In the past 6 months, we have gotten about 20 to 30 emails from young people as well as parents reporting that shoplifting is a major concern.  Here are some thoughts from my research as well as our teen trendsetter network.

Ideas on Shoplifting:

1) Shoplifting Is Old
Shoplifting has always been a problem among young people.  I think that perhaps we are now seeing more of a problem, but parents and adults who think that this has not been an issue for every generation are mistaken.  Shoplifting is an old problem; it is just dressed a little differently…

2) What is Shoplifted is Different…
I asked my teen trendsetter group about this trend. They said that what is mainly different about shoplifting today is that what’s stolen is no longer just gum and snacks.  Today, it is iTunes gift cards and Red Bull.

Top 5 Things Teens Shoplift:
iTunes Cards
Red Bull
Snacks
Candy
Magazines

3) Alcohol and Cigarettes
These did not make the top 5, but were towards the top.  Many teens, when asked, do not consider stealing alcohol shoplifting.  In fact, one of my teen advisors says, “Stealing alcohol is like a rite of passage.  You do it to grow up.  Plus, we practically deserve to get alcohol for free because we CAN’T buy it.  I would buy it if they would let me.  I steal it because they will not let me buy it.”

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• 	Posted by: Vanessa Van Petten | 2 Comment(s)
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Let me make it clear that by no means am I a prude and in general I spend very little time (perhaps too little) worrying about how sex, drugs and the like are represented in popular media. (Maybe part of the reason I don’t think about it all that much is because my son is only three and therefore, the years when I won’t be able to just turn off whatever I don’t want to expose him to seem like some far off time in the distant future when kids dress in silver jumpsuits and are hovering off to high school on flying scooters.) When my son’s not around I listen to explicit rap music and I’ve been an ardent fan of more graphic TV shows such as The Wire for years now.

Despite this, on a recent visit back the U.S.A. (I’ve been living abroad for over five years now), I started watching a little hit show I’m sure you all know about called Gossip Girl and for the first time in ages, I found myself to be, well, shocked.

From what I can gather, Gossip Girl is to the current generation of teens what Beverly Hills 90210 was to mine or what The O.C. was to the one that came after. We all know the story- a bunch of privileged, good-looking adolescents who don’t say “um” nearly as much as any teenager I’ve ever met, run around having wittyesque conversation while at the same time wrecking constant havoc in each other’s lives. Some of them are good and some of them are evil while others are just misunderstood. Every so often the evil ones will do something likable just to keep us on our toes and the good ones will feel misunderstood and then the misunderstood ones will try to help and so on and so forth.

Gossip Girl is what happens when you take this formula and then put it on steroids with a shot of coke, literally. Of course there were drugs on 90210 and The O.C. There was also sex and eating disorders and kids with drinking problems. The difference is that on 90210, and to a somewhat lesser extent on The O.C., these things were treated as issues that had serious consequences. If someone had a drinking problem it was the focus of an entire episode. In some extreme cases it even took two or three episodes to deal with the problem!

Gossip Girl is different in that getting drunk, using drugs and having sex in high school are merely seen as par for the course. In one episode I watched, “good girl” Serena van der Woodsen is tormented because she has a secret that she is keeping from her boyfriend. Her friends press her to tell them what it is and finally she gives in and starts to confess. It started with the night she got wasted and slept with her best friend’s boyfriend. Later after drunkenly going to a hotel with some friends, she tries to avoid having sex with one of them by suggesting he do a few lines of coke. He does and overdoses at which point her other friend convinces her to flee the scene. Later she watches as his dead body is carried out of the hotel. In short, teenagers getting wasted, sleeping with their best friends’ boyfriends, and doing coke are not enough shock value for today’s teen audience. There now must be a dead body, a cover-up, and oh, did I mention a secret sex tape gone wrong?

How does watching this sort of TV show influence adolescents? Do they just see the rampant sex and drug use as another part of an exaggerated fairy tale world that they’re logically aware is only accessible to .000001% of the population? Is that supposed to make it okay? Dawn Ostroff, president of The CW network seems to think so, telling the New York Times that “Everybody approached this with the understanding that this was a heightened reality… It wasn’t teenagers as we know them throughout the country.” The thing that’s dangerous about this is that while it’s true that the majority of teenagers are unlikely to ever have access to Park Avenue penthouses and designer swimwear; drugs, alcohol and sex are the one part of this fairy tale that every kid in America does have access to.

In an attempt to ward off criticism Stephanie Savage, one of the show’s producers, told the LA Times that people who say that the show “glamorizes teen drinking and sex” aren’t “really watching the episodes… There’s decision-making, regret and consequences involved.” Oh really? Funny because I haven’t really seen any obvious consequences to the martini glass that seems to be permanently attached to bad-boy Chuck Bass’s hand. But maybe I’m just not watching hard enough.

But what is a parent to do? I honestly don’t know. I’m certainly not the first person to make a fuss over the show. The Parents Television Council has been up in arms since the show’s inception, only to have their criticisms turned into a “clever” ad campaign in which quotes from the PTC about the show (”mind-blowingly inappropriate”), are superimposed over steamy images of the half-nude teen characters. In the end, rather than coming off as sensible and caring parents who may have a point, the critics are seen as a bunch of over-reacting fuddy duddies with nothing better to do than promoting censorship. I’m genuinely curious about how parents of adolescents out there are handling this show and others like it. Any good suggestions?

• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 9 Comment(s)
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A recent article in U.S. News and World Report talked about how the majority of Alcoholics Anonymous attendees drink coffee (90%) and smoke cigarettes (60%). Many believe that by helping to alleviate feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability, these “lesser” addictions can actually help alcoholics and addicts avoid relapse. Now, however, a researcher from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center of the University of California, San Francisco is suggesting that recovering alcoholics who continue smoking cigarettes may actually have a higher chance of relapse. Because of this, she feels that nicotine and alcohol addictions should be treated at the same time.

The article doesn’t go into details about the evidence for this claim other than mentioning that animal studies have shown “that nicotine can cause relapses to alcohol drinking” and after reading it, I felt a bit uneasy. The idea that smoking can lead to higher rates of relapse amongst alcoholics is compelling and it would indeed be interesting to see if more AA members who smoke relapse than those who don’t. In the meantime however, without further research, I think it could be a bit risky to start advocating the idea that people who are trying to quit drinking should also quit smoking at the same time.

In my own experience getting sober, cigarettes (and coffee too for that matter), have played a fairly crucial role in my recovery. I got sober at 25 but it took me another 4 years to quit smoking and I still drink at least 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day. Certainly I’m not claiming that I couldn’t have gotten sober without these crutches because in retrospect, it’s impossible to say. What I do know is that at least for me, it made staying clean and sober easier, but not for the reasons that most people might expect. Yes, cigarettes did “take the edge off,” but my real motivation for continuing to smoke went deeper than that because to me, drinking, using, and smoking cigarettes were not just addictions, they were a part of my identity.

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• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 7 Comment(s)
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So here’s the latest on Amy Winehouse according to the AP:

Soul diva Amy Winehouse has damaged her lungs by smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes, her father said in an interview published Sunday.

The Sunday Mirror quoted Mitch Winehouse as saying that Amy has early stage emphysema and an irregular heartbeat, and has been warned that she will have to wear an oxygen mask unless she stops smoking drugs.

“The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs, it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,” Mitch Winehouse was quoted as saying. “There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She has 70 percent lung capacity.”

Winehouse, 24, collapsed at her north London home Monday after signing autographs for a group of fans and was taken to a London hospital for tests. She remained there all week.

She is still scheduled to sing at a concert in London on Friday celebrating the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, the South African Nobel Prize-winner, and plans to take part in the Glastonbury music festival the following day.

Mitch Winehouse said it would be good for his daughter to perform.  “When she’s been inactive work-wise then that’s when the problems really start. The doctors have said that medically there isn’t any reason why she can’t do Glastonbury,” the paper quoted him as saying.

He also pleaded with her drug-taking friends to stay away from her.  “What hope does she have if people are taking drugs around her,” he said.

Chris Goodman, spokesman for Amy Winehouse, said “If that’s what Mitch says, that’s what he says. It sounds right.”  Mitch Winehouse could not immediately be reached for comment.

***

Can you imagine a 24-year-old with emphysema?  The entire Amy Winehouse story is such a tragedy.  Here is someone who is so talented and yet throwing her life away to her monstrous addictions. 

I don’t know how involved Amy Winehouse’s father has been in her life up until now – maybe very involved and swimming upstream against the “industry” and Amy’s circle of “friends” – but he certainly seems to be paying attention now.  This can only be a good thing.

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 1 Comment(s)
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Two young actors died recently, and as of the writing of this post, the circumstances of their deaths are less than definitive.  That, however, has not stopped rampant media and public speculation - speculation that centers around drug abuse.  The assumptions came quickly.  Brad Renfro had numerous run ins with the law and a history of drug problems.  Heath Ledger’s body was found near an opened pill bottle.  There were reports of accidental overdose or possible suicide.  In our 24-hour news cycle, the reports were fast and furious.  It’s hard to blame the media, because the public appetite seems to be ravenous.  Apparently, we want to know all of the dirt and the details.  Add to this cycle the never ending coverage of the Britney saga with its overwhelming narrative of substance abuse and terrifying video of Amy Winehouse openly abusing drugs and we have a moment of monumental public drug overdose.

What’s a parent to do?

I’m not sure, but I think the most important first step might be with our emotional reaction.  I don’t feel like turning it into an instant lesson on the dangers of abuse.  I don’t feel like accusing the media of sensationalism.  And, I don’t feel like vicariously digging through the difficulties of lives that seem like they should be fantastic. 

I just feel sad.

I feel sad for Heath Ledger’s family, especially the daughter who will never get to know him.  I feel sad for the disappointment that seemed to mark the last years of Brad Renfro’s short life.  I feel sad for the family members caught in the wake of Britney and Amy’s struggles and for the fact that those deeply personal struggles are so public.  I feel sad that the Associated Press has already begun working on a boilerplate version of Britney’s obituary, just in case she dies soon.

Maybe that’s where we should begin.  After all, the lure of drugs is the supposed high they create.  But there is one result that seems to be a constant of all drug abuse, no matter what type of initial chemical effect it causes.  The overwhelming result always seems to be sadness. 

• 	Posted by: James Ponti | 1 Comment(s)
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It’s been an odd time watching them grow older. 

There was a time when I was a writer on a show called the Mickey Mouse Club for the Disney Channel.  It was a fun two years (luckily no writer’s strikes during them) and people were always amazed when I talked about how amazing the Mouseketeers really were.  I thought they had tremendous talent, but I had no idea they would go on to what they went on to.  A quick run through some of the better known ones: Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez and Britney Spears.  (Let me tell you, the others were just as good.)  Amazingly I always got the impression the show was cancelled because the network didn’t think the kids had enough talent.

These kids (and to me they will always be kids) have gone on to become extremely rich and famous adults, but they live in my memory as tweens and teens.  My office was the closest one to the school where they all went for tutoring.  As a result sometimes they would plop down as they waited for their class to begin and talk.  The thing that struck me was how normal they all seemed.  They had the same problems and hopes as all of the kids their age.  But they also had something else - fame.  I’ll never forget how sad they seemed at our final wrap party.  (Christina sticks out particularly.)  I sensed that the thing that some of them were most worried about was losing that fame or that chance to demonstrate what made them special.

Now, when we see them on television and I talk about them with my son (who wishes he had been born a couple of years earlier so that he could have known them), I stress the importance of talent.  Not show biz talent - any talent whether it’s singing, dancing, calculus or writing.  And I stress the importance of being happy with yourself.  That’s what has carried some.  (You couldn’t help but know that Christina was going to be a star the first time you heard her sing.)  I tell him that if you use your talent and you’re happy with yourself, you will find real success.  But I also stress the danger of fame.  (After all, isn’t fame just a broadband version of popularity.) 

I think it is the most dangerous drug of all.

Being well liked and loved is incredibly addictive - whether it’s to viewers of a television show, fans at a rock concert or classmates in a high school.  But, like a drug, that high is only temporary.  There will always be another singer, another actor, another star.  And when that drug passes, it makes it so easy to fall prey to the more garden variety drugs that don’t care whether you’re a multi-millionaire or just a high school sophomore.

Just as I never imagined seeing this kids do so well, I also never imagined seeing one of them so publicly wheeled out of her mansion and placed in an ambulance with photographers craning to get every last shot.  For most people, it’s just another chapter in a very public saga.  But for some of us, it’s a heartbreaking moment for a girl we knew as a sweet eleven year old.  I’m sure she is still that same girl.  It’s just so sad to see what all of the addictions have done to her. 

• 	Posted by: James Ponti | 0 Comment(s)
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This morning, while I was running around with the regular morning routine - you know it:  making breakfast, asking kids to come down to breakfast, packing lunches, repeatedly asking kids to come down to breakfast already, loading backpacks, yelling at kids to come down to breakfast-I’m-not-making-this-for-fun-you-know - I turned on the news to find out what happened in the Iowa caucuses.

Well, with her usual impeccable timing, my daughter Freckles decides to walk into the kitchen while the news is covering the other big story of the day… Britney Spears being taken to the hospital, apparently under the influence of something, after getting into a fight with her ex.  To my horror, Freckles saw the chyron which read Britney’s something-or-other, and she immediately said, “Britney?  Britney Spears?”  Despite the fact that Freckles is only 10, owns no Britney Spears music, videos or posters, and wasn’t old enough to tune into pop culture when Britney was actually a pop star, she knows who Britney Spears is and all about her.

It’s amazing how in-tune kids are to this stuff.

How do you fight it?  And you can forget about trying to counter the fact that Britney’s 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn is pregnant - that kid’s a Nickelodeon star, there’s no way to keep that one quiet.  How did this looney family hijack our culture?  Why is the press giving this so much coverage?

And here is the saddest part of all (and I copied this from an AP article):  “Britney’s mother, Lynne Spears, would not disclose any information about her daughter’s condition. ‘Just say prayers,’ she told the celebrity news show Access Hollywood by phone Friday.”  Do you get this?  The mother is on the phone with Access Hollywood!! 

Did you know Lynne Spears was supposed to be writing a book about parenting?  A book about parenting!  Fortunately, the book’s publication was postponed indefinitely.  Unfortunately, so was her parenting.

This picture from Getty Images shows photographers surrounding Britney Spears’ car at one of her court appearances.  This drek (do you guys know what drek is?) gets more attention than important stuff like…  whether or not Jay Leno used scab writers.

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 0 Comment(s)
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