The time has come for someone to stand up and scream at the top of their lungs, “America, stop being disgusting and sexualizing 15-year-old girls!!” and I’m not afraid to be that someone. Because the media can longer be counted on to have a brain, because adult celebrity bloggers see it fit to go after girls who can’t even drive yet, and because we as a nation are still. fixated. with. high. school, the cloud of obsession seems to have blinded everyone to the fact that there is something inherently wrong with stalking little girls.

Because these ARE little girls we’re talking about. Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Taylor Momsen. When we’re not urging them to slather on the eyeliner and hike up their skirts, we’re glamorizing their world, turning high school into a multi-million dollar soap opera where everyone is scheming or talking like 30 Somethings or having sex with anything that purses it’s lips. For those of us who remember high school without the Hollywood Glasses, you’ll recall that no matter where you went, it was decidedly unglamorous. It was boring, sometimes lonely, a lot awkward, and stuffed to the brim with tests, feeble attempts to fit in, and college application essays.

Ask any mother today who isn’t on crack if she’d be happy with her 15-year-old having sex, and she’d blurt the word no faster than you could think it. When Ms. Cyrus’s cellphone is hacked into and her frighteningly-too-old half naked poses are stuffed onto the world wide web, we’re “horrified”. But when she walks around with a full face of makeup, hair extensions, high heels, and revealing clothing, she’s just being a “teen star”. The Lolita posing is too overtly sexual; while the “Disney Vamp” is just subtle enough to keep us from feeling guilty. Read More »

Women’s social issues have been treated in programs geared towards teens for ages. Remember when DJ Tanner went on a crash diet so she could look good in a bathing suit, and then passed out on a stairclimber?

On Saved by the Bell, Elizabeth Berkley gained pre-Showgirls notoriety, for the famous Jessie Spano Caffeine Pill Breakdown (I’m so excited! I’m so scared!). Of course, Full House and SBTB were heart-warming sitcoms, where everyone learns their lesson in the end, and move away from their self-destructive behavior, never to mention anorexia, bullimia, or drug abuse ever again.

The breakout Canadian teen sensation, Degrassi, which airs in the US on The N network, covers a variety of teen issues, without the cavity-inducing sugary sweetness of the stuff we grew up on. Among the kids who dabble in drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, and bi-polar disorder, Degrassi introduced the world to Ellie Nash, who is a cutter.

I’m too old for Degrassi, but I don’t care. I’m pretty much obsessed with it. The best part about the show is that it doesn’t sweep the issues under the rug at the end of each 22-minute episode. And because the writers have the balls to “Go There.” I mean, come on: we all know the caffeine-pill incident was a stand-in for a harder drug, like speed or something, but hard drugs don’t exist at Bayside High.

I remember when the cutting craze swept my middle school. I have no idea who started it, or why it caught on, but at my school, cutting was the iPhone of the late 90’s. Read More »

Apparently the Teen Choice Awards were on last night, or something? Yeah, we didn’t know either. But here are some people dressed up for it.

This is what $14 Million looks like. (Funny, I thought there would be more gold….)

Is my iPhone really killing me?

Thank God for CollegeCandy, especially now that our favorite magazine is folding.

People say my standards are too high, but would do date this man?

Sleeping in until noon is not bad; it makes you smarter!

Paris Hilton’s mama fights back against John McCain. Looks like the Repubs lost a little financing, eh?

Sexual harrassment is A-OK. In fact, it is necessary for the future of our species. Duh.

Please, Tyra. PLEASE. Don’t ruin this election for the rest of us.

Are you a nailbiter? Smoker? “Like” sayer? Quit that nasty habit overnight!

Don’t mess with Tracy Turnblatt. Fo real.

I’m always a step behind on the latest phone trend. By the time I got a rotary phone in my bedroom, everyone was already onto their cellphones, and by the time I made the jump to cellphones, everyone was already trading up for a flip phone. So it came as no surprise to me that when I finally got a camera phone, the iPhone had come out and BlackBerrys became more ubiquitous than see-through-white-dresses in the summertime.

But it wasn’t until this past summer living in New York City that I truly felt uncomfortable using my cell phone in public. The phone that I had once bragged about because it fit into my clutch was now making me feel as if I was using Zack Morris’s mega phone. People stared at me when I texted and expressed shock and awe that I still used only 9 keys to construct a sentence.

The look I got when I flipped my phone open the other day was the look I gave to my grandmother when she attempted to use her scanner to send an e-mail.

I can’t deny the jealousy. I admit that having the internet on your phone is insanely useful; whenever I’ve gotten lost somewhere, its a friend’s BlackBerry that got me home (not my phone’s tip calculator). And, sure, I’ve gotten frustrated when my T9 brutalized a word so badly that my text ended a friendship. I’ve eyed those keyboards and mouses and wished that my phone, too, could serve as a hand-held laptop. Read More »

On the new iPhone you can call your friends, listen to the new Beck album, send emails, Google ex-boyfriends, and even navigate your way to the closest coffee shop for a caffeine fix. The days of finding a payphone and then realizing that you’re out of quarters are long, looooong gone. Even announcements about turning off cell phones and pagers make us snicker.

I’d like to take this opportunity (5:30pm on a Tuesday sitting in a Starbucks…) to thank the techie gods for these five technological innovations I can’t imagine my life without:

1) The Laptop – I wouldn’t even be here, sitting in this Starbucks at 5:30pm on a Tuesday if it weren’t for the laptop. Mine is a black MacBook. It’s light, sleek, fast, and now that I’ve got a new battery, it holds a five-hour charge. As a writer I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to have to write papers, even novels, on typewriters. Writing a page and then realizing that there was a spelling error? The horror! Being stuck in a home office or computer lab in order to use a desktop computer? Never again! Read More »

Ben and Jen: Super Fertile.

Too cloudy to go to the beach? Add these 80’s classics to your Netflix queue.

Exclusive look at the crazy new script from Tarantino. Awww yeah!

Nothing ruins a day at the beach quite like a shark. And I really needed a tan!

The new iPhone is out. We are not too happy about it, but what do the critics say?

Teen pregnancy on the up and up for the first time in over a decade. Could this be Juno’s doing?

Also on the rise, Wal-Mart stores. They. Are. Everywhere.

As if TV couldn’t get any worse - Nicole Richie gets another show.

2 words that should never go together: orgasmic and childbirth. Yes, there is a video.

Maybe this will inspire you to recycle. Think of the dolphins, people!

Gender equality on the road at last! Well, at least on the signs. Baby steps, ladies; baby steps.

Dear Steve Jobs,

I have had my iPhone for almost a year now. I love it. I love how bright the screen is, I love how much it can do and I love having everything I need in the palm of my hand. In fact, I also love my MacBook. I am an Apple girl to the core (no pun intended…I am NOT in the mood for jokes right now).

At least, I was until this morning. All week everyone has been talking about 2 things: the new (faster, cheaper, better) iPhone and all the new applications that would be available for both iPhones. Being a current user, I didn’t care much about the new phone (except for the fact that it is FASTER, CHEAPER and BETTER…thankyouverymuch), but I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of the fun new things I’d be able to download.

So, I woke up this morning, plugged in my phone and installed the new updates. As it was all loading up and getting ready I shopped the new App Store and planned what I was going to buy. Crosswords! Blackjack! So many fun games!

But wait. That wasn’t going to happen for me. No, because my phone got JACKED UP. Completely wiped. Unable to be recognized by my computer. Totally. un-useable.

I had a brief meltdown that included tears, a donut (you owe me a dollar) and a lot of profanity before I composed myself enough to get to the nearest Apple store for some Genius help. And, of course, that was a bust too. Because there were 4,000 people in line trying to buy the new iPhone and, OF COURSE, no one was able to do tech support today. Read More »

The point of a thong is the minimal coverage. Clearly not the best disguise.

Don’t know how to tell your roomie she smells? Get answers to some tough questions from the highest of authorities.

Picturing that friend naked every time to look at him? Wanna get…naughty? Yahoo tells you how.

3G iPhone announced pissing off the millions who bought the first one. Especially me, damn it.

Oil prices and unemployment rise, but, still, George W. says it’s all OK. So, it must be!

Don’t know what to do after college? Why not take a few years and change the world.

You can’t put it off any longer. How to buy a bathing suit (without the tears).

The other night, I was listening to the radio (yeah, I heard I was the last one on earth who still does this) and the DJ was discussing a new ailment claiming pretty much anyone under the age of 25. This new disease: The Hills Syndrome.

No, it’s not what you would think, not an obsession with trashy TV, trying to keep up on the latest fashions, or incestuous dating, but instead a nearly non-existent work ethic. That’s right, watching The Hills is making you a bad employee.

Initially, I scoffed at the woman’s assertions (I will give her the Spencer points though, since he has no job - unless he considers being Heidi’s boyfriend/ “manager” a full time gig.) I have been known to watch The Hills from time to time, and am still capable of holding down a job. And, for whatever points it’s worth, I’ve even commented to my friends during a Hills viewing about the amazing yet easy seeming jobs the cast snags. How the hell they manage to get them with no degrees or really any intelligence, and how they hold on to them considering the better part of their day is spent out around town, texting, partying , chatting, or twirling their hair, is beyond me. I think it is safe to assume if it wasn’t for MTV, LC and the gals would be living solely off their Laguna Beach allowances.

But I digress. After taking a moment to ponder the work ethic of early twenty-somethings such as myself, I have to admit I don’t think I have the same desire to “get my hands dirty” as say, my parents or grandparents did in their early twenties. Rather than it being a result of “The Hills” though, I think it has a little something to do with a sense of entitlement from being what I like to call, a Millennial. (Millennial is great word huh? I wish I could take credit for that little catch phrase, but it was actually a friend of mine who mentioned it.) Read More »

- CollegeCandy & TuitionBids.com $500 AMEX Gift Card Giveaway! -

If College Candy was to give you a $500 American Express Gift Card what would you buy?

Your parents might suggest that you put the money towards your education (tuition, books, food) or savings, but this is your money to blow on whatever you want!

You want to go to Paris for a night? Go to Paris! Thinking about getting a lower back tattoo? Go for it!

Below are 9 Things Your Parents Would Get Pissed About If You Spent $500 On. College Candy wants to know what should be #1 on the list. Leave your suggestion in the comment section below. The person that submits the best idea will receive a $500 AMEX gift card courtesy on TuitionBids.com - all submissions must be received by Friday, May 2nd at 12PM. Read More »