Valerie Grison Blog

  Teen literature has seen a great boom in recent years. This is an encouraging trend for parents and educators. It is not merely a passing fad, but appears not only to be holding its own, but has become a powerful, profitable market niche. The explosion began with J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and […]

I was invited last week by a dear friend to join Craig and Marc Kielburger and share the wonderful experience of participating in the preview of Free The Children’s upcoming California “We Day.” Free The Children was started 19 years ago by a 12 year old boy who couldn’t just accept what he’d just read […]

A 2013 research article published in the journal Judgment and Decision Making illustrates that teens have unrealistic perceptions of potential risks. Data from over 3,400 teens was examined over a two year period, where self-risk assessments were compared to actual risk outcomes. Teens almost always reported that there was little – even no – chance […]

With 200 millions active users claimed, brands start to see Instagram as the best platform for building out a social media presence, as explained by VentureBeat. I am warning brands that target tweens and teens that Instagram is not a safe place for them, and that brands must be very careful of how they engage this […]

Source: The Futures Company

Have you already heard about “planking” or the “cinnamon challenge”? These quirky and potentially dangerous trends went viral on the Internet and are especially popular among teens. Originating in France as an artistic gesture, ‘planking’ as we know it took on its present day form thanks to two British teens in 2006. They uploaded their […]

“What we’ve learned from working with 16-18 year olds in the UK is that Facebook is not just on the slide, it is basically dead and buried. Mostly they feel embarrassed even to be associated with it” “…the young are moving on to cooler things” Daniel Miller, Professor of Material Culture at University College London People […]

One of the hot tween trends is the rubber band loom, called Rainbow Loom. A well conceived tool to weave colorful rubber band jewelry. It mainly attracts girls, but I’ve heard that some boys are getting into it as well. Created in 2010, launched in 2011 from the personal website of its creator, Mr. Cheong […]

This article about teen retailers is interesting. But what is  surprising is this part: “We survey a good portion of teens for our research, and since 2010 the one theme has been this: ‘We want to save Mom and Dad money,’” This is a new behavior and that would be very interesting to go deeper on […]

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) provides national and state-level data on the use of tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, and mental health in the United States. Its most recent report shows teen trends in substance abuse: The most popular drug among teens remains alcohol, but its use is steadily declining The use of […]