This Teenage Life

This Teenage Life

This Teenage Life is a podcast made by teens about their ideas, stories, and unique perspectives in the middle of their own growth as humans. Please feel free to reach out to us at team@thisteenagelife.org, we love hearing from listeners.

Episodes

December 10, 2025 18 mins

Josie Kim is a teenager, a hockey player, and great sports photographer. In high school, she learned to use a camera to engage with her love of sports in new ways that allow her to connect with people and even get paying jobs.

In this episode you'll hear an interview with Josie and learn about her journey. We hope this can help more teens to think about how to engage with interests in new ways that help cultivate meaning, community...

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"Why can't I get this?! I feel so dumb! Am I behind? Why is everyone else understanding this when I'm not?"

These are common questions all of us at This Teenage Life have felt at some point, especially after taking certain tests. In this episode, we talk about situations—mostly academic—where we experience self-doubt, compare ourselves to others, or spiral about grades. We discuss how these moments feel and how we reframe these mom...

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October 13, 2025 19 mins

In this episode of This Teenage Life, the teens open up about their experiences with negative thoughts, anxiety, and stress spirals. Through conversations about their inner struggles, they share coping strategies and practices that help them move out of negative headspaces.

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September 18, 2025 21 mins

In this episode of This Teenage Life, we hear from teens who have published their stories with Novelly, a platform amplifying teen voices. We hear about what it means to be a writer, and the powerful possibilities of storytelling.

If you're interested in reading awesome teen authors or becoming a teen author yourself, check out Novelly at: 

https://www.novelly.org/

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September 3, 2025 34 mins

Welcome to the first episode of Season 8 of This Teenage Life!

The teens discuss their relationships with exercise: Where are the lines between healthy and unhealthy habits? How can an accountability buddy make it easier to find practices you enjoy? We also hear from Kristin Hoffner, a kinesiology professor at Arizona State University, who shares insights on the science of movement and its connection to mental health.


Support for ...

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Many of us spend a lot of time worrying, thinking about, and navigating expectations about our friendships. Wondering "How close are we really? Do we call ourselves "best friends" yet?" Do we need to have a "best friend" to have meaningful relationships, anyway?

In this episode, we explore the idea of best friends, how we relate to this idea, stories about changing relationships, navigating changing relationships, and reflect on ou...

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July 15, 2025 18 mins

One of the biggest pressures of getting older is the idea of having to "figure things out" by yourself. How do we navigate the pressure to "know what we're doing" while also being flexible and open to new things? How do we process the reality that life might turn out differently from our childhood dreams? How do we process that life is less linear than we imagined? 

In this episode of This Teenage Life, the teens talk about the ant...

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June 5, 2025 14 mins

Looking for a free, youth-run summer opportunity? Check out Coding the Future, a free, virtual, personalized program run by teens that helps other young people learn how to code. You can also email them at codingthefuture101@gmail.com

This Teenage Life will also be running some fun and creative clubs and workshops this summer. If you're interested in learning more, email us at team@thisteenagelife.org.

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June 1, 2025 26 mins

Throwback episode on a popular topic...periods!

In this episodes, teens share stories and reflections on getting their periods for the first time, navigating the logistics and their feelings about periods, and working to destigmatize menstruation.

To hear our first episode on periods, check it out here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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May 12, 2025 20 mins

In this episode, we reflect on the idea of self care and the many ways we take care of ourselves without expensive products and "glow ups."

We compare fancy routines and performances of self care on the internet with everyday  actions we take to feel well-regulated and whole.  We hope this episode brings you some joy and self-kindness during this Mental Health Month:)

Please spread the love and share the show, subscribe, and, if yo...

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April 26, 2025 19 mins

Grief, adversity, and trauma are common, formative human experiences that people move through and grow from. Yet, we often avoid talking about this process, making it harder to understand how people make meaning from grief.

Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) offers us a paradigm for how to make sense of hard experiences and move forward in ways that deepen our connections with ourselves and each other.

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How does diet culture negatively affect us? How does what we see on social media impact how we feel about what we eat? How do we move past diet culture towards more healthy relationships with food?
 
In this episode, we develop more holistic framings of nutrition. Teens describe their negative experiences of diet culture and then share h...
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Clear skin, "feminine features," "snatched bodies," — we're often taught to associate our self worth with how we line up with societal expectations about beauty.

In this throwback episode, we speak openly and honestly about our body insecurities, where they come from, and how we are working on them.

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As kids, it's often hard to see that parents are not just parents. They're human beings who have their own needs, emotions, styles, fragilities, crushes, etc. In this re-release of one of our favorite episodes, we talk about moments when we began to discover that parents are, in fact, people too.

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March 12, 2025 21 mins

As we evolve as people, so does our relationship to music. In this episode, the teens discuss their own musical journeys - how their taste has changed, live music they've experienced, favorite songs, and how music helps build connection. 

To check out what our community is listening to these days, take a listen to our playlist on Spotify: This Teenage Life: Music We Love

 

 

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In this throwback episode, we talk about our experiences of academic pressure and academic validation and how it makes us feel.

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February 27, 2025 21 mins

In this episode requested by listeners, the teens chat all about teeth! What its like to get braces, teeth insecurities, dentist stories, interesting rituals, and more. Even though we all have teeth, there are a variety of different experiences that come with that! 

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February 12, 2025 16 mins

Connecting with the natural world can bring about a spectrum of feelings, especially after spending most of the day inside at school or work. Even though it can be such a grounding and energizing experience, many of us struggle to find time to get outside. In this episode, the teens chat about how where they live impacts the way they connect with the natural world, how it feels when they d...

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We are excited to announce that for folks age 14-25 living in the United States, you are eligible to participate in this next round of the National Contribution Project. Learn more and apply at www.contributionproject.org/national. Applications are due February 21st. 

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February 5, 2025 25 mins

In this "part 2" of our episodes on friend breakups, the teens explore the emotional dimensions of losing friends. How does it feel to be distant from someone you used to be so close to? What can we do to get closure at the end of a relationship? How can we heal emotionally?

 

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