This article was originally published in the Fall 2009 newsletter.

As of today, while I write this, there’s an interesting news headline that’s been floating around the internet.

In Kansas, school’s have banned teens from wearing hoodies.

Yep, you heard right. Hoodies.

When I first read that, I thought, “Uh-oh... those crazy Kansans.... maybe they were all bringing nunchucks or stun-batons to school, hiding them in their hoodies, and then robbing the cafeteria lady...”

It turns out, nope.

The school administration suspects that teens were texting during class, but aren’t sure because they could be hiding the phones in their hoodies.

Yikes. So no more hoodies if you live in Kansas.

Three months ago someone asked me what I thought it was like to be a teenager today. Let me just clarify something. I’m 26. I haven’t been a teenager in almost 10 years (and we all know that 19 doesn’t count anyway...)

The more I thought about it, the only thing I could say was, “I think it’s hard.”

This article was originally published in the Spring 2008 newsletter.