We asked the kids, “What questions do you think are important for adults to ask teens?” Here are their responses.
Keturah, age 14
Are you okay?
What do you need to be successful?
Steven, age 16
Why do you do the things you do?
What can I do to help you?
Do you have someone there for you or looking out for you?
Peyton, age 13
Is life always fair?
Jordan, age 14
Are you really okay?
How are you truly feeling?
Do you need help or need to talk about anything?
Montana, age 15
Are you feeling okay?
How’s your grades?
What have you been doing?
Evelyn, age 17
What do you want or need?
How do you feel in certain situations?
What is your input?
How would you like things to be done or changed?
Imari, age 14
How are you feeling?
Kylar, age 16
Why be weak when you can be strong?
Why do weed?
Jamie, age 15
Who do you look up to in life?
What motivates you in life?
How do you deal with your emotions?
Malachi, age 17
Are you using Condoms?
Germany, age 16
What is your story?
What can I do to help you with your situation?
What can I do to help you be successful?
Tony
What makes you do what you do in life?
Are you honestly happy with your life?
How do you want to earn money?
Then, we asked even more questions…
Sam, age 14
If you could redo anything in life, what would it be?
I would redo the 8th grade because I’m going to miss my principal.
What motivates you to get up for school each day?
Video games after school. Overwatch, I want to make it to the championships.
What is a goal you have in life?
Become a professional video game player in Overwatch or become a police officer or S.W.A.T.
Describe what a perfect day looks like to you.
When I have a Mt Dew code red, my overwatch game and snap chat.
What do you look forward to at school?
Becoming an E-sport Champion in High school, it’s a video game program.
Daniel, age 14
What do you dislike about yourself?
That I think I’m fat.
What are some of the insecurities that you deal with as a teenager?
The way I look and how I dress.
What are some things you would change about school?
Rules and the summer school laws. I’d like to do it in just 31 days and pass.
Do you feel safe/supported at school? At home?
Yes, I feel welcomed at school, and I can be myself at home.
What are your fears at school, what do you think when you’re at school?
Bullying. I fear that in high school people can actually hurt you or beat you up.
Thijin, age 13
Have you experienced being bullied? How did you deal with that? Did you tell anyone? Why or why not?
I have experienced bullying for about 3 ½ years. I tried to ignore them, but it got to me. I didn’t tell anyone, it felt like if I told them they wouldn’t believe me or would think it wasn’t as bad as it was.
Do you have to deal with clicks or the “popular circles” at school? How does this make you feel?
Yes. I was a popular but unpopular kid. This made me feel worthless and underappreciated.
Have you ever felt like you had to say yes to be someone’s boyfriend/girlfriend, if so, why?
Yes, my friend pressured me into dating them. Then they broke it off, I really didn’t even like them.
What are some of the hardest things you have to deal with every day?
Bullying, my thoughts, depression, and anxiety. There’s a lot.
What are some of the insecurities that you deal with as a teenager?
Sexuality and body image. There’s a lot that I struggle with.
Sophia, age 12
If you could redo anything in life, what would it be?
Getting into trouble at school but making it better than before.
What is a goal you have in life?
Keeping my promise to my grandma that I would do better in life.
How do you (or can you) make a difference at school, home, or your community?
By being the best me I can be.
What is one piece of advice you would give an adult?
Even when times are rough it just means that something there is waiting, you just have to get through the tough times first.
What do you think the purpose of life is?
To experience what it’s like to have people that care about you.
Hector, age 17
What do you think the purpose of life is?
To have fun, reproduce and then die.
What is a goal you have in life?
Not to be miserable.
Describe what a perfect day looks like to you.
When everything goes right.
What is one piece of advice you would give an adult?
Being an adult doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun. People say that adults who do fun things are immature, they are misinterpreting fun for immaturity.
What advice do you have for someone leaving middle school getting ready to enter high school?
Don’t procrastinate, get good grades, and have fun.
Tiala, age 14
What is one piece of advice you would give an adult?
You were born to be real, not perfect.
Describe what the perfect day looks like to you.
Going to the carnival with my friends.
What do you think the purpose of life is?
The purpose of life is to find your passion and to succeed with your dreams.
How do you (or can you) make a difference at school, home, or your community?
I feel like I already made a difference at the school because I spoke at the Anti racist ted talk.
What is a goal you have in life?
Never to lose my passion, my passion is music.