13-Year-Old: ‘Everything I Learned About Suicide, I Learned On Instagram.’

Is social media encouraging teens to take their own lives? PLUS: How the U.S. government is trying to access trans teens' private medical data.

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• I’m Christopher Pepper, an award-winning health educator and journalist. During the week, I send out editions of my Teen Health Today newsletter that are free for all to read - the most recent is It's A TALK TO YOUR BOYS Book Launch, And You're Invited!.

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In this edition:

• Time For A Cultural Reframe On Parenting

• ‘Everything I Learned About Suicide, I Learned On Instagram.’

• The Body Image Talk We’re Not Having With Boys

• I Analyzed More Than 100 Extremist Manifestos: Misogyny Was The Common Thread

• Trump Officials Demanded Confidential Data About Transgender Children Seeking Care

• The Tweens Down Under: Life Without Social Media in Australia

• A Surprising (and Easy) Way to Boost Your Attention Span

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Photo by Ali Mkumbwa on Unsplash

Time For A Cultural Reframe On Parenting (The Maternal Stress Project)

By

Molly Dickens, PhD

: The world of parenting experts has always made me squirm a bit — the generalized and simplified messaging of “do this one specific thing and everything will turn out great…” from someone who has absolutely no idea what kind of child you have or the context within which you are parenting or the nuance of your daily life and your competing time/money/mental capacity demands. Almost like we’re set up to fail.

I’m not the only one a little exhausted by the non-stop, ever-changing waves of prescriptive parenting gurus. We’re in a pendulum-swing moment – the Dr. Becky/gentle parenting embrace meets the anti-Dr. Becky/gentle parenting backlash.

In this weird atmosphere, Dr.Emily Edlynn and her work on autonomy-supportive parenting feels like a breath of fresh air. READ MORE

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Photo by Carolina on Unsplash

‘Everything I Learned About Suicide, I Learned On Instagram.’ (Time)

By

Charlotte Alter

: After they took too many pills, after their mother found them unconscious on their bedroom floor, after paramedics couldn't get them to respond, after being life-flighted to a children's hospital and intubated, and after days in a medically induced coma, 13-year-old Taylor Little finally woke up.

Regaining consciousness after this first suicide attempt in Nov. 2015 was “the most immense disappointment I’d ever felt,” Little recalls. “I was so upset I was still alive.”