Jack Canfield - Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: The Real Deal School: Cliques, Classes, Clubs, and More

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Souls

Chicken Soup for the
Teenage Souls

Cliques, Classes, Clubs and More

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Deborah Reber

Backlist, LLC, a unit of

Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC

Cos Cob, CT

www.chickensoup.com

CONTENTS

S CHOOL . Love it or hate it, its where you spend most of your time (at least the hours youre awake). When we first set out to write a book about school life, especially one called The Real Deal, we wanted to get down to it and talk about the highs and lows of student life for todays teenagers. What we found out is that teens all over the world are dealing with the same thingspeer pressure, bullying, cliques, sports, stress, gossip, changing schools, struggling to keep up the grades, getting a bad reputation, having no reputation at all. Its pretty clear that being a student these days is challenging stuff.

This first book in The Real Deal series has what youve come to expect and love from the Chicken Soup booksreal stories and poems from real people. For The Real Deal, we wanted to go one step further so we only included stories that were written by teens just like you. I hope youll find that the result is a collection of stories that speaks to where you are right now, written by people who are dealing with the same kinds of things you are.

The response to our call for submissions was overwhelming, and we want to thank all of you who took the time to submit your poems and stories for consideration. We know what an effort it is to get organized enough to submit, and we dont take that commitment lightly. Unfortunately, we couldnt publish all of the wonderful writing we received, but please know that we did read each and every submission, and their content helped us figure out what issues are really important so we could make sure The Real Deal was as true to your own experiences as it could be.

As you flip through this book, youll see that The Real Deal is also different from the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books in that its full of quizzes, little side stories and tidbits on everything from movies to see and books to read to different ways to approach problems or things to write about in your journal. We changed up the design too, so the book would be as engaging and fun as it could be. The Real Deal is full of so much great info that you can flip to any page and in just a few seconds discover a new interesting fact or be challenged to think about a situation from a different point of view. We hope that this makes The Real Deal a book youll go back to again and again, and that youll take away something new each and every time.

Theres one more new feature in The Real Deal, and thats the addition of my voice throughout the book. So who am I? Well, Im a thirty-something woman living in Seattle whos worked for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I work with teens a lot, and what do you know... I used to be a teen myself too. My own life as a teen was rocky, full of so many emotional ups and downs that it resembled a ride on the Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags. In many ways, Ive taken this opportunity to go back and write about the things I wish I knew when I was a teenager. Youll get to know me very well through the introductions to all of the teen stories in the book, especially since I tell it allfrom my first real kiss to the disappointments of being a late bloomer. My hope is that my stories will draw you in, make connections with the teen stories, and help you realize just how universal our experiences as teenagers are.

Its an honor for me to have you reading The Real Deal right now, and my hope is that you see yourself in the pages of this book, and that in some small way, you find comfort and inspiration inside.

Deborah Reber

THE SOCIAL
SCENE

P erhaps no aspect of school is more stressful than navigating and making sense of the social scene. We received more submissions about your social lives than any other theme in this book, and we did our best to make sure The Social Scene reflects the range of things youre dealing with. Maybe youve had to deal with peer pressure or have been the target of gossip. Maybe youve never quite found a group of friends, or worse, you had one but then had to move and start all over again. Whatever your experience, the following chapter is guaranteed to give you a fresh take on dealing with the social scene in your school.

DOES YOUR SCHOOL HAVE ANY QUEEN BEES? You know the type. Theyre the girls who are impressively pretty, impeccably dressed and impossible to be aroundunless of course youre one of the swarm. In Queen Bees and Wannabes (the book behind the movie Mean Girls), author Rosalind Wiseman explains that these queen bees rule their circle of friends through charisma, force, money, looks and manipulation. Like a hurricane gaining strength as it moves across warm water, these girls become more and more powerful by getting others to follow them.

THE WORD

Charisma is kind of like charm, but even more powerful. People who are charismatic can gain the adoration of everyone around them without much effort. Unfortunately, some people use their charisma for the wrong things.

So where do these power mongers come from? Some bizarre island in the South Pacific where designer clothes grow on trees and perfect complexions are handed out for Christmas? And where does this sense of entitlement come from, anyway? My guess is that this entitlement, at least in part, comes from us.

I used to be guilty of queen bee worshipping. I thought that perfect appearances meant perfect lives. And even though I didnt necessarily want to be like these girls, I still fell victim to their powerful sting. I fed their hunger by letting them run the school, by being too afraid to stand up to them, by acting honored when they noticed I existed.

For Real?

Some people say school uniforms would reduce stress over cliques and fashion, but 83% of students think uniforms are a bad idea.

Now, looking back at those girls who were the queen bees at my high school, I cant believe that I ever thought they were all that. They somehow seem so mediocre, so normal. I guess that without the constant worshipping of other girls, these bees really were no different than I was. Better dressed, maybe, but the same through and through.

Seen It?

Teen queens are nothing new. Remember Alicia Silverstones unforgettable character Cher in Clueless (1995)? She and her best friend are the ultimate queens at her posh Beverly Hills high school.

Behind the Scenes of Two Teen Queens

B ored with my life, irritated at who I was, and aching for change, I decided that middle school was the perfect time to introduce the new me to the world. My goal wasnt to become popular. I was simply yearning for a new life. But as I began to morph from an awkward, frizzy-haired, acne-infested brace-face to a smiling, straight-haired, lip-glossed teenybopper, that was what happened. My peers flocked to my side, and I was swept up into a whirlwind of parties and gossip, friends and boys, makeup and drama. Life in the fast lane. I loved it. I loved life in the in crowd.