Having to parent your mother or father is a challenge that way too many teens have to deal with. Teens whose parents are dealing with substance abuse, financial hardship, job loss, mental illness and divorce deserve our love, support, and compassion. I wish America would stop judging and criticizing teens and instead, try to understand the battles they have to fight every day.

I scared myself, because once you've thought long and hard enough about doing something that is colossally stupid, you feel like you've actually done it, and then you're never quite sure what your limits are.

Did you read last nights assignments?" Say "yes'" and get hammered again. Say "no'" and the same thing would happen.

Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how.

Having a friend made everything else suck less.

Do they choose to be so dense? Were they born that way? I have no friends. I have nothing. I say nothing. I am nothing.

I pushed my ragged mouth against the mirror. A thousand crushed bleeding lips pushed back at me.