"My Brown Eyes" by Alexander Amador

Alex is a young kid, who is poor and lives in the ghetto where there is heavy gang activity and deaths. Just like the brother, who he looks up to, he gets involved into a gang. Even though his brother had been arrested, his older brother takes care of there mom, which is the main reason why Alex respects him so much and wants to be like him to a certain degree. Alex prays that he will not end up like his brother by going to jail but at the same time he wants to be his brother in the way of taking care of their mom and and be what he sees as a "Man."

"Curve" by Alison Smith

Alison, 16 years old. Is mad at the world of healthy people and skinny people. It is not because she is over weight or anything but its because she is so skinny, naturally, that she feels that she can not fit in anywhere, not even with her friends. She talks about how people look at her in this nasty way because she is skinny, becasue they wish they were as skinny as her. In the story though Alison states that being this skinny is almost a curse, she can not talk to people about health problems and is looked at by other girls in a mean and nasty way. This story addresses the other side of overweight...underweight.

"Sleeves" Amy Hunt

Amy is a sixteen year old who is caught in this horrible life merely because of her weight. She is self conscience because she can hear people mock her and make fun of her in the rudest and most messed up ways. All because of this she starts to put herself down so she can at least have that ridiculous comfort and idea, that if she puts herself down then other people's words wont hurt as bad. All she believes that the only reason why she has friends is because of the pity card. She is dealing with the overweight issue.

Introduction by Amy Goldwasser

Amy is the Author of the book "Red", which this comes from. In the book it is more like a journal of many entries that Amy collected from Teenagers. She asked each girl to write anything and something that was heart felt, important, or whatever about life. At first Amy believed that there would be little to know deep responses to this; but as she got the entries she realized that these girls and teens in general did have something to say about life and everything else.

Reality Check by This American Life

The band Ghost of Pasha and a cow owner are the focus points for this story. The story talks about how the 2 are constantly being judged by societies standards and it shows how hard it can be to be "normal." The 2 begin to believe that the whole thing is fake or just a dream, due to the hardships. As the story goes on it shows that there is a fine line between truth and dreams and that if being different from society makes it either one than so be it.

Kids and Money by Lauren Greenfield

This was a movie/documentary about kids in LA and there habits with money and perspective of others in general. This showed relatively different classes in society: Poor, Middle Class, Upper Middle Class, Wealthy, and then Rich. From each class you had these different out looks of how they dressed, why and even how they judged others. I can't say I relate to all of them because I can't, I mean I do not spend hundreds of dollars on shoes or clothing just to fit in like the actor or the 12 year old in Calabasas. The only ones I could relate to, at least from one point in my life, was either the poor kid -who wore what he could or had- or the middle class kids. The were the most normal to me, the middle class, I mean they wore some stylish clothes but for the most part it was what they could afford.

"Being There..." by Virginia Heffernan

This story was about the two big social networks in this generation; Facebook and Myspace. Well as the story went on, one discovers that most people like Facebook because not only is it safer but of the status updates that one could do. This gave people that freedom to express one self much differently than Myspace allowed you. Not only that but because Facebook was more for college students people saw this site as more mature rather than the "bubble gum" network: Myspace.

"Social Networking Benefits..." by Karen Goldberg

This story talked about the current situation in this society and work place. It talks about how people are no longer learning how to think for themselves or even be unique. The main goal now is to get the best score on tests and go to the best university. And by doing this the art of originality and independce to create something is now being lost. If this attitude of, the better the score than the better off you will be, does not stop then we will soon have no one to actually think not only outside of school and tests but in general, which would cause an upset everywhere in the world.

"Why Youth Love..." by Danah Boyd

Individuals enjoy Social Networking because it is a way to waste time and to show ones individuality. According to this story that is why Social Networking has become so popular. Kids enjoy the idea of now being able to talk differently to their friends or even to rebel against parents through multiple ways. This very thinking that kids have is what made Myspace and Facebook. Which shows it by letting people make an account so easily.