A teenager’s self-image can be damaged by what they see on TV, read in magazines and hear from celebrities — and from unkind remarks by others. Teen Truth Live speaker Stephanie Armstrong of San Diego gave some good advice last week to seventh-graders at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Scripps Ranch to bolster their self-confidence. “About 70 percent of girls get their idea of a perfect female body from the images they see in magazines,” Armstrong told the 500 students, who had ...

Here's the latest from the TEEN TRUTH newsroom: TEEN TRUTH PARTNER RONNIE BROWN WINS NOMINATION FOR MAN OF THE YEAR! We're excited to congratulate RONNIE BROWN for MAKING A DIFFERENCE in the lives of youth! Through his work with TEEN TRUTH LIVE and Florida schools, Ronnie was recently nominated for the Miami Dolphins NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year award! Every year during the Superbowl, the award is given to one NFL player for his volunteer and charity work. READ the full article!

Recently while TEEN TRUTH LIVE was on the road in Oklahoma, filmmaker Erahm Christopher shot "Creating Community" with local kids. Over the course of just five days, the film was produced and screened at the World Creativity Forum. "It was an amazing process to shoot, edit and screen in such a short amount of time. It was all about giving students a VOICE about how important it is to infuse CREATIVITY into our schools," says Erahm. Big thanks to the project's sponsor, The Kirkpatrick Foundation. Be sure to read Erahm's reflection of ...

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. — Ronnie Brown just had to come here, to this sprawling middle school campus about 40 miles north of Miami where 600 kids at an assembly hang on his every word. Violence brought him here. In October 2009, Michael Brewer, a 15-year-old student at Deerfield Beach Middle School, was sprayed with rubbing alcohol and lit on fire in an off-campus incident stemming from a beef over a video game. Over 75% of his body was burned. In March, Josie Lou Ratley, 15, suffered permanent brain damage when he was beaten outside ...

TEEN TRUTH is thrilled to congratulate HOPEWELL for winning the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario "Let's Keep Kids Out of the Hospital" award in the category of mental health. As Eastern Ontario's only eating disorder support center, HOPEWELL works hard to provide information and support to families of those affected by an eating disorder, offer a mentoring program for recovering youth, and prevention support by promoting healthy eating and strong body image to youth - in part through our TEEN TRUTH: BODY IMAGE & SELF ESTEEM program. LEARN MORE

TEEN TRUTH is excited to congratulate our ULTIMATE DIFFERENCE MAKER Amanda Hariri for winning a Rapport School of Leadership Development scholarship! We're proud to have collaborated with Rapport to offer this great opportunity for Amanda to enroll in the Teen Leadership Breakthrough program - an $800 value! Congratulations, Amanda - we know you'll continue to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

When film producer JC Pohl was growing up, events such as the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two students killed 12 of their peers and one teacher, didn't seem commonplace. Since then, the episodes of campus violence have multiplied. Wanting to understand why shootings kept happening, Pohl and film director Erahm Christopher found five teenagers throughout the United States to carry a camera with them everywhere they went and document a year in their high schools. The footage, raw and honest, became the backdrop for "Teen Truth Live: Bully & ...

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Amid hours of noise, the moment Miami Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown(notes) made a connection with the 600 or so fidgety teenagers sitting in front of him at Deerfield Beach Middle School was defined by an almost imperceptible bit of silence. Brown, standing on the stage of the cafetorium, admitted something he had never openly discussed. He talked about something deeply painful and, when you’re young, potentially embarrassing. The kind of thing a kid isn’t responsible for, but nonetheless can find emotionally damaging. “My parents were incarcerated for ...

TEEN TRUTH filmmaker ERAHM CHRISTOPHER MAKES A DIFFERENCE with RONNIE BROWN of the Miami Dolphins at Miami Northwestern HS in Miami, FL. READ ABOUT IT! (photos by Michael Hopkins)

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The president of Rutgers University says the university responded appropriately to a complaint by a student whose gay sexual encounter was broadcast online that his roommate was spying on him with a webcam. Richard McCormick told The Star-Ledger of Newark on Thursday that he personally reviewed Tyler Clementi's student records after the 18-year-old freshman committed suicide. McCormick says, "I believe we did all we could and we did the right thing." He declined to be more specific, citing student privacy laws. The Star-Ledger earlier reported that prosecutors had subpoenaed Rutgers for ...