3/11/10 National Teen News

Ludacris, Foxx join HIV campaign – The two entertainers have joined CDC’s social media campaign to use Twitter and Facebook to draw black teens into a conversation about HIV.  The AIDS virus continues to spread widely among African Americans, who represent just 14% of Americans ages 13-29 but account for half of new infections in that group, the CDC reports.Yet the number of young blacks who say they’re concerned about HIV declined from 50% to 40% from 1997 to 2009. (USA Today)

H. Barnes named Player of Year – UNC recruit Harrison Barnes honored with 2010 Morgan Wotten Award. When he’s not playing basketball, Barnes is involved in DECA (Marketing, Management, Entrepreneurship Club) and Students Helping Eliminate Poverty and Hunger (SHEPH). “I am humbled and honored to be the recipient of the prestigious Morgan Wootten Award as the 2010 McDonald’s National High School Player of the Year,” said Barnes. “I feel blessed that my name will be linked with everything this award embodies.” (Scout)

Teen cake decorator wins awards - 14-year-old Natalie New of Kansas City is a self-taught cake decorator whose designs take up to 61 hours and have won multiple contests. “I took the actual calculation of the full-sized Eiffel Tower in France and reduced them down to a size that would fit on a cake so that it would have the correct slope,” she said. “Then, to make the form that the pastillage would dry on, I had to reverse the slope.” (N&O)

Madonna, Lourdes get clothing label – 13-year-old Lourdes and her mother will be designing the teen fashion label Material Girl for Macy’s this fall.  “Joining forces with Iconix to bring my fashion ideas to consumers is very exciting for me,” the material girl said in a statement, adding that she “looks forward to working closely” with Iconix “to create and translate my vision and ideas for MG Icon.” (NY Post)

Seventeen Magazine releases prom issue - Spider tights and ugly floral prints? (Jezebel)

3/10/2010 Local Teen News

1,000 Clayton teens celebrate sexual purity - Clayton teens gather at “Silver Ring Thing” abstinence event, where teens are taught that sex is dangerous and waiting is better.  The silver rings represent a vow to not have sex until marriage. “God created us to be with a certain woman,” said Tyler Franks, 18, of Angier. “You’re not supposed to have sex until you’re with that woman.” (N&O)

Teen plans ’2010 Clayton Teen Fest’ – For her senior project, Clayton High School student Jordan Wing has spent over 200 hours planning this March 20 ‘state fair-type’ event that will bring students to God in a ‘non-threatening, fun environment.’When Wing went to Winterfest in Virginia with members of her church, . the 700 that accepted the Christian faith gave her what she calls the “holy shivers.”“It really influenced me a lot,” she said. “It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” (FV Independent)

East Garner school initiates Haiti project - An English as a Second Language class spent a month researching Haiti and painting chairs to raise money for Red Cross.  Juan Aguilar wrote, “If I help Haiti, I can make a very big difference in someone’s life. That is what the power of one is all about. You don’t need physical power; your mind is your power.” (Garner Citizen)

NC State students plan for Alternative Spring Break – Instead of hitting the beaches, a number of NC State students are preparing for public-service trips throughout the world, although not to Haiti. Last year Nadeem Elborno went to New Mexico to work with the Navajo community. ”I can honestly say when I went on my trip last year, it changed my life,” Elborno said. “It teaches you to see the world through the eyes of the people you’re serving.” (MyNC.com)

Photos of Wake County’s 2010 Pieces of Gold by photographer Travis Long – (N&O)

2/03/10 Teen news

Study: Abstinence-only education delays sex – Only 1/3 of middle-school students who attended an abstinence-only education class had sex within 24 months versus half of students assigned to a general health class that taught safer sex. “This new study is game-changing,” said Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, in a statement. “For the first time, there is strong evidence that an abstinence-only intervention can help very young teens delay sex and reduce their recent sexual activity as well. Importantly, the study also shows that this particular abstinence-only program did not reduce condom use among the young teens who did have sex.” (NYT)

The appeal of MTV’s ‘Teen Mom’ – MTV’s popular show replaces Hills at the top of the line-up. “This show really hits people hard. In ‘Juno’ or ‘The Secret Life of An American Teenager,’ things are kind of glossed over and they don’t really show the hardships,” said Bookout, who recently split up with Edwards. “On ‘Teen Mom,’ there are girls from different parts of the country with different backgrounds. On every other MTV show, like ‘The Hills’ and ‘The City’ and ‘The Real World,’ it’s just for entertainment. Our show is really educational and good for audiences who want to get a different mindset on teen pregnancy.” (LA Times)

Hip-Hop’s obsession with “Clockwork Orange” – From Three6Mafia to Eminem, Stanley Kubrick’s 1972 masterpiece looms large. Before Em was a household name, he was beefing with fellow talented honkey Cage. In an effort to embarrass the NY rapper, Shady posed on the cover of Stress magazine dressed as the lead character Alex from Clockwork, Cage’s alias at the time. He also opened his verse on D12’sDevils Night with this line, “Lock your doors, drop to the floors, get your shotguns drawn—here comes another Clockwork Orange.”(XXL)

“If These Halls Could Talk” - An editorial by Garner High School student Sarah Gibson on the stresses of high school. The second stress during this time of year is exams. Teenagers all over the county are dreading them as much as I am. No one, not even the teachers, likes these exams. Even for classes like dance, the final exams are difficult and challenging. (Garner Citizen)

Survey: Wake parents like school calendar – Only 28% of parents responded, 81% said they were satisfied with their children’s school calendar.  100 school district employees to be laid off. (N&O)

1/28/10 national teen news

School prohibits bending on dance floor - The Smoking Gun publishes new dance restrictions for Wisconsin high school trying to limit ‘sexual’ dancing at the winter formal; rules include both feet must remain on the floor and no bending. The dance “will be videotaped to insure the safety of all students attending,” the rules note, though Union Grove administrators could presumably review the film for provocative moves that were initially missed by monitors. (Smoking Gun)

Parents tell theater company to tone down Romeo and Juliet - A Canadian theater company that produces plays for high school students has been asked by parents and educators in Nashville to remove the “bawdy” parts of the play.“We would be doing the play a disservice, ourselves a disservice, and the students of Tennessee a disservice if we were to actually try and shy away from the intent of the play,” Mr. Galpern said from his hotel in Nashville. “This is the production that they saw in Toronto that they wanted to bring down here.” (National Post)

Profile of teen Olympic skater Rachael Flatt - 17-year-old Olympian loves lemonade, feta cheese, Dan Brown novels and rollercoasters. She has two Old English Sheepdogs named Fred and Ethel after the I Love Lucycharacters. And she’s been skating since she was only 4 years old. (People Magazine)

“The Untouchable Mean Girls” – Profile of Massachusetts town where popular female students bullied a girl into suicide then laughed about it. “Things like this aren’t supposed to happen in South Hadley,’’ said Darby O’Brien, a high school parent, wondering why the bullies who tormented Phoebe are still in school. “And so instead of confronting the evil among us, the reality that there are bullies roaming the corridors at South Hadley High, people are blaming the victim, looking for excuses why a 15-year-old girl would do this. People are in denial.’’ (Boston.com)

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1/26/10 Teen News

L.A. pulls dictionary from elementary schools – At least one parent complained about the explicit definitions provided for sexual terms.“I think it’s absurd that we will remove dictionaries from our library especially because these dictionaries are the same ones we use in our spelling bees,” the school board president said. “I think we are approaching censorship with this. If they ban this book, they better clean house and go through all of them. What’s good for one is good for all. I think we will open a big can of worms if these books are banned. It’s the dictionary after all, c’mon.” (LA Times)

Tyra hosts plus-sized teen model search – The contest is for girls between the ages of 13 and 19 between 5’9″ and 6’1″. “Plus-sized tends to have a negative connotation and I want young girls to realize that what’s considered plus-sized is the average American woman. That woman is healthy, fit and beautiful. Adolescence is such an impressionable time in a young woman’s life, and I hope this contest helps teen girls discover their own beauty from the inside out.” (People Magazine)

Teen pregnancy, abortion rate rise – For the first time in a decade, the teen pregnancy rate rose to 7% and critics debate whether abstinence-only education is to blame. “The issue here is clearly that we have a lot of teenagers who are having sex, but they aren’t careful enough at contraception to avoid pregnancy,” says Sarah Brown, executive director of the nonprofit National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. (USA Today)

This is your face on meth – A California sheriff is trying to prevent kids from trying meth by using image altering software to show how their faces would change after years of meth use.“You’re young. You’re vibrant. You have great-looking skin. Your hair is there, your teeth are there,” Allman says. “The software … morphs it into causing the physiological effects that meth causes — the open scabs, the droopy skin, the hair loss.” (NPR)