Welcome to a mammoth edition of our Teenagers in The Times feature.
To help students participating in our One-Pager Challenge, which runs from Dec. 6 to Jan. 10, we have collected news, Opinion essays, feature stories, videos, photo essays and podcasts about young people that have appeared across sections of NYTimes.com this fall. (And we will continue to update the collection throughout the contest.)
Though the challenge allows students to choose anything The Times published in 2023, we hope that a selection of pieces all about young people will be an engaging place to start.
And don’t forget: Everything published on The Learning Network, and all links to related Times content, is free as long as you access it from our site.
If you’re not participating in our challenge, we have lots of other ideas for how this collection might be used. (In fact, we’ve been curating compilations like this for so long that our related lesson plan and special activity sheet are both from the pre-2017 version of our site.)
In School Board Elections, Parental Rights Movement Is Dealt Setbacks
Culture battles on gender and race did not seem to move many voters.
Photo Essay | The Young Men of the Crick: Unfinished Lives on the Arizona-Utah Border
A tight-knit group of teenage boys and young men navigate life after the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.
Native American Boarding Schools Took Children’s Culture, and Hundreds Died
New research reveals the vast scope of the Native American boarding school system, which for more than a century removed Native children from their homes and families in an effort to assimilate them. Students at the schools gave up their names, their labor and sometimes their lives.
Opinion | Young Voters Are Frustrated. They’re Staying Engaged ‘Out of Sheer Self-Defense.’
“Younger voters recognize that our political system is broken, and they have little nostalgia about a less broken time.”
Opinion | Americans Under 30 Don’t Trust Religion — or Anything Else
“If you grew up, as I did, during the relatively stable Clinton years, for example, you probably have a very different view of political institutions than someone turning 25 today, whose political consciousness may have been formed during the Trump era.”
Palestinian and Israeli Teens Swam in the Same Pool. Then Came Oct. 7.
The teenagers in the Greater Jerusalem swim club made a point of not focusing on their differences. That changed with the war.
In a series of voice memos sent via WhatsApp, Tasneem Ismael Ahel, 19, described the war unfolding around her in Gaza City.
‘I Was Very Alone Today’: Young Jewish Americans Grieve Over Israel
In the aftermath of the attack by Hamas, they spoke of fear, shock, solidarity and helplessness.
Video | The Dreams of Gaza’s Kids, and the Nightmare They Are Living
Two years ago, filmmakers asked children in Gaza, where nearly half the population is under 18, a seemingly simple question: What is your dream? This video, from the Opinion section, reveals their answers.
Video | Israeli Teen Hopes Her Cousins Will Be Released Soon by Hamas
Sheffa Phillips-Bahat has two young cousins who were taken hostage from their home at Kibbutz Nir Oz. More than a month after they were kidnapped, she “can’t think of anything but getting the hostages back.”
Public Schools Struggle to Say the Right Thing About the Israel-Hamas War
Across the country, public schools, like colleges and universities, are facing backlash as they try to respond to the Hamas attacks and war in Gaza.
After Antisemitic Attacks, Colleges Debate What Kind of Speech Is Out of Bounds
Pro-Palestinian students say that they are speaking up for an oppressed people, but critics say that their rhetoric is deeply offensive.
Opinion | What Is Happening on College Campuses Is Not Free Speech
“Since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, campus life in the United States has imploded into a daily trial of intimidation and insult for Jewish students.”
Opinion | A Dispatch From the Muslim Girl Scouts of Astoria
“Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in which an estimated 1,400 Israelis were killed and some 200 others were kidnapped, Amira, who is Palestinian American, said she has experienced for the first time the full fury of Islamophobia and racism that her older relatives and friends have told stories about all her life.”
Science, Health and Technology
At Meta, Millions of Underage Users Were an ‘Open Secret,’ States Say
Meta “routinely documented” children under 13 on Instagram and collected their data, according to a newly unsealed complaint.
Podcast | ‘Modern Love’: Did I Fail as a Parent?
Rick Reiss couldn’t control his troubled teenage son, so he had him taken away. Years later, he and his son re-examine that decision.
Teen Depression Rose During Pandemic, With Racial Gaps in Treatment
Approximately 20 percent of teenagers had major depressive disorder in 2021, but less than half who needed treatment received it, a new study found.
Helping Anxious Kids Might Be Easy
The author of this Opinion essay asks, “Overprotection may be making kids scared of the world. If so, wouldn’t the obvious solution be more independence?”
Harvard Cozies Up to #MentalHealth TikTok
As young Americans turn to TikTok for information on mental health, the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard is building its own team of influencers.
