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Here’s a post for the wikiTeens (and young adults) out there! I know from seeing your great edits around the site that you’ll have some helpful input for me… but first, let me introduce myself:

I’m Natalie. I work at the wikiHaus and am currently developing resources aimed at helping young people tackle some of the challenges they face. Because so much of teens’ time is dedicated to academic and extra-curricular pursuits, it can be hard not to neglect other important areas of personal and interpersonal growth. I remember how it goes… it’s not an easy time, and there aren’t that many resources out there to help! 

With that in mind, I’m trying to assemble a “Teen Toolkit” with some of our best articles aimed at navigating the ups and downs of the teenage years. My hope is that this will help individual teens with their how-to questions and also be a resource we can share with organizations and nonprofits interested in partnering with wikiHow, for example in areas like bullying prevention. It won’t include every great teen article we have, but the idea is it’ll be a good starting point, a teenage survival guide of sorts.

It’s been a little while since I was a teenager, though, so I was hoping some of you would be game to provide some feedback. I’d love to hear what you think of the Teen Toolkit. If you’re interested, please take a look, keeping in mind it’s a work in progress:slight_smile:

https://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Teen-Toolkit

Any and all feedback is welcome, but here are a few questions to get you thinking:

-   Are these 10 topic areas helpful? Do you like the current topic titles (eg: “Getting Healthier than Ever”)?

-  What do you think of the articles selected for each topic? Have I left something important out? 

-  What do you think of the introduction and summaries for each topic? Is it too much text, or did you appreciate the background? 

-  Do you like the images selected for each topic?

  • Do your schools provide any resources like this? Can you imagine your guidance counselor sharing this kind of resource with students? 

  • What wikiHow articles have been the most helpful for you in terms of teen issues?

  • Are there resources other than wikiHow articles that you find particularly helpful for issues related to teen life? What are they? 

Thanks for any insights you guys have to share!

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Tagging a few folks I think might be into this. It’s still great to comment if you weren’t tagged, though, of course!

@GalacticRadiance @LavenderMoon @MissLunaRose @RubyRoseRain @Artemi7 @Caeiia @Midnight-Dreams @ChocolateFan1 @Darkfrost @Blackcats @Souphead @Joel.Miles925 @Banana-Head @Batreeq @Sarah-Lucy

I know some of you aren’t teens anymore… but you were more recently than I:stuck_out_tongue:

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Please please please please please please please add in something about recognizing abusive relationships. A lot of teens are not familiar with that and end up in unhealthy relationships just because they don’t know what’s abuse.

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Maybe a section on school stuff, maintaining grades and popularity problems. Also some general safety articles such as staying safe on online sites and the like.

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Don’t forget me! XD

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I like the “empower to make change” one, and how you put in mental health! Maybe we could put something about choosing our next step in life, our career, or help on how to get into college. I know a big problem for many teens is the indecisiveness about what to be when moving into adulthood.

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The transition to adulthood is something that’s obviously important, yet so many teens are not thinking ahead of the future.

If any of you want to know, I’m planning to be a neurosurgeon.  Maybe some work on Mars for a year later on…

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I think you should add a section on balancing school and extracurriculars and family life and friends… Balancing Everything, or something like that. I really like it though! 

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That’s a good idea. I think it’s called time-management. I know I sometimes have problems with it sometimes.

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That’s great! Thanks for bothering with this!

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In the goals section, maybe something about saving money towards a house or another huge life changing goal, towards the future aspect? It’s different while people are still young, rather than waiting until they’re in the mid-life years to do it.

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I really like this idea! I think that it could grow into a really helpful resource for teenagers. Could we add something specific for teens who are questioning/lgtp+?

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It’s a great idea!

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Thanks for the insightful comments and enthusiasm!

@Galactic Radiance That’s a really good point - an important area to consider! I’ll do a little hunting around and see if I can find a topic on recognizing abuse that’s sensitive enough to teen needs for us to include. Or do you know of one that is really good already?

@Artemi7 I was sort of on the fence about popularity stuff since I don’t really want to make teens think they have to strive to be popular. I’ll check to make see if the articles in the Connecting with Friends section address issues of popularity sufficiently. If not, I’ll try to add something that does! And you’re right about the school topics. I need to think more about this. It’s such a broad topic. It could be its own toolkit!

@Caeiia @Thehelper101 Ah yes, college and career…scary stuff. I was shying away a little from focusing too much on academics, but there’s wiggle room, I think. It might also be a good idea to make a toolkit that is focused specifically on these areas. What do you think?

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@Aslamsisjd and @TheArtsPerson Great idea! Time-management or balancing priorities is the foundation of so much. I think an article on the topic should go in the Pursuing Your Goals sections, but I might want to rethink the title of that section…

@Maluniu Really good idea and one I had not considered yet! I don’t want to get too specific about individual goals - since everyone’s goals are unique! But some general articles about getting a head start or planning for the future would be perfect. Do you know of any we could include?

@Undertale4114 Yes - that’s a really important point. Thanks for reminding me to include it!

@RubyRoseRain and @Midnight Dreams I’m really glad you like it!

Thanks again, everyone! Please keep the comments coming and stay tuned. I’ll have some more questions that I’ll want to run by you in the next few days or so!

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As for popularity, I was thinking kind of how not to be bothered by social status or needing to change yourself to fit in. Such as an article on being yourself and perhaps something about ‘’‘peer pressure’‘’ as well?

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I definitely agree, there should be a lgbtqia+ section. And dealing with peer pressure is a good one too.

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Yes please! I like this idea. Adolescence is a huge time of change and teenagers face many difficulties both at home and outside.  Perhaps we could add some resources about avoiding drug and alcohol addiction (underage drinking) too.

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Yeah, I was thinking that academics would be a really long section, so a separate toolkit would be good. And I agree with all the other users up there ^ 

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@adelaide yes!