeps a personal library of lovely teeth on his hard drive, pinched from classmates' photos over the past few years. When a kid pays the extra $40 to have his or her braces removed — and many, many do — Dodge obliges.

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Keeping one's head above water, rather than getting ahead, has become the top priority for Americans between the ages of 18 and 34. Pursuing the relatively modest dream of doing better than the generation before requires serious capital—up front in the form of tuition and loans, and hidden in the form of lost opportunities.

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Coerced into a government youth camp in 2001, Debbie says she was raped almost every night for the next six months. And every day, she was put through an arduous physical training program that included push-ups and 20-km runs. She was also trained how to kill: by strangling with shoelaces, by stabbing with a knife.

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Sex Bracelets are back - and kids are using them without their parents knowing what they are doing. Or are they?

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Three suburban Chicago high school students are pursuing a unique history project: To see what they can do to get a reprosecution in the 1964 slayings of civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Earl Chaney.

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The average number of crashes in Wisconsin with 16-year-olds behind the wheel and the number of people killed in those crashes dropped dramatically in the first two full years of new restrictions on teen drivers, an Associated Press review found.

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Nine out of ten British teenage girls believe thinner girls have more friends, and say the perfect woman is a combination of Rachel Stevens (face), Christina Aguilera (breasts and stomach), Beyonce (legs), J-Lo (bottom) and Britney (arms).

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The United States leads the world on adolescent obesity whilst Lithuania has the lowest prevalence of overweight teenagers, says a new study of 30,000 teens from 15 countries.

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Isamar Maldonado is worried about Sears Roebuck & Co. The retailer's stock has been tanking all week, so Isamar sells her 100 shares and buys some Dell instead. She has just one hour before the market closes at 4 p.m. and she is still agonizing over which stocks to buy and sell with her $100,000.

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My name is Florence Namukwaya and I am 19 years old. Our parents died of HIV/Aids: my mother died in 1989 when I was five and my father died two years later. I have lost six of my brothers and sisters through AIDS. Now there are only two of us left.

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Should a 14-year-old have a right to vote? Teenagers in Africa have given a mixed reaction to proposals to lower the voting age in some countries below 18.

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Irena, 17, plays the espresso machine at the Muse Cafe like a pipe organ. Her fingers fly over the levers of the caffeine calliope until a satisfying whoooosh of steam can be heard, signaling another perfect brew -- a 20-ounce cappuccino, steamed milk mixed with a triple-shot of espresso capped by creamy froth.

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Toronto — Canada should ban trans fat and launch a major public-awareness campaign to prevent an obesity epidemic from lowering the life expectancy of Canada's children, says an all-party Commons committee that has been studying the issue since last June.

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NEW YORK — The big dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago did not produce a flurry of new species in the ancestry of modern mammals after all, a huge study says, challenging a long-standing theory.

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Readership of several Canadian magazines is falling amid competition from the Internet, while some titles are cutting back circulation to focus on more lucrative subscribers.

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When school's out for summer, many teens will get a taste of working life. But few holiday jobs can match that lined up by Nicky Owen and James McClenaghan, a reformed young offender - shadowing Colin Powell.

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A little-known chapter in William Shakespeare's life is being retold for the 21st Century in three plays by teenagers in one of the UK's most deprived areas. They are expected to cast Shakespeare as a pop star whose tales of gangs and street life still resonate today.

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Five youth activists discuss the coolness of voting, making Election Day a national holiday, and how they’re going to get young “asses” to the polls this year.

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Teenagers getting their learners permits can skip the long wait at the department of motor vehicles and use a high-tech shortcut - an on-line option that many people may not know about.

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Spas are more popular than ever, but the next time you go, you may be surprised to see a 13-year-old getting a facial or a 15-year-old waiting for a massage. Teenagers are pampering themselves like never before, reported WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

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A broad coalition of Nobel Prize winners, diplomats and 50 foreign nations urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to declare that it is unconstitutional to execute people for crimes they committed before turning 18.

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Zack Kleinfeld, 18, of Wilton, Conn., spent most of his senior year in high school waking himself up and greeting his mother with a smile. It was a far cry from his junior year when he ignored the alarm every morning and waited for his mother to drag him out of bed.

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A Manchester secondary school aims to have its truancy rate in two years with a reward scheme for youth. Students can trade reward points for treats including driving lessons, a game of pool at breaktime or a place at the front of the lunch queue.

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If you haven't been to a college campus lately, here's a quick primer on the current freshman class: • 26 percent frequently talk about politics.
• 48 percent had 'A' averages in high school.
• And a majority place a high value on 'being very well off financially.'

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A rise in the number of students in the UK, including undergraduates from overseas, is likely to mean increased plagiarism, a report has said. Colleges and universities are being sent guidelines written by experts in the higher education technology organisation, Jisc. The authors say: student plagiarism in the UK is common and is probably becoming more so.

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During her first week at Furman University last semester, Amber Kirtley enrolled in a cardio-kickboxing class to avoid the dreaded Freshman 15. For her humanities class, she was a little nervous about reading the Epic of Gilgamesh because she didn't understand the book's title. Anyone would know these details about Amber's life if they clicked on her biweekly journal at engagefurman.com. The freshman is one of six Furman students who write journals about their first-year experiences.

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This weekend marks the unveiling of the latest variable in the nation's college admissions equation - the new and possibly improved Scholastic Aptitude Test, to be offered for the first time Saturday, March 12. While the test may be different, a constant remains: Worried high schoolers here and across the country see the exam as a possible boost - or barrier - to their future hopes and dreams. When they turn up bright and early Saturday morning, they will be armed not only with graphing calculators but also with a wide range of personal concerns.

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Though plenty of adults grumble about e-mail and instant-messaging (IM), and the text messages that send adolescent thumbs dancing across cellphone keypads, many experts insist that teenage composition is as strong as ever - and that the proliferation of writing, in all its harried, hasty forms, has actually created a generation more adept with the written word.

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When it comes to sex, 16 is the new 14. Under a law that went into effect yesterday as part of the federal government's omnibus crime bill passed in February, a teen under the age of 16 cannot consent to sex with an adult five or more years older.

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Back in 1991, Gordon Lightfoot told a local interviewer that “nobody really needed another Gordon Lightfoot record.” It didn't turn out that way, of course. Lightfoot recorded three more albums after that statement, the last of which, Harmony, came out in 2004.

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ATLANTA — People who sleep fewer than six hours a night – or more than nine – are more likely to be obese, a new U.S. government study has found.

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HARTFORD, Conn.–Social networking site Facebook is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, although the most extreme measure – banning convicted sex offenders – won't apply to Canada or other countries outside the United States.

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At 6:45 a.m., school bus No. 14 appears half empty. But that's an illusion. Look down.

There, crammed horizontally onto the narrow bus seats, are sleeping adolescents. They are curled in the fetal position, sweat-shirt hoods pulled over eyes, headphones covering ears. Anything for an extra 30 minutes.

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Jamie Horton, 14, considers himself a fairly savvy music-loving teen. The Los Angeles ninth-grader trawls the Internet for rock discoveries and totes an iPod packed with 3,000 tunes.

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Research shows this summer may be the worst for teen employment since World War II. But one company is offering young women some hope, in the form of lip gloss.

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Growing up with two moms is not really different from growing up with two parents of opposite sex, he said. I think people think I'm not a normal kid, Daniel said. I'm as normal as anyone else.

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One of the biggest things I've learned is to be more comfortable talking about issues you don't normally talk about, Smith said.

The more people talk about problems, the group agreed, the less frightening they are.

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At least one aspect of the American dream isn't quite what it's cracked up to be: While most teenagers in this country do think they could grow up to be president of the United States, the vast majority wouldn't want the job, an ABCNEWS/Weekly Reader poll finds.

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Christopher Smith of Fairfax County, Va., has had his own Web site for two years. He originally created it to showcase his cartoon drawings, but his interests have changed, and he has taken the site in a new direction: he uses it to share homemade animations. The site, thingemon.com, is typical of many personal Web pages, except for one thing: Christopher is 12 years old.

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One-quarter of girls and women between the ages of 16 to 19 will experience an episode of major depression and smokers are more likely to be depressed, according to a study at the University of Alberta.

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When it comes to teens and drug abuse, they don't have to go very far to get high. For years, some have overdosed on anything from paint to potpourri.

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A growing number of girls include pampering - from manicures to mud masks - among their extracurricular activities.

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It starts with a diamond ring and a promise—a combination destined to change a young woman's life forever. Today, however, the promise is not between two adults, but rather between a teen and a parent. The promise is to postpone having sex until marriage. The ring is the reminder of sexual purity.

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Automatic teller machines are proliferating everywhere these days, and high schools are just the latest place for them to pop up.

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Not everyone would be comfortable buying a home built by teens, but Edward and Evelyn Drew of Stafford can't wait to move into their new ranch house on Winterberry Drive.

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Retirement savings? What 16-year-old in her right mind would want to give up the right to touch a portion of her hard-earned income for the next 43 years?

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There is no easy way to reverse the growing distrust between the United States and the Islamic world, but for 16-year-old Palestinian Sami Qarmout and other young Muslims who spent the past year in America, it's time to get started.

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The cover looks like any other teen magazine: Blurred fingers play an unheard riff on a guitar. Skater dudes, wearing shades, lean on their boards. Inside is the complete New Testament with a twist: It's designed to appeal to teen-age boys. A preview copy offers tips on what girls want in a Christian guy.

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A British student has put his virginity up for sale on the internet for $15,800 and attracted offers from as far as Australia, a British newspaper reported.

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MADRID – The winter holidays are over and it's back to school - poison pens, invisible ink, and encrypted textbooks. At least, that's the image some have upon first learning of Spain's newest post-graduate degree aimed at preparing students for the intelligence service. At the General Gutiérrez Mellado University Institute of Peace, Security, and Defense Research in the center of Madrid, students now can receive an expert's degree - falling between a bachelor's degree and a master's degree - in intelligence services.

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A group of frightened girls dodged through the back alleys of Kabul, avoiding adults who might turn them in to the authorities. But the girls were not playing truant. It was not even a school day: such a thing no longer existed. They were trying to get to lessons, lessons they had organised.

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Sprawling across two huge campuses in Chicago's affluent northern suburbs, the venerable New Trier High School is usually cited as the epitome of public-school excellence. Nearly 95 percent of its graduates go on to four-year colleges. Its courses cover marine biology and music theory, international relations and advanced Japanese. But lately the talk here has centered on a problem many schools would envy: how to tone down students' intensity.

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Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology seems like many other suburban American high schools. Between classes, noisy students spill out into crowded hallways lined with lockers. But talk with some of the students about what they are working on, and it's clear that this school is different. I am testing the effects of creatine on earthworms, says senior Scott Cole, as he works in the biosciences lab. Creatine monohydrate is a supplement used in bodybuilding to enhance muscle gains. I'm feeding it to earthworms. Hopefully they will grow to be larger than the average earthworm.

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A radiant Carrie MeGahee beams from the May 16 cover of Newsweek. Inside, the magazine lists America's Best High Schools for 2005 - and Carrie's own Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School in Irondale, Ala., holds the top spot. But the Newsweek list has some people scratching their heads.

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In the past, many sensitive topics - interracial relationships, drug and alcohol use, teen sex - were verboten in yearbooks, which often barely featured anything more than photos. But in recent years, student editors have sought more freedom to treat grittier topics.

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When Ed Chi wants to read, he turns to two of the six computer screens that surround his desk. One is devoted exclusively to e-mail; the other, to the rest of his reading material.

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Gleneagles: Children from the world's wealthiest nations urged their leaders to work at the G8 summit for universal primary education, reduce maternal mortality and tackle HIV and Aids.

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Ministers yesterday dismissed claims that smartcards for teenagers offering government pocket money amounted to identity cards, but admitted that they would carry a photograph of the user and could be used as proof of age.

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As they head back to classes in the next few weeks, American high school students reject the idea that they are being overburdened by homework and expectations, complaining that school isn’t challenging enough.

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Alexandra Sisam doesn't read self-help manuals -- in fact, she has never even heard of them. The 13-year-old Toronto eighth grader says as far as getting by socially in school, the rules are pretty simple: I would say don't judge people or anything and don't act differently around them to make them like you. You've just got to be yourself.

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Early last year I attended a conference, hosted by the Time Warner Foundation, for adults who help teens produce their own media.

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The exhaustion felled Marisa Astiz in her first year of college. Astiz started her long streak of overachieving with straight A's in the second grade. She worked hard in middle school and spent four years at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Md., on the run, every minute scheduled. Tough courses, swim team, cross-country running.

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The Pew American and Internet Life Project research suggested that 12 to 17-year-olds look to web tools to share what they think and do online. It also said they were much more likely than adults to read and have a weblog.

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TEENAGERS and young adults who see more alcohol advertising are also likely to drink more, according to a study that makes the strongest link yet between exposure to adverts and youth drinking.

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After Alexis Yamamoto became a belated fan of The O.C., she was desperate to learn about the frothy show's first season. The teenager turned to the Internet, but not for chat-room descriptions of past twists and turns in Ryan and Marissa's stormy relationship. Instead, like so many members of her generation, she watched downloads of the television program on a computer.

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