Inside the Dangerously Empty Lives of Teenage Girls

In the May 10th edition of the popular Maclean’s magazine, a controversial article written by family doctor, Dr. Leonard Sax, titled "Inside the dangerously empty lives of teenage girls" received mixed feedback. Dr. Sax was drawing from his book "Girl’s on the Edge" where he expresses the fact that teens, especially our girls, look and act much more confident than they really are feeling. They struggle with low self-esteem and are trying to impress themselves with sex, booze and Facebook on the internet.

Dr. Sax says that girls are pressured into presenting themselves in a sexual persona from the media. This includes the presentation of girls and young women in our magazine ads and television with the emphasis on being thin, beautiful and very sexy in their attire. Clothes in the department stores are fashioned in very suggestive sexy designs and are available to the very young girls in their sizes. He went on to say that the girls use their sexuality experimenting with the boys in sexual encounters just so they can become more popular with their peers. I agree with the author that our world is presenting images of sex to sell their products and that young girls could easily be influenced with the media, however if the girls have had positive feelings instilled in them about their bodies they won’t be giving into the sexual pressure.

The author goes on to say that booze and going to parties and getting drunk is prevalent among the youth of today. He states that girls again want to be popular and so will go along with their peers. Girls cannot take as much alcohol as the boys because of their weight and size and may not realize this, also they might not realize the effect of drinking on a empty stomach if they have been trying to watch their weight and not eat much. He states that many girls are on anti-depressants for stress and anxiety issues in their lives. Again I disagree with the author on the number of girls involved in this type of activity. If the girls are confident in themselves, especially girls that are into sports, drama, the arts and other community activities they have no time or need to party. Their self image does not come from being popular by using sex or booze.

Facebook is a very popular avenue for kids to make and talk to their friends. Used in the correct manner it can be very helpful for the girls to keep up with what their friends are doing and saying to each other. Dr. Sax is saying that the girls are using Facebook pages to present themselves in a sexual way by posting pictures to give themselves popularity and publicity. He states that parents are so busy with their lives they allow the girls to have the computer and phones available at all times for these girls. He even stated that if the girls are texting in the early morning hours that these girls come to school tired and stressed. I can say that Dr. Sax has some points on this issue.

Dr. Sax’s main ideas that our young anxious girls trying to gain confidence through sex, booze and Facebook so have some valid points, however I wonder where he got his statistics for the number of girls involved in this manner. I believe it is not as prevalent as he is saying. Again if the girls are encouraged to become who they are because of their talents and achievements, I believe they will not be caught up in these self-destructive activities.

Satire

"MOVE!" "Could you walk any slower?" "Hey, there's still room to walk. Why don't you move over and take up the entire hallway."

Ah, I just love it when I'm in a rush to get somewhere like caff, my locker, or to find someone before they leave but I can't because the hallways are so freaking crowded. With the amount of people in the school, you wouldn't think that student traffic could get any worse. But guess what, it can. The two most popular ways to make an already overpopulated hallway even more so are people who walk like old people, and just stand in the middle of the hallways doing nothing but taking up space.

There is absolutely nothing more wonderful than people walking as slow as ninety year olds. Actually, I'm sure there are some ninety year olds who walk faster than some of the kids in our school. I mean seriously. There can't be anyway that they could walk any slower even if they had their shoelaces tied together. And then on top of walking slow, they act as if they have no freaking clue where on earth they are going. Come on people! You have legs for a reason; try using them to walk faster.

Hanging out with a big group of friends is not a problem at all. The problem occurs when that big group of friends slowly grows to masses almost completely unpassable. I seen on many occasions a group so large that people walking both ways are forced to take turns passing. There have even been a few time where I've seen a single group of people block the entire hallway; absolutely no way of passing. It's almost as if they expect the rest of the school to either just wait for them to move when they want to, or somehow fly over them just so they can take their sweet time talking. If people would just stop taking up space and walking slower than an old person there would be alot less student traffic.

Cliches

It was a Friday night not too long after Halloween. Friday the 13th actually and we were all bored as hell. None of us could think of anything to do.

"LET'S GO INVESTIGATE THE OLD MANSION!" Everyone looked at Jonny, who had just shouted out the suggestion. "What?" Jonny asked sheepishly.

Sara replied, "Nothing, you're just so shy and quiet as all get out, that you're the last person we would've expected to suggest that."

So after we bat the idea aound for few minutes we decided to go for it. Even though we were all a little scared, it was the best idea anyone had come up with all night. At that time we didn't know what a hare brained idea it was.

By the time we got to the old mansion, it had started to rain a bit and a slight fog had settled. Just as we reached the porch steps and were about to open the huge door, Jonny whispered, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Are you a man or a mouse? You know it's not too late to run home with your tail between your legs." sneered Butch, who was at the front of the group and had turned around to face Jonny.

Jonny frowned. "Quit makin' fun of me."

Butch ingored Jonny. "Look who's gettin' cold feet."

"Stop it."

"Oooh, look at me," Butch continued in an immitaion whiny voice, "I'm just a big ol' scaredy cat."

Jonny glared at Butch for a few seconds. He then stormed up the steps, shoved Butch out of the way, opened the door to the black as pitch mansion, and marched inside. Sara and I stared shocked as a half stunned Butch muttered, "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle." and walked in after Jonny.

We had only been exploring the downstairs for about 10 mintues when...thud, thud, thud. We all froze.

Shakily, I asked, "I'm not the only one who heard that, right?"

"No, I heard it too." Sara replied just as shakily.

"What do you think it was?" Jonny squeaked.

I fearfully looked up a flight of stairs. "I have a feeling we don't want to know."

Butch snorted. "You three are all a bunch of sissies. It was probably just the wind outside banging a window pain." He purposely wandered over to the stairs. As he started climbing them he called back to us, "I'm going to explore the rest of the house, now, if anyone else would like to join me."

No one else moved. We all agreed without actaully saying anything, to just wait for Butch to return. Suddenly the house went bone chilling cold. It was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. We heard this scream of pure horror and not even 5 seconds later Butch is half running, half flying out one of the upstairs rooms, down the hall, and down the stairs yelling "RUN!!!"

Just as we're turning to run, this big black thing chewing nails and spitting tacks, bursts out the same room that Butch came from, jumped over the railing on the top floor, and landed 3 meters away from us. We ran as fast as we could anywhere away from....what ever it was. It must have hurt it self when it landed because it started grabing anything and everything and throwning them at us. It's a good thing he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn or non of us would be here today. Once we were out that door, we didn't look back.

To this day, I have no clue what the hell that thing was. All I can say about it is that it was dressed to kill and looked fit to be hung. The only Butch ever said about it was that it had face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

My Super Power

Most people see me as a normal person; simple, plain. By far nothing extraordinary to the naked eye, but there's one thing that nobody knows about me. Something beneath the surface; nesting deep within my complex mind. See, I have the ability to tap into peoples thoughts and memories. Promises like 'I'll take it to my grave' and 'No one will ever know' mean very little to my mind. No secret is safe with me...nothing remains hidden. Like the icy grip of death itself I am able to crawl my way into peoples minds and, with a bit of digging, find out every secret they hold dear. But like all things, there is always a struggle between good and evil, a lust for power if you will. I use my power to do good; for instance, I could see if someone were to do something destructive and harmful, and anonymously let the authorities know before it's too late. Yet I always have a chilling, lingering, ever so tempting thought: I could wreak so much havoc with this supernatural power of mine. Destroy lives, shatter hearts, rip very families apart...get my revenge. Is that not what all power-hungry villains do? Discover weaknesses and use them against people?

Who doesn't have a secret to hide?

What is the point in secrets if you have a power such as mine? Simple...there isn't one.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't rather have a less complex power than Telepathy. No, I do not wish to fly over great skyscrapers and kiss the robin-egg blue sky, touch the wispy clouds as they float on by. I do not wish to be able to shapeshift into different objects to disguise myself or turn invisible. I do not wish for such trivial little things.

I like this eternal struggle. It's who I am, who I've always been, who I will continue to be until the day I die.

It's all I know.