This week I thought I would share with the readers of this blog who it is that I like to read. It would be a somewhat long winded and cumbersome post to list all the online sources I subscribe to, so I will restrict this post to my top 10 sources for information about Parenting Teenagers.
This post does not include my favourite books on parenting teenagers (though some of these bloggers would also be on that list). Books are great and very worthwhile investments, but blogs are also really, really, useful sources of information. The good thing about blogs and online writers is that for anyone with internet access (if your reading this then I assume that includes you) their wisdom is available for free all the time. What’s more you often get to interact directly with other people like you who are reading their work at the same time.
So below I have listed my top 10 blogs for parenting teenagers. The list is alphabetical – so take nothing from the order. All of these writers are highly experienced and offer great value for people parenting teenagers.
Annie Fox
Annie is a respected educator, award-winning author, and a trusted online adviser to teenagers and their parents. Annie spends lots of time advising teenagers about a variety of adolescent problems. She then uses her experience of helping teens to assist parents and educators do them same. If you are looking for advice on how to build your teenager’s self image or confidence this is a terrific blog.
Connecting With Your Teen Through Pop Culture
This is the place to go if you want to keep abreast of all things pop culture and how it relates to raising teenagers. Jennifer Wagner seems to know about every movie, TV show, computer game, and gadget that has, or is about to be, released. Her posts are easy to read and she is always thinking about how to use pop culture to build relationships with teenagers.
Family Matters
Written by Australian parenting expert Ronit Baras, this blog has loads of good commonsense articles about how to approach raising teenagers. Ronit provides tangible ways for parents to go about the task of parenting. She draws from a variety of schools of thought, including candid stories from her own experience. She always has fresh and interesting ideas.
Net Family News
Every second day there is a new scare or a new horror story about teenagers and Facebook, Sexting, Cyber-bullying, or countless other digital danger zones. In light of this many parents feel confused and overwhelmed when it comes to their teenagers and online behavior. Anne Collier at Net Family News provides a voice of experience, sanity, and a great deal of wisdom. Her blog is loaded with insightful common sense approaches for raising kids to be responsible digital citizens.
Radical Parenting
Vanessa Van Patten runs one of the most high profile blogs for parenting teenagers. Vanessa started young by writing a book about parenting teenagers for the perspective of a teenager. Her blog combines articles from very articulate teenagers with posts from herself and other adult experts. This blog covers a wide variety of topics, has loads of content, and it always good to get the perspective of teenagers themselves.
Rosalind Wiseman
Rosalind Wiseman is an author, commentator and speaker. She wrote one of the must read books for people raising or working with teenage girls ‘Queen Bees & Wannabes’ and is really good at equipping adults to assist young people navigate issues of bullying, self image, technology and loads more.
Rachel Simmons
Rachel is someone who is passionate about empowering young girls to become strong confident women. Rachel writes from the heart and with lots of common sense wisdom and consideration. This blog is great for anyone with teenage daughters.
Sarah Newton
UK youth expert Sarah Newton has been working with young people and their parents for a long time. Along with having loads of sensible and family strengthening parenting strategies, Sarah also has a great grasp of generational shifts having written extensively on Generation Y Sarah is one the few parenting experts to deal with the emergence of Generation Z and what that means for families, schools, and workplaces in the future.
Shaping Youth
In a media saturated world teaching our kids to be wise about how the messages they see and hear is essential. Amy Jussel is excellent at deconstructing and decoding the messages that are formative in the lives of young people. Best of all she does it in a way that is easy to understand and always provides heaps of other resources. I learn something every time I go there!
Talking Teenage
This is a blog written by Jennifer A. Powell-Lunder, Psy.D & Barbara R. Greenberg, Ph.D. As their titles suggest these are two seriously qualified ladies who have spent most of their careers studying and working with adolescence. The great thing about this blog however is that is how simple, practical, and fun their content is. They provide really wise and sensible insights about everyday issues that parents and teenagers face. This is reliable and accessible info. Check it out.
So there you have my top 10. If I have missed out a blog you have found really helpful then please let us all know by listing it in the comments below. I for one am always keen to find new places to learn from.
Image by Daniel Henríquez
