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Librarian/Educator Resources
Teen Health & Wellness offers an extensive array of resources to help librarians and educators get the most out of their database subscription. From program ideas and promotional materials to curriculum correlations and training tools, you will find all the tools you need to support your teen users here.
NEW!!! Teen Health & Wellness is a Top Accessibility Website!
AccessiBe helps make our site friendlier for users with disabilities. They can adjust AccessiBe’s settings to clear flashes, enhance visuals, reduce distractions, increase focus, and optimize for screen readers, among other features. For users with screen readers, the tool is enabled automatically. AccessiBe aims to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. You can check all the features by clicking the icon in the lower-right corner of the screen on any page. From there, you can explore all the available tools.
NEW!!! Scientific American: Resource Articles
Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. These high-interest articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and provide additional and unique content regarding Teen Health & Wellness topics to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.
Case Studies
Case Studies
Case studies offer concrete examples and success stories of how librarians and educators have used Teen Health & Wellness to support teens both in libraries and classrooms.
Read the case studies below to:
- See how our public library partners like Brooklyn (NY) and Schaumburg (IL) use Teen Health & Wellness to support their goal of creating healthy communities.
- Learn how public school districts like San Diego (CA) and Appleton (WI) were able to stretch their budgets to offer safe, credible, and authoritative information and self-help support to their students.
- Hear from students in Naperville (IL) Central High School, who found the information in Teen Health & Wellness helpful, easily accessible, and said they would use the resource again.
Complete case studies here:
Appleton (WI) School District
Brooklyn (NY) Public Library
Nashville (TN) Limitless Libraries
San Diego (CA) School District
Schaumburg (IL) Public Library
St. Joseph (MO) School District
Customizable Hotlines
Customizable Hotlines
You can add your own local resources to the customizable Hotlines page on Teen Health & Wellness.
Your local resources will appear on the Hotlines page for all users who log into the database via your library. The local content appears below the box with emergency and 911 information and above the resources provided by Teen Health & Wellness. You can also turn off the resources provided by Teen Health & Wellness so that only your local resources will appear.
To customize your hotlines, log in with your administrative username and password. Once logged in, click the link near the bottom of the left column to “update hotline information.”
If you need your administrative username/password or have questions, please contact customer service via email or phone at (800) 237-9932.
“It’s Your Cause” Video Challenge
“It’s Your Cause” Video Challenge
From depression to dating to sustainable living, spread the word about any Teen Health & Wellness topic you feel passionate about by creating a video PSA (public service announcement). Videos that meet submission requirements and editorial policies will be published on Teen Health & Wellness.
Check out this example created by students at Ankeny High School:
Browse other examples of student-created videos in the video gallery.
Note for Educators:
Download the It’s Your Voice PSA lesson plan for tips on implementing this project with your students. Created by Ruth Thoreson, Information Literacy Specialist/Teacher Librarian at Johnston High School; Johnston, Iowa.
How to Enter:
- Read the official rules and guidelines.
- Shoot a short video (about two minutes or less). Design it like a PSA (public service announcement) you might see on your favorite TV channel.
- If you need music for your PSA, you can download a royalty-free music track from our Soundzabound Music Library.
- Submit your video to Teen Health & Wellness.
All participants must submit a signed Video Release Form. This includes team members, narrators, and students who appear on camera (on film or in photographs). If you are under 18, the form must be signed by a parent or guardian. You can return your release form by email or fax. Videos with missing or incomplete release forms cannot be accepted for publication on Teen Health & Wellness.
Download the Video Release Form (PDF)
If your video is published on Teen Health & Wellness, you’ll receive a digital certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing, which can be added to a digital portfolio for job, internship, and college applications.
Official Rules and Guidelines:
- Participants must be between 13 and 19 years old. You may work individually or in a team.
- All video content must be original.
- Your video cannot include:
- copyrighted or watermarked images, music, or artwork
- profanity or hateful language
- inappropriate, disturbing, or offensive images or audio
- brand names, slogans, logos, or copyrighted characters
- It’s OK to address serious issues such as self-harm, drug use, or suicide in your PSA, but do not include images that explicitly show these behaviors.
- If your video includes credits, please list student participants as first name, last initial.
- Be sure to fix any picture or sound issues before submitting your PSA.
- You may enter as many videos as you like, you’ll need to provide signed video release forms for each entry.
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans
- Birth Control/Contraception: Students can research a method of contraception to prepare and present an eight-slide PowerPoint on the topic.
- Body Systems: Students can research a body system and then create an oral presentation, written presentation, and Wiki on that system.
- Budgeting and Money Management: Students can create a sample monthly budget that includes their income, fixed costs, discretionary spending, and more.
- Driver Education: Students can research a topic related to driver education to reflect upon, and then write a paper summarizing the article and their personal reflections.
- Editing and Writing for Publication: By participating in our Personal Story Project, students can learn how to write and edit material for publication, based on specific submission requirements. They can then submit their essays to Teen Health & Wellness for publication on our site and receive a certificate of achievement if their story is accepted for publication.
- Fad Diets: Students can research a fad diet along with principles of general nutrition to create a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of ten slides.
- Financial Literacy: A five-day lesson plan that covers the basics of budgeting and money management; budgeting at home, school, and work; and financial myths and facts.
- Health and Wellness: Students can research a health/wellness topic of your choice and then use their material to create a brochure for a doctor's office.
- Hotlines and Resources for Teens: Students can research hotlines and resources to support teens in crisis on a topic of their choosing and then create a poster to hang in the school library or hallway.
- It’s Your Voice PSA: Students can create a PSA that gives information, provides a solution, or brings awareness to a social issue faced by teens. They can then submit their PSAs to Teen Health and Wellness for publication on our site. Created by Ruth Thoreson, Information Literacy Specialist/Teacher Librarian at Johnston High School; Johnston, Iowa.
- Sample Lesson Plan: Sexual Health (Illinois State Standards): This comprehensive, five-day lesson plan covers puberty, the male and female reproductive systems, reproduction and pregnancy, and making smart sexual choices for students in grades 9 through 12.
Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps
Teen Hotlines lists hotlines, help lines, and web sites organized by subject. From school violence and depression to eating disorders and suicide, these national organizations can also refer teens to state, provincial, and local services in their community.
Users can also store a username and password allowing them to access Teen Health & Wellness with just one click.
Now available for iPad, Android tablets, and Chromebooks!
Personal Story Project
Personal Story Project
Share Your Story and Connect with Other Teens
Teen Health & Wellness offers teens an opportunity to share their personal stories for online publication.
Sharing stories is a powerful way to connect with other people. By sharing their own personal stories, teens can connect with others who are dealing with the same challenges that they are. Rosen’s team of editors will select a collection of personal stories and publish them on Teen Health & Wellness. All published authors will also receive a certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing, which can be added to a digital portfolio to use in your job, internship, and college applications.
Getting Started
See real examples of teen personal stories in the menu to the left. You can view all stories on our archive page.
What have you had to deal with or overcome? Write from your personal experiences. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Identify a situation or challenge that changed your life.
- What was it like and how did it make you feel?
- How did you deal with the problem or find a way to live with it?
- What did you learn about yourself and those around you?
- What advice do you have for another teen going through the same thing?
Guidelines
- Suggested story length: 250–1,000 words.
- You must be 13–19 years old to be published. Authors will be identified by first name only—unless you request anonymity.
- Choose your words wisely. We can’t publish slurs or profanity.
- We can’t return submissions, so keep a copy for yourself.
- We need parent/guardian permission if you’re under 18. We’ll send you a form to include with your submission if it’s accepted. Just fill it out and send it back, even if you get published anonymously or under a pseudonym.
- Include the following originality statement at the end of each submission: “This will certify that the above work is completely original,” followed by your full name to affirm this is your work.
- Request anonymity. If you don’t want your name published, due to the personal nature of a piece, we will of course respect your request, but you still must include name and address information.
- Writing may be edited, and we reserve the right to publish our edited version without your prior approval.
- All works submitted become the property of Rosen Publishing and all copyrights are assigned to Rosen Publishing. We retain the non-exclusive rights to publish all such works in any format.
Download the Personal Story Project Guidelines flyer here.
Submissions
Submit a personal story here. Selected personal stories are added to Teen Health & Wellness on an ongoing basis. Teens can send us a personal story at any time.
If an essay is selected for the database, teen writers will receive a certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing.
Please contact us if you have questions or want additional details about the Personal Story Project.
Promotion and Programming Ideas for Educators/Librarians
- Promote the Personal Story Project via email or on your school or library website by linking to the Share Your Story page.
- Share this Personal Story Project Flyer with your teens, which includes complete details of the program, guidelines, and submission instructions.
- Apply this lesson plan on Editing and Writing for Publication to our Personal Story Project, so students can learn how to write and edit material for publication, based on specific submission requirements.
- Use the Personal Story Project to support a variety of teen programming activities such as:
- journaling exercises
- empowerment workshops
- preparation for college application essays
A Note for Educators
There may be times when we believe it is advisable to follow up on a student who may be at risk of harming themselves or others. In these rare cases, a member of the Teen Health & Wellness team will reach out to the student’s teacher or librarian so they can provide support or intervention.
Program Ideas
Program Ideas
Download the PowerPoint Beyond the Basics: Tips to Maximize Usage and share with your colleagues. This presentation is filled with usage ideas and suggestions to integrate Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom.
Promotional Materials
Promotional Materials
Choose from a variety of promotional tools to help you connect your colleagues and teen users to Teen Health & Wellness. Simply click a file below to download it.
- Bookmarks:
- “You are not alone. Share your voice.” (PDF)
- “From Dating to Dyslexia” (PDF)
- “From Bullying to Body Art” (PDF)
- “Visit the Calm Room” (PDF)
- Let us customize your bookmarks with your URL and school or library name.
- Posters:
- “Visit the Calm Room” (11 x 17, PDF)
- “Got Questions? Get Answers.” (PDF)
- “Got Questions? Get Answers.” Spanish Version (PDF)
- “From Dating to Dyslexia” (11 x 17, PDF)
- “From Bullying to Body Art” (11 x 17, PDF)
- Let us customize your posters with your URL and school or library name.
- Meet Teen Social & Emotional Needs flyer (PDF)
- Visit the Calm Room flyer (PDF)
- School Library Journal December 2022 review flyer (PDF)
- Beyond the Basics (PowerPoint) — A collection of quick tips to make integrating Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom easy.
- Counselor Letter (PDF) — Highlights content and features that are of specific interest to school counselors.
- List of database entries (PDF) — View a full list of all entries, organized by subject.
- THW Tips and Tools flyer (PDF) — This one-page flyer shares the basics of getting started with Teen Health & Wellness as well as tips and tools to maximize use.
- Web Buttons — Promote the database on your library Web site or Facebook page.
Scientific American: Resource Articles
Scientific American: Resource Articles
Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and continues to be a trusted source for the latest information and happenings in science around the world. Scientific American magazine articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and added to appropriate sections. These high-interest articles provide additional and unique content to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.
Visit the Scientific American: Resource Articles archive to review and select the added content for individual, group, or classroom instruction.
Soundzabound Royalty Free Music Library
Soundzabound Royalty Free Music Library
Download a royalty free music track for your video PSA. Be sure to read the rules and guidelines before submitting your video. You can browse other examples of student videos in the video gallery.
Training Tools
Training Tools
To download any of the below materials, right-click the link and select Save As.
- THW Tips and Tools flyer: This one-page flyer has everything you need to get started with your subscription including: logging in, checking usage statistics, tips on integrating the database into your library or classroom, promoting it to your teens, and more.
- THW Tutorial: An in-depth review of the database features, functionality, and content.
- Educator How-To’s: Ruth Kuzmanic—a HS health educator for over 30 years in Naperville, IL, technology guru, and longtime customer—provides a quick, approachable tutorial on THW and how to get your students hands-on with it.
- Beyond the Basics: Tips to Maximize Usage: A collection of ideas and suggestions to make integrating Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom easy.
- User’s Guide: A comprehensive overview of the database features and functionality as well as helpful tips for using the database most effectively. Feel free to download and distribute to your colleagues and teen users via print or email.
Usage Statistics
Usage Statistics
User’s Guide
User’s Guide
The Teen Health & Wellness User’s Guide can help you make the most of your subscription. It offers a comprehensive overview of the database features and functionality, as well as helpful tips for using the database most effectively.
You can download the User’s Guide and share it with your colleagues or teen users via print or email.
Web Buttons and Widgets
Web Buttons and Widgets
Get the most out of Teen Health & Wellness by making sure your teens know where to find trusted, credible health information 24/7. Promote Teen Health & Wellness on your library Web site with Web buttons that link directly to the Teen Health & Wellness homepage.
Buttons are available in two colors and three sizes. (See examples.) Right click on the links below to download a button:
Widgets
Our handy search widget lets users search the contents of Teen Health & Wellness from anywhere on your site. Simply copy and paste the search widget code onto your site, or ask your Web administrator for help.
What’s New
What’s New
Check out the latest additions to Teen Health & Wellness!
Teen Health & Wellness is a Top Accessibility Website!
Teen Health & Wellness ranked in the top 10 percent of more than 100,000 websites with the highest AccessiBe accessibility tool engagement for January–March 2025! That means more people are using our accessibility features to navigate, interact, and access content without barriers.
AccessiBe helps make our site friendlier for users with disabilities. They can adjust AccessiBe’s settings to clear flashes, enhance visuals, reduce distractions, increase focus, and optimize for screen readers, among other features. For users with screen readers, the tool is enabled automatically. AccessiBe aims to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. You can check all the features by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner of the screen on any page. From there, you can explore all the tools that are available.
Scientific American: Resource Articles
Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. These high-interest articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and provide additional and unique content regarding Teen Health & Wellness topics to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.
New Articles
- Artificial Intelligence discusses chatbots, image generators, large language models, and other recent developments in the world of artificial intelligence, or “AI,” which allows digital technology to learn and adapt by simulating human decision-making and behaviors.
- Social Media Anxiety addresses information overload, FOMO (fear of missing out), self-esteem, and other mental health consequences of excessive use of social media.
Notable Article Updates
- Teens who have or are at risk for diabetes need to be diligent about their heart health, too, as an update to our Diabetes article reveals. According to a 2025 study published in the journal Diabetes Care, people between the ages of 17 and 24 who have high blood sugar are up to three times more at risk for developing a heart condition by young adulthood, even if they are otherwise healthy. The keys to avoiding cardiovascular disease at an early age remain unchanged: Eat a balanced diet, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, and keep diabetes under control.
- Just as electric vehicles (EVs) have gained in popularity and support across the United States and Canada over the past several years, the infrastructure required to make them a more viable option for consumers has grown as well. We’ve updated our Sustainable Transportation article with new data on the increase in charging stations available for EV drivers, with the U.S. more than doubling its number from around 29,000 to over 75,000 in just five years.
- An update to our Vaping and Smoking article shared positive news for teens and young adults trying to quit vaping. An April 2025 study from Mass General Brigham in Boston showed that people between the ages of 16 and 25 who took the prescription medication varenicline — ordinarily used to quit tobacco smoking — were three times more likely to stop vaping than with counseling or text support alone. Doctors say the drug is safe for young people to use and, even better, many of those who took it were still vape-free months later.
- For Earth Day 2025, we checked in with Soul Fire Farm, a community agricultural center in upstate New York we profiled in our Environmental Stewardship article back in 2022. Co-founder and farm director Leah Penniman continues to embody environmental stewardship by training people of color on the principles of sustainable farming, and has expanded the operation to deliver thousands of pounds of fresh produce to hundreds of individuals and organizations throughout the community.
- Academic anxiety can affect even the most prepared students, and the pressure is more potentially intense for student athletes, whose time, attention, and focus are further divided by their participation in extracurricular sports. We’ve updated our Academic Anxiety, Overscheduling and Stress, Peer Pressure, and Time Management articles to address the specific needs of teen athletes, with tips on and strategies for balancing the demands of homework, tests, and projects with practices, games, and workouts. With the right approach, and good, clear communication with teachers and coaches, being a student athlete doesn’t need to be like having two full-time jobs.
- We’ve updated our article on Ovarian Cancer to bring the news that in October 2024, researchers at the University of Oxford secured funding to create the world’s first vaccine designed to prevent ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among females in the United States, so this is big news. If their research proves successful, the next step will be to initiate clinical trials. The ultimate goal is to offer women a vaccine that could help prevent ovarian cancer before it occurs.
- Dyslexia and its related disabilities are far more common than many people assume. The International Dyslexia Association estimates that in 2024, one in five students, or 15–20 percent of the population, has a language-based learning disability. We’ve updated our article on Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia to highlight the often undetected nature of this disability, and we feature seven different personal stories from students facing the challenges that come with it.
- One person died and twenty-seven people were hospitalized during an E. coli outbreak in October, linked to fresh onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and other items. We don’t update our E. Coli article with every new development in this or other outbreaks of the foodborne illness, but our article does post a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s own list of outbreaks.
- Young people are getting wise to the dangers of tobacco. As we note in our article on Tobacco and Nicotine, teen smoking and the use of other tobacco products in the U.S. have dropped to the lowest levels seen in 25 years, according to an October report from the CDC. The report highlights a 20 percent decrease in tobacco use among middle and high school students from 2023 to 2024. This includes traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and hookahs. The number of youth using at least one tobacco product fell from 2.8 million to 2.25 million, marking a significant decline.
- Even if you don’t know what “nomophobia” is, you’ve likely felt it. It’s short for “no-mobile-phone phobia”—the anxiety people get when they are away from their phone, lose their phone, lose cell coverage, or run out of battery life. Psychologists consider it a real anxiety disorder that can make it harder for people to disconnect from their over-stimulating digital lives. This fall, the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for warning labels to be added to social media apps to inform users about the risks of excessive social media use, similar to health warnings on cigarettes and alcohol. We’ve updated our article on Social Media Anxiety to reflect this latest news.
- Hurricane Helene is just the latest natural disaster to take hundreds of people’s lives and disrupt thousands of others. Our Natural Disasters article not only adds Helene to our ever-growing list of hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, tsunamis, and other traumatic events, but gives young people advice on preparedness, evacuation plans, and coping skills when disaster strikes, as well as resources they can contact to help them through a crisis.
- For some happy news, we’ve added Yale psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos’s The Happiness Lab podcast to our list of resources in our Self-Esteem and Confidence, Stress, Depression and Mood Disorders, and Mindfulness articles to remind young (and not-so-young) people how to be happy. The podcast is based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale—the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history—and takes you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.
- With school back in session, teens’ stress levels can rise and their sleep habits decline. As we note in our updated article on Sleep and Sleep Deprivation, teens already know about the importance of a good night’s sleep. In a 2024 survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, three-quarters of teens reported that their emotional well-being was negatively affected by a lack of sleep. By contrast, among teens who got a good night’s sleep, 80 percent of them reported being free of any significant depressive symptoms.
- We’ve updated our Behind the Wheel article to reflect the latest evidence that a good night’s sleep also has an effect on staying alive while driving. The same National Sleep Foundation survey estimated that more than 400,000 American teens drove drowsy at least once per week. According to the latest data from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, drowsy driving was responsible for 693 deaths in 2022.
- High blood pressure (or hypertension) is often called ”the silent killer“ because it so easily goes undetected. High levels of sodium found in restaurant foods, packaged foods, and processed foods are among the primary causes of hypertension. We’ve updated our Blood Pressure article with the Food and Drug Administration’s latest guidance recommending that Americans reduce their sodium intake by 20 percent over a three-year period.
- Body mass index (BMI) has been a common metric for measuring obesity for decades, but a recent article in the medical journal JAMA Network Open introduced many readers to the concept of the ”body roundness index“ (BRI). Unlike BMI, which only uses height and weight, BRI also considers hip and waist measurements. The article states that this provides a more accurate estimate of total and visceral fat, the deep belly fat around organs that poses higher health risks. We’ve updated our Obesity article to reflect the new findings.
- Natural disasters are hard on everyone, but especially on young people who lack the resources or experience needed to protect themselves in such situations. July 2024’s Hurricane Beryl was just the latest in devastating weather-related disasters to strike North America. We keep our Natural Disasters article updated with the latest preparedness and emergency contact information to help inform teens on how to remain safe, and give advice on how to cope when disasters strike.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it is banning the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in food and drink products, which has primarily been used to stabilize citrus flavorings in sodas, sports drinks, and energy drinks. New research suggests that BVO can accumulate in organs and tissues at potentially harmful levels, and may be toxic to the thyroid. Our Sodas, Sports Drinks, and Bottled Water article covers the short- and long-term health effects of sodas and sports drinks.
- A new study published in the medical journal Pediatrics finds that there may be a connection between teens with hypertension (high blood pressure) and a lack of quality sleep. Dr. Amy Kogon, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, says health officials typically focus on diet and exercise but rarely consider how sleep might play a role in a teen’s cardiovascular health. As we note in our updated Sleep and Sleep Deprivation article, on a typical school night, just over 25 percent of high school students get eight or more hours of sleep.
Case Studies
Case Studies
Case studies offer concrete examples and success stories of how librarians and educators have used Teen Health & Wellness to support teens both in libraries and classrooms.
Read the case studies below to:
- See how our public library partners like Brooklyn (NY) and Schaumburg (IL) use Teen Health & Wellness to support their goal of creating healthy communities.
- Learn how public school districts like San Diego (CA) and Appleton (WI) were able to stretch their budgets to offer safe, credible, and authoritative information and self-help support to their students.
- Hear from students in Naperville (IL) Central High School, who found the information in Teen Health & Wellness helpful, easily accessible, and said they would use the resource again.
Complete case studies here:
Appleton (WI) School District
Brooklyn (NY) Public Library
Nashville (TN) Limitless Libraries
San Diego (CA) School District
Schaumburg (IL) Public Library
St. Joseph (MO) School District
Customizable Hotlines
Customizable Hotlines
You can add your own local resources to the customizable Hotlines page on Teen Health & Wellness.
Your local resources will appear on the Hotlines page for all users who log into the database via your library. The local content appears below the box with emergency and 911 information and above the resources provided by Teen Health & Wellness. You can also turn off the resources provided by Teen Health & Wellness so that only your local resources will appear.
To customize your hotlines, log in with your administrative username and password. Once logged in, click the link near the bottom of the left column to “update hotline information.”
If you need your administrative username/password or have questions, please contact customer service via email or phone at (800) 237-9932.
“It’s Your Cause” Video Challenge
“It’s Your Cause” Video Challenge
From depression to dating to sustainable living, spread the word about any Teen Health & Wellness topic you feel passionate about by creating a video PSA (public service announcement). Videos that meet submission requirements and editorial policies will be published on Teen Health & Wellness.
Check out this example created by students at Ankeny High School:
Created by Maria B., Kelsy G., Jeydon H., Nick M., Senida R., Dominic S., Spencer S., and Gabby W.Browse other examples of student-created videos in the video gallery.
Note for Educators:
Download the It’s Your Voice PSA lesson plan for tips on implementing this project with your students. Created by Ruth Thoreson, Information Literacy Specialist/Teacher Librarian at Johnston High School; Johnston, Iowa.
How to Enter:
- Read the official rules and guidelines.
- Shoot a short video (about two minutes or less). Design it like a PSA (public service announcement) you might see on your favorite TV channel.
- If you need music for your PSA, you can download a royalty-free music track from our Soundzabound Music Library.
- Submit your video to Teen Health & Wellness.
All participants must submit a signed Video Release Form. This includes team members, narrators, and students who appear on camera (on film or in photographs). If you are under 18, the form must be signed by a parent or guardian. You can return your release form by email or fax. Videos with missing or incomplete release forms cannot be accepted for publication on Teen Health & Wellness.
Download the Video Release Form (PDF)
If your video is published on Teen Health & Wellness, you’ll receive a digital certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing, which can be added to a digital portfolio for job, internship, and college applications.
Official Rules and Guidelines:
- Participants must be between 13 and 19 years old. You may work individually or in a team.
- All video content must be original.
- Your video cannot include:
- copyrighted or watermarked images, music, or artwork
- profanity or hateful language
- inappropriate, disturbing, or offensive images or audio
- brand names, slogans, logos, or copyrighted characters
- It’s OK to address serious issues such as self-harm, drug use, or suicide in your PSA, but do not include images that explicitly show these behaviors.
- If your video includes credits, please list student participants as first name, last initial.
- Be sure to fix any picture or sound issues before submitting your PSA.
- You may enter as many videos as you like, you’ll need to provide signed video release forms for each entry.
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plans
- Birth Control/Contraception: Students can research a method of contraception to prepare and present an eight-slide PowerPoint on the topic.
- Body Systems: Students can research a body system and then create an oral presentation, written presentation, and Wiki on that system.
- Budgeting and Money Management: Students can create a sample monthly budget that includes their income, fixed costs, discretionary spending, and more.
- Driver Education: Students can research a topic related to driver education to reflect upon, and then write a paper summarizing the article and their personal reflections.
- Editing and Writing for Publication: By participating in our Personal Story Project, students can learn how to write and edit material for publication, based on specific submission requirements. They can then submit their essays to Teen Health & Wellness for publication on our site and receive a certificate of achievement if their story is accepted for publication.
- Fad Diets: Students can research a fad diet along with principles of general nutrition to create a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of ten slides.
- Financial Literacy: A five-day lesson plan that covers the basics of budgeting and money management; budgeting at home, school, and work; and financial myths and facts.
- Health and Wellness: Students can research a health/wellness topic of your choice and then use their material to create a brochure for a doctor's office.
- Hotlines and Resources for Teens: Students can research hotlines and resources to support teens in crisis on a topic of their choosing and then create a poster to hang in the school library or hallway.
- It’s Your Voice PSA: Students can create a PSA that gives information, provides a solution, or brings awareness to a social issue faced by teens. They can then submit their PSAs to Teen Health and Wellness for publication on our site. Created by Ruth Thoreson, Information Literacy Specialist/Teacher Librarian at Johnston High School; Johnston, Iowa.
- Sample Lesson Plan: Sexual Health (Illinois State Standards): This comprehensive, five-day lesson plan covers puberty, the male and female reproductive systems, reproduction and pregnancy, and making smart sexual choices for students in grades 9 through 12.
Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps
Teen Hotlines lists hotlines, help lines, and web sites organized by subject. From school violence and depression to eating disorders and suicide, these national organizations can also refer teens to state, provincial, and local services in their community.
Users can also store a username and password allowing them to access Teen Health & Wellness with just one click.
Now available for iPad, Android tablets, and Chromebooks!
Personal Story Project
Personal Story Project
Share Your Story and Connect with Other Teens
Teen Health & Wellness offers teens an opportunity to share their personal stories for online publication.
Sharing stories is a powerful way to connect with other people. By sharing their own personal stories, teens can connect with others who are dealing with the same challenges that they are. Rosen’s team of editors will select a collection of personal stories and publish them on Teen Health & Wellness. All published authors will also receive a certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing, which can be added to a digital portfolio to use in your job, internship, and college applications.
Getting Started
See real examples of teen personal stories in the menu to the left. You can view all stories on our archive page.
What have you had to deal with or overcome? Write from your personal experiences. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Identify a situation or challenge that changed your life.
- What was it like and how did it make you feel?
- How did you deal with the problem or find a way to live with it?
- What did you learn about yourself and those around you?
- What advice do you have for another teen going through the same thing?
Guidelines
- Suggested story length: 250–1,000 words.
- You must be 13–19 years old to be published. Authors will be identified by first name only—unless you request anonymity.
- Choose your words wisely. We can’t publish slurs or profanity.
- We can’t return submissions, so keep a copy for yourself.
- We need parent/guardian permission if you’re under 18. We’ll send you a form to include with your submission if it’s accepted. Just fill it out and send it back, even if you get published anonymously or under a pseudonym.
- Include the following originality statement at the end of each submission: “This will certify that the above work is completely original,” followed by your full name to affirm this is your work.
- Request anonymity. If you don’t want your name published, due to the personal nature of a piece, we will of course respect your request, but you still must include name and address information.
- Writing may be edited, and we reserve the right to publish our edited version without your prior approval.
- All works submitted become the property of Rosen Publishing and all copyrights are assigned to Rosen Publishing. We retain the non-exclusive rights to publish all such works in any format.
Download the Personal Story Project Guidelines flyer here.
Submissions
Submit a personal story here. Selected personal stories are added to Teen Health & Wellness on an ongoing basis. Teens can send us a personal story at any time.
If an essay is selected for the database, teen writers will receive a certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing.
Please contact us if you have questions or want additional details about the Personal Story Project.
Promotion and Programming Ideas for Educators/Librarians
- Promote the Personal Story Project via email or on your school or library website by linking to the Share Your Story page.
- Share this Personal Story Project Flyer with your teens, which includes complete details of the program, guidelines, and submission instructions.
- Apply this lesson plan on Editing and Writing for Publication to our Personal Story Project, so students can learn how to write and edit material for publication, based on specific submission requirements.
- Use the Personal Story Project to support a variety of teen programming activities such as:
- journaling exercises
- empowerment workshops
- preparation for college application essays
A Note for Educators
There may be times when we believe it is advisable to follow up on a student who may be at risk of harming themselves or others. In these rare cases, a member of the Teen Health & Wellness team will reach out to the student’s teacher or librarian so they can provide support or intervention.
Program Ideas
Program Ideas
Download the PowerPoint Beyond the Basics: Tips to Maximize Usage and share with your colleagues. This presentation is filled with usage ideas and suggestions to integrate Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom.
Promotional Materials
Promotional Materials
Choose from a variety of promotional tools to help you connect your colleagues and teen users to Teen Health & Wellness. Simply click a file below to download it.
- Bookmarks:
- “You are not alone. Share your voice.” (PDF)
- “From Dating to Dyslexia” (PDF)
- “From Bullying to Body Art” (PDF)
- “Visit the Calm Room” (PDF)
- Let us customize your bookmarks with your URL and school or library name.
- Posters:
- “Visit the Calm Room” (11 x 17, PDF)
- “Got Questions? Get Answers.” (PDF)
- “Got Questions? Get Answers.” Spanish Version (PDF)
- “From Dating to Dyslexia” (11 x 17, PDF)
- “From Bullying to Body Art” (11 x 17, PDF)
- Let us customize your posters with your URL and school or library name.
- Meet Teen Social & Emotional Needs flyer (PDF)
- Visit the Calm Room flyer (PDF)
- School Library Journal December 2022 review flyer (PDF)
- Beyond the Basics (PowerPoint) — A collection of quick tips to make integrating Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom easy.
- Counselor Letter (PDF) — Highlights content and features that are of specific interest to school counselors.
- List of database entries (PDF) — View a full list of all entries, organized by subject.
- THW Tips and Tools flyer (PDF) — This one-page flyer shares the basics of getting started with Teen Health & Wellness as well as tips and tools to maximize use.
- Web Buttons — Promote the database on your library Web site or Facebook page.
Scientific American: Resource Articles
Scientific American: Resource Articles
Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and continues to be a trusted source for the latest information and happenings in science around the world. Scientific American magazine articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and added to appropriate sections. These high-interest articles provide additional and unique content to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.
Visit the Scientific American: Resource Articles archive to review and select the added content for individual, group, or classroom instruction.
Soundzabound Royalty Free Music Library
Soundzabound Royalty Free Music Library
Download a royalty free music track for your video PSA. Be sure to read the rules and guidelines before submitting your video. You can browse other examples of student videos in the video gallery.
Training Tools
Training Tools
To download any of the below materials, right-click the link and select Save As.
- THW Tips and Tools flyer: This one-page flyer has everything you need to get started with your subscription including: logging in, checking usage statistics, tips on integrating the database into your library or classroom, promoting it to your teens, and more.
- THW Tutorial: An in-depth review of the database features, functionality, and content.
- Educator How-To’s: Ruth Kuzmanic—a HS health educator for over 30 years in Naperville, IL, technology guru, and longtime customer—provides a quick, approachable tutorial on THW and how to get your students hands-on with it.
- Beyond the Basics: Tips to Maximize Usage: A collection of ideas and suggestions to make integrating Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom easy.
- User’s Guide: A comprehensive overview of the database features and functionality as well as helpful tips for using the database most effectively. Feel free to download and distribute to your colleagues and teen users via print or email.
Usage Statistics
Usage Statistics
User’s Guide
User’s Guide
The Teen Health & Wellness User’s Guide can help you make the most of your subscription. It offers a comprehensive overview of the database features and functionality, as well as helpful tips for using the database most effectively.
You can download the User’s Guide and share it with your colleagues or teen users via print or email.
Web Buttons and Widgets
Web Buttons and Widgets
Get the most out of Teen Health & Wellness by making sure your teens know where to find trusted, credible health information 24/7. Promote Teen Health & Wellness on your library Web site with Web buttons that link directly to the Teen Health & Wellness homepage.
Buttons are available in two colors and three sizes. (See examples.) Right click on the links below to download a button:
Widgets
Our handy search widget lets users search the contents of Teen Health & Wellness from anywhere on your site. Simply copy and paste the search widget code onto your site, or ask your Web administrator for help.
What’s New
What’s New
Check out the latest additions to Teen Health & Wellness!
Teen Health & Wellness is a Top Accessibility Website!
Teen Health & Wellness ranked in the top 10 percent of more than 100,000 websites with the highest AccessiBe accessibility tool engagement for January–March 2025! That means more people are using our accessibility features to navigate, interact, and access content without barriers.
AccessiBe helps make our site friendlier for users with disabilities. They can adjust AccessiBe’s settings to clear flashes, enhance visuals, reduce distractions, increase focus, and optimize for screen readers, among other features. For users with screen readers, the tool is enabled automatically. AccessiBe aims to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. You can check all the features by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner of the screen on any page. From there, you can explore all the tools that are available.
Scientific American: Resource Articles
Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. These high-interest articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and provide additional and unique content regarding Teen Health & Wellness topics to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.
New Articles
- Artificial Intelligence discusses chatbots, image generators, large language models, and other recent developments in the world of artificial intelligence, or “AI,” which allows digital technology to learn and adapt by simulating human decision-making and behaviors.
- Social Media Anxiety addresses information overload, FOMO (fear of missing out), self-esteem, and other mental health consequences of excessive use of social media.
Notable Article Updates
- Teens who have or are at risk for diabetes need to be diligent about their heart health, too, as an update to our Diabetes article reveals. According to a 2025 study published in the journal Diabetes Care, people between the ages of 17 and 24 who have high blood sugar are up to three times more at risk for developing a heart condition by young adulthood, even if they are otherwise healthy. The keys to avoiding cardiovascular disease at an early age remain unchanged: Eat a balanced diet, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, and keep diabetes under control.
- Just as electric vehicles (EVs) have gained in popularity and support across the United States and Canada over the past several years, the infrastructure required to make them a more viable option for consumers has grown as well. We’ve updated our Sustainable Transportation article with new data on the increase in charging stations available for EV drivers, with the U.S. more than doubling its number from around 29,000 to over 75,000 in just five years.
- An update to our Vaping and Smoking article shared positive news for teens and young adults trying to quit vaping. An April 2025 study from Mass General Brigham in Boston showed that people between the ages of 16 and 25 who took the prescription medication varenicline — ordinarily used to quit tobacco smoking — were three times more likely to stop vaping than with counseling or text support alone. Doctors say the drug is safe for young people to use and, even better, many of those who took it were still vape-free months later.
- For Earth Day 2025, we checked in with Soul Fire Farm, a community agricultural center in upstate New York we profiled in our Environmental Stewardship article back in 2022. Co-founder and farm director Leah Penniman continues to embody environmental stewardship by training people of color on the principles of sustainable farming, and has expanded the operation to deliver thousands of pounds of fresh produce to hundreds of individuals and organizations throughout the community.
- Academic anxiety can affect even the most prepared students, and the pressure is more potentially intense for student athletes, whose time, attention, and focus are further divided by their participation in extracurricular sports. We’ve updated our Academic Anxiety, Overscheduling and Stress, Peer Pressure, and Time Management articles to address the specific needs of teen athletes, with tips on and strategies for balancing the demands of homework, tests, and projects with practices, games, and workouts. With the right approach, and good, clear communication with teachers and coaches, being a student athlete doesn’t need to be like having two full-time jobs.
- We’ve updated our article on Ovarian Cancer to bring the news that in October 2024, researchers at the University of Oxford secured funding to create the world’s first vaccine designed to prevent ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among females in the United States, so this is big news. If their research proves successful, the next step will be to initiate clinical trials. The ultimate goal is to offer women a vaccine that could help prevent ovarian cancer before it occurs.
- Dyslexia and its related disabilities are far more common than many people assume. The International Dyslexia Association estimates that in 2024, one in five students, or 15–20 percent of the population, has a language-based learning disability. We’ve updated our article on Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia to highlight the often undetected nature of this disability, and we feature seven different personal stories from students facing the challenges that come with it.
- One person died and twenty-seven people were hospitalized during an E. coli outbreak in October, linked to fresh onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and other items. We don’t update our E. Coli article with every new development in this or other outbreaks of the foodborne illness, but our article does post a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s own list of outbreaks.
- Young people are getting wise to the dangers of tobacco. As we note in our article on Tobacco and Nicotine, teen smoking and the use of other tobacco products in the U.S. have dropped to the lowest levels seen in 25 years, according to an October report from the CDC. The report highlights a 20 percent decrease in tobacco use among middle and high school students from 2023 to 2024. This includes traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and hookahs. The number of youth using at least one tobacco product fell from 2.8 million to 2.25 million, marking a significant decline.
- Even if you don’t know what “nomophobia” is, you’ve likely felt it. It’s short for “no-mobile-phone phobia”—the anxiety people get when they are away from their phone, lose their phone, lose cell coverage, or run out of battery life. Psychologists consider it a real anxiety disorder that can make it harder for people to disconnect from their over-stimulating digital lives. This fall, the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for warning labels to be added to social media apps to inform users about the risks of excessive social media use, similar to health warnings on cigarettes and alcohol. We’ve updated our article on Social Media Anxiety to reflect this latest news.
- Hurricane Helene is just the latest natural disaster to take hundreds of people’s lives and disrupt thousands of others. Our Natural Disasters article not only adds Helene to our ever-growing list of hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, tsunamis, and other traumatic events, but gives young people advice on preparedness, evacuation plans, and coping skills when disaster strikes, as well as resources they can contact to help them through a crisis.
- For some happy news, we’ve added Yale psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos’s The Happiness Lab podcast to our list of resources in our Self-Esteem and Confidence, Stress, Depression and Mood Disorders, and Mindfulness articles to remind young (and not-so-young) people how to be happy. The podcast is based on the psychology course she teaches at Yale—the most popular class in the university’s 300-year history—and takes you through the latest scientific research and share some surprising and inspiring stories that will change the way you think about happiness.
- With school back in session, teens’ stress levels can rise and their sleep habits decline. As we note in our updated article on Sleep and Sleep Deprivation, teens already know about the importance of a good night’s sleep. In a 2024 survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, three-quarters of teens reported that their emotional well-being was negatively affected by a lack of sleep. By contrast, among teens who got a good night’s sleep, 80 percent of them reported being free of any significant depressive symptoms.
- We’ve updated our Behind the Wheel article to reflect the latest evidence that a good night’s sleep also has an effect on staying alive while driving. The same National Sleep Foundation survey estimated that more than 400,000 American teens drove drowsy at least once per week. According to the latest data from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, drowsy driving was responsible for 693 deaths in 2022.
- High blood pressure (or hypertension) is often called ”the silent killer“ because it so easily goes undetected. High levels of sodium found in restaurant foods, packaged foods, and processed foods are among the primary causes of hypertension. We’ve updated our Blood Pressure article with the Food and Drug Administration’s latest guidance recommending that Americans reduce their sodium intake by 20 percent over a three-year period.
- Body mass index (BMI) has been a common metric for measuring obesity for decades, but a recent article in the medical journal JAMA Network Open introduced many readers to the concept of the ”body roundness index“ (BRI). Unlike BMI, which only uses height and weight, BRI also considers hip and waist measurements. The article states that this provides a more accurate estimate of total and visceral fat, the deep belly fat around organs that poses higher health risks. We’ve updated our Obesity article to reflect the new findings.
- Natural disasters are hard on everyone, but especially on young people who lack the resources or experience needed to protect themselves in such situations. July 2024’s Hurricane Beryl was just the latest in devastating weather-related disasters to strike North America. We keep our Natural Disasters article updated with the latest preparedness and emergency contact information to help inform teens on how to remain safe, and give advice on how to cope when disasters strike.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it is banning the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in food and drink products, which has primarily been used to stabilize citrus flavorings in sodas, sports drinks, and energy drinks. New research suggests that BVO can accumulate in organs and tissues at potentially harmful levels, and may be toxic to the thyroid. Our Sodas, Sports Drinks, and Bottled Water article covers the short- and long-term health effects of sodas and sports drinks.
- A new study published in the medical journal Pediatrics finds that there may be a connection between teens with hypertension (high blood pressure) and a lack of quality sleep. Dr. Amy Kogon, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, says health officials typically focus on diet and exercise but rarely consider how sleep might play a role in a teen’s cardiovascular health. As we note in our updated Sleep and Sleep Deprivation article, on a typical school night, just over 25 percent of high school students get eight or more hours of sleep.