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Life Advice from Teen Experts

posted by Jason Kottke Dec 11, 2017

The California Sunday Magazine gathered some advice from teens on topics like how to get people to care about something, how to cook with a blowtorch, and how to throw a good dance party. Here are excerpts from two of my favorites. How to meet new people:

If you're trying to get into a new community, just fake it till you make it. Don't have a mind-set of, Oh, I'm the new guy. No one's going to want to be my friend. Fake a fun mind-set until you can be that fun, cool person without a second thought.

And how to organize a political rally (in one week):

I had to do most of the logistical planning during school. A lot of the people who were emailing me to help were from organizations, and they could only talk during their lunch breaks. Which would be right around 11:30, during math class. So I would be like, "Hey, can I go to the bathroom?" Then I'm in a bathroom stall on the phone — "Yeah, so can you bring, like, six cases of water and, like, two cases of granola bars?" At the end of the day, I would go home and do my homework, and the next morning, I would wake up and have a phone call at 7 before class.