The Real Life Teens series is an unbiased and realistic look from the perspective of teens, at the wide variety of issues teens face today featuring young teenagers telling their real stories, in their own words. The series discusses significant issues in adolescent society and cuts through many barriers with its honest and relevant advice and information. A revolutionary Guidance series, Real Life Teens offers unprecedented access into the hidden teen world that's insightful, fascinating and provocative. Told from the perspective of teens, with input from teachers and school personnel, our young subjects confront the trauma and drama of coping and surviving in today's often confusing world. We all know that communicating with teens can be difficult - they often do not like to be talked to by "adults" - but they do listen to what their peer group is saying and thinking. This is the rationale behind Real Life Teens. Each program is designed to provoke thought and conversation amongst teens about topics many find unable to voice & to show students their particular issue is shared by many others. This ground-breaking series should be part of every school's resources as well as Libraries, peer support groups, teen clubs, mental health and social service agencies and media resource centers. Pregnancy amongst teenagers is becoming a growing problem in today's society. About 1 million teenagers become pregnant each year and more than 530,000 give birth. Dealing with the responsibility of becoming a parent at a young age is one of the hardest tasks to take on. Many teenagers don't fully understand the large responsibility and full time commitment it takes to raise another human being, when they themselves still have a lot of growing up to do. It is vital that teenagers become educated about sexual responsibility, as well as ways to protect themselves from getting pregnant if they're sexually active. Subjects Covered Include: Why do teenage girls get pregnant? Why don't teenage girls want to get pregnant? What kind of help does a teenage mother need? Is a baby born to a teenage mother more at risk than a baby born to a grown woman? What are the consequences of Teenage Pregnancy? Teen responsibility, child support & costs of raising a child, Pregnant Teens - 2/3 drop out of school.

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** Teens from Nordoff High School in Ojai, CA, openly discuss the life-changing obligations resulting from teen pregnancy. Critical topic points-responsibility, adoption, protection, drug influence, and financial obligations-are introduced and supported with a teen's testimony, thus creating classroom discussion opportunities. Interviews highlight the constant peer pressure, especially for guys, to "seal the deal," and encouragement is given to commit to abstinence or always use protection, and never do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. A consistent theme among the teen parents is loss of personal priorities and free time. Interspersed among the interviews are pictures of beautiful babies, but the realities of being a teen parent are never sugarcoated. Statistics scroll across the screen: every 26 seconds a teen becomes pregnant; 66 percent of pregnant adolescents dropout of school. It is stressed that a pregnancy has a trickle-down effect, touching everyone from younger siblings to grandparents. The teacher's guide provides learning objectives, discussion topics and questions, and a lesson plan outline. This program, which features teenagers only, is jam-packed with enough information and facts to jumpstart classroom discussions and is a must-have resource. -Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH. School Library Journal's September issue.

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