Join us as we delve into the ways books transport and transform us.

This episode is extra special not only because of the topic, but because you'll hear from our new This Teenage Life chapter — listeners from an ocean away who reached out to come together and share their stories.

Here in the U.S., we're transitioning from summer to fall, from vacation to back-to-school. This Teenage Life is starting it's fourth season and the original crew members are starting new chapters in their lives now that high school is finished and new jobs and colleges await. At the same time, folks from younger groups are going through a big transition themselves: in-person high school for the first time.

In this episode of This Teenage Life, we're talking through our anxieties and hopes for our next chapter as we launch our fourth season.

Our hearts break for Kabul today as the Taliban take over the city. We stand with our friends there. Shame on world leaders for this tragedy.

This episode is a narrative piece by Cloe Moreno, the artist for This Teenage Life, and centers around her relationship to body image. Through her own reflections and a conversation with her mom, she tells her story about grappling with an eating disorder— how it started for her and how she is overcoming it.

Warning: This episode might be triggering for some. If that's the case, just switch to another great episode of This Teenage Life:)

Over the years, we've received a lot of emails from listeners about friendship — how to make friends, keep them, and how to processing friend breakups. In this episode of This Teenage Life, we're talking about friendship and some of the messiness that comes with being a human trying to connect with others.

With all their hip dips, pimples, stretch marks, and fat, bodies are cool and beautiful because of everything they do for us. How can we learn to love them despite societal critiques and unrealistic standards? 

In this episode, we talk about specific insecurities, the comments and comparisons that have helped foster them, and the practices we've developed to love our bodies just the way they are.

This episode contains some audio clips from a previous episode about body insecurities — we'll actually be adding some new clips soon as well but wanted to get something out this week:)

In this episode, inspired and hosted by a listener-turned-contributer named Lydia, we process feelings around parents' divorces. Check out Lydia's independent work at wildflowerszine.com.

For better or for worse, how feminine or unfeminine we are can define how we’re treated in the world — and how we think about ourselves. In this episode, Olivia discusses her relationship with femininity. 

President Biden signed into law that Juneteenth is now recognized as a national holiday. This Teenage Life contributors shared their feelings about Juneteenth and its importance to them, especially in the context of Black history being recognized as US history. 

Music credit: Molly Zucchet normally makes all our music but this episode sampled from Lobo Loco on Creative Commons.