A recent Associated Press article talks about actress, singer and songwriter Miley Cyrus and her “controversial photo” at age 15 in Vanity Fair as presenting “a great opportunity for parents to discuss how seemingly innocuous photos posted to a blog or social networking site can be misinterpreted.” ... But acclaimed author Germaine Greer points out, “Sexually knowing 15-year-olds are normal."

A study led by researchers at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University suggests that teens are harming themselves at rates higher than previously suspected.

By BBC News: It has been estimated that 10% of young people in Britain have self-harmed. There are no official figures, but hospital records show that nearly 500 adolescents a week are treated for deliberately injuring themselves.

By Barry Schwartz -- "We like to believe, in our least cynical moments, that the U.S. is a meritocracy. Success is about talent and hard work. Luck has nothing to do with it. This attitude may well contribute to a lack of sympathy, sometimes even bordering on disdain, for life's losers. I believe that this attitude is profoundly false."

Role models can be examples of how to discover and realize your own unique talents, and inspiration to do more, to be more authentic. A number of prominent actors and other people admired as role models have commented about being responded to that way, and about their own choices.

More than one million Americans under the age of 18 are processed through juvenile justice systems each year. There is a continuing tendency to lock up more and more troubled kids, even though the rate of juvenile arrests peaked in the late '70s and has fallen significantly since then.