teenagers

If you’re a teenage roller coaster enthusiast who takes advantage of free or discounted tickets to visit amusement parks, Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is making it clear it doesn’t want your business.The nation’s largest regional theme park company, which operates Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia and 26 other parks across North America, is trying to attract more middle-class families by raising ticket prices and upgrading its food, beverages and amenities. At the same time, it is eliminating promotional deals,…

Kathleen Peyton, who has died aged 94, was a prolific writer for children under the pseudonym KM Peyton. She was best known for the highly regarded and popular Flambards series, which was adapted for television in 1978.In writing Flambards (1967), The Edge of the Cloud (1969), Flambards in Summer (1969) and Flambards Divided (1981), Kathy drew on the farming countryside around her home in Essex and her love of horses and particularly of hunting. Set at the beginning of the first world war, in the farmhouse where a…

Dexter Voisin. Credit: Case Western Reserve University Black teenagers in urban environments who were more involved in religious activities were less likely to engage in alcohol and substance use and other delinquent behavior, according to two recent studies by social sciences researchers at Case Western Reserve University. The most recent findings,…

Days after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, an otherwise healthy teenage girl suddenly had trouble breathing. COVID-19 appeared to have paralyzed her vocal cords.The girl needed a surgical tracheostomy – an opening in her windpipe below her voice box – to support her breathing for over a year. According to a new case report on the event, COVID's impact on the nervous system may cause vocal cord paralysis in rare cases.The authors say this is the first case of vocal cord paralysis in a teenager after a COVID-19 diagnosis, though…

Just about a year ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster obesity drug, Wegovy, for use in teens ages 12 and up with a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for their age and sex. The decision came a little more than six months after the drug was approved for adults.You might ask, why the hurry? And, do teenagers really need weight-loss drugs? According to the CDC, 22% of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years have obesity. Since the 1980s, obesity rates have tripled in children and…

Imogen Carter’s picture books of the yearAfter the years of huddling at home, it was time to party. There were landmark birthdays: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler toasted 30 years of working together with a hit exhibition at the Lowry in Salford (until 1 Jan) and Benji Davies marked 10 years of bestseller The Storm Whale with a shindig and a fantastic sequel, The Great Storm Whale (Simon and Schuster). Elsewhere, pioneers were celebrated: a British Library show honouring Malorie Blackman’s career threw open its doors,…

In a development that is going to cause a whole lot of trouble for Meta’s Mar Zuckerberg, court documents from a recent lawsuit revealed that he vetoed Meta’s plan to curb plastic surgery filters, despite being told that it would harm children and teens. The lawsuit, which was initially filed last month and detailed in an unredacted copy distributed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alleges concerns about the potential harm to girls’ mental health caused by these filters. The unredacted…

The rise of new social media platforms often leads to worries that their content might increase the risk of eating disorders. But these concerns predate by far the arrival of TikTok or Instagram. The New York Times ran an article in 1985 entitled “Anorexia: It’s Not a New Disease.” It quoted one scholar who reminded readers that thinness was fashionable in the 19th century, when it was thought that “if you looked too robust, you looked like a working woman.” To be sure, the vast scope of social media has changed the way…

Singer Nicki Minaj has praised a teenager as a “true hero” after he shot and killed a man to defend his mother, and has offered to pay his college tuition. Moved by the viral case, the Anaconda hitmaker has offered financial help to the 14-year-old boy. She took to Instagram Story and posted, “That 14-year-old boy who backed that hammer out, when that grown a** man was punching his mother in the face as if she were a man, is a true hero. If he wants to go to college, I’d love to help.” She…

June 20th is World Refugee Day. To commemorate the occasion, The Beat is proud to present this interview with Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum author Tracy White conducted by Liz Frances, founder of activist nonfiction graphic novel publisher Street Noise Books.  LIZ FRANCES: Hi Tracy, I’m so glad to speak with you on June 20th, which is not only the launch date of your new book Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum, but which the United Nations has declared World Refugee Day.…