PARENTS… WE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Tip of the Week
As the nation holds its breath and waits to see what will happen next in the fight against #covid19, the latest self-soothing measure has become bread baking. Google has seen a massive surge in people searching for bread recipes, especially ones for beginners or that only require pantry staples as ingredients.
Bread making is an apt metaphor for our time: It requires patience, for example, as the bread rises; trust that the yeast will activate; care as it’s kneaded, and kneaded again. Baking bread together might help you navigate the time indoors with your teen while teaching them a lifelong skill at the same time.
Film/TV/Streaming
1. Streaming rates continue to skyrocket as young people are left to their own devices in the wake of school closures. Novel adaptation Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu) and true-crime docudrama Tiger King (Netflix) took the lead in terms of trending with Generation Z, while streaming giants struggled to keep up with the surge in demand (Netflix crashed on March 24, but was soon back up and running). Use this time to offer some screen-free alternatives, and remember that monitoring what your teen is watching is still important. In fact, it can make all the difference in knowing how they’re coping, and why.
Sports
2. For some teens, the abrupt end of high school sports seasons thanks to the pandemic is a heartbreak that has left them reeling. Especially for teens in their senior year of high school or middle school, it’s difficult to watch. As one teen told The Dallas Morning News, sports is an important physical outlet, providing constructive activity in addition to teamwork and reinforcing confidence. Losing out on half of a season is a big deal! Make sure that your teen feels they are allowed to talk about how much it hurts to lose team sports, and help them to know their grief is valid, even if there are many people who are suffering and grieving things that seem “bigger” at the moment.
A broader look at the world that teens inhabit.
Skim our summary or click the links to read more.
Engage your teens in conversation about their world.
Rob Hoogland can't turn back time and save his daughter. He wishes more than anything that he could. A year ago, he and his wife had a perfectly healthy child. Now, "that perfectly healthy child has been altered and destroyed for absolutely no good reason." And millions of parents are getting up every day completely oblivious to the fact that their daughter could be next.
She was 12 when a school counselor told Rob's daughter she was transgender. They picked out a new name and started treating her like a boy at school -- without ever calling home. Two years later, she and her parents were in court, fighting over whether she could take testosterone. Rob said no. The judges said yes. Now, he says emotionally, "Sometimes I just want to scream so that other parents understand what's going on... She can never go back to being a girl in the healthy body that she should have had. She's going to forever have a lower voice. She'll forever have to shave because of facial hair. She won't be able to have children...."
What do I do in five or 10 years, he told Jeremiah Keenan, when she changes her mind, "and she turns to me and says, 'Dad or mom, why did none of you do anything to stop this?'" And Rob will say, "I did everything that I could... and then, when there was nothing more I could do, I continued on -- because I didn't want any other parent to go through what I went through."
His message to every mom and dad is: Don't think it can't happen to you. It can. And unless our leaders have the courage to step in and stop it, our kids will continue to be mutilated, sterilized, and destroyed over their parents' fiercest objections. In Alabama, they've heard enough horror stories like Rob's to realize it's time to do something, now. In the House and Senate, state legislators are pushing a bill called the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act that would stop children under 19 from getting hormone treatments or transition surgeries.
FRC's Peter Sprigg was on the ground Wednesday to testify in rooms so packed that dozens of people had to wait outside. Everyone from pediatricians and endocrinologists spoke, along with detransitioners of every age. Their stories were powerful and heartbreaking -- beautiful young girls like Sydney Wright, who said she can't even wrap her head around all that she's done to herself. Her before and after photos, which she included as part of her testimony, stopping everyone in their tracks. "I was struggling with a big hole in my heart," she said. But instead of helping her, doctors pushed her down a path that has permanently scarred her. "Nobody told me," she lamented, "that most people outgrow their feelings."
For her and for so many others, this isn't a partisan issue. Believe it or not, Peter explained on "Washington Watch," "Sydney is actually a lesbian and still identifies as a lesbian. And she made clear that she's not opposing this bill because she's against the LGBT community. She's part of the LGBT community. She opposes it because of the physical harm that it causes to the bodies of transgender kids."
State Rep. Wes Allen (R), one of the lead sponsors of the bill, says, "I was shocked when I found out doctors in Alabama were prescribing these types of drugs to children. This is something you hear about happening in California or New York, but it is happening right here... and it's time we put a stop to [it]." These are kids like Sydney who are struggling with confusion. "We should help them with therapeutic treatment from qualified mental health professionals," he insisted, "not allow these children's bodies to be permanently mutilated."
Several members of the House and Senate agreed -- passing the measure out of both committees and recommending it for a full floor vote. In the Senate, even Democrats -- including a pharmacist who obviously understands the dangers of this agenda -- were thoroughly on board with the idea, voting 10-1 to move full speed ahead.
As Peter pointed out, "One thing we've emphasized with respect to this bill -- although some opponents are portraying it as a radical [idea] -- is that it's actually quite modest, because it targets only these physical interventions and only for minors. So this bill does nothing to prevent children, for example, from going through what's called a social transition. Children are free to do with the support of their parents to change the way they wear the hair, to change the style of clothing they wear, to change their name, to ask their local school to identify them as the opposite sex, and so forth. Nothing in this bill would prevent that at all. Nothing in this bill would prevent adults who have reached the age of maturity from being able to have these radical medical transitions or medical procedures themselves if they choose to as adults. So this is narrowly targeted at radical medical interventions that harm the bodies of children -- of minors -- who really are not capable of giving informed consent to this kind of procedure."
6 INSIGHTS
Technology
Apps/Websites
1. TikTok has some competition! Byte, the long-awaited reboot of the once-beloved Vine app, went live last week, reaching at the time of writing #35 on iOS and #18 on Android for top free apps. Though it’s already having problems with bots and spammy comments/accounts, it’s clearly gained attention. And their creator-focused approach could cement its place as a social-media fav for Gen Z. Featuring six-second looping videos, the app hopes to differentiate itself by making it easier for content creators to make money from the get go. A pilot of their partner program will launch soon, and if it works, it could lure many influencers (and their fan bases) away from TikTok, which has been slow to compensate its stars. And since it’s an entirely new frontier, many teens who hope to gain followership may quickly migrate before it becomes too saturated with big names.
Pop Culture
Fashion/Beauty/Appearance
2. The beauty industry is worth more than ever, but one popular beauty product is fading from the spotlight. With fake lashes and lash-growth serums becoming more popular in the Gen Z market, younger consumers are opting out of mascara. Industry reports seem to imply that young people are interested in a more natural look, which leads them to spend their beauty budget on pricier skincare products instead of former beauty routine mainstays like mascara.
Film/TV/Streaming
3. Many teens are eager to watch Season 2 of Netflix’s Sex Education series. The scripted show, which stars Gillian Anderson as a sex therapist in the UK, focuses on the sex lives of teens and adults. Male and female nudity is frequent, and frank discussion of intimacy between characters of varying sexual identities is the overarching theme of the show. It’s “sex-positive,” meaning that it’s meant to help them embrace their sexual desires as healthy and natural. Whether or not your teen has seen the show, make sure you're communicating that normalizing teen sex is not "healthy," and "safe" sex isn't safe regardless of what current culture would have young people believe.
4. Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Disney, CBS, Amazon, and everyone else battle for our streaming dollars (and hours). A new streaming war—one that may be more relevant to Gen Z—has emerged: Esports (i.e. video game) streaming. Amazon’s Twitch has been a groundbreaker and major player in this arena, but Microsoft recently joined the game with Mixer and got Fortnite-streaming legend Ninja to stream there exclusively. Not to be outdone, Google’s YouTube made some power moves as well, landing exclusivity contracts with the Call of Duty and Overwatch leagues, both of which are extremely popular with gamers. It all amounts to one thing: Video games are becoming more accessible and more ubiquitous by the day, and just as with anything else in our culture, we need to encourage our kids to approach them with wisdom, discernment, and good boundaries.
