Rumors of Tribes
At one school, the popular girls were called the “chicken patties,” but the jocks were just the “jocks.” How teenage crowds get named.
kidstoday
A collection of 50 issues
Cape Fear
A small portion of the Massachusetts coastline is home to America’s biggest witch-hunt, a history of savage wife mobs, the occasional 400 percent increase of unlucky pregnancies, and the world’s largest deposits of black crystals.
Things That Go Fifff Striiik Bam! in the Night
The day you become a parent, your sonic world expands to include hundreds of new sounds to amaze, annoy, and terrify. A field report of 14 alarms and ambient textures.
Sorry About Your Generation
Fact: Today’s young women are scared to commit because Mel Gibson may attack them. Fact: Today’s mothers should keep their opinions to themselves.
Mary Poppins Has a Tumblr
Children easily comprehend the web—almost as easily as new parents grasp fear. Exploring his computer's "parental controls" for the first time, our writer tries to preserve his innocence a little longer.
State of Play
Does your minor want to be a miner? How about a McNugget cook? Welcome to KidZania, a revolutionary theme park coming soon to the U.S. that lets kids play at corporate-sponsored employment.
The Punk Dad Manifesto
Living in the fascist stronghold of Marigold Gardens will challenge the roots of even the most hardcore. One parent’s struggle against the machine.
JuniorHighLeaks
Everyone's doing it: Broadcasting private communications for all the world to see. The latest messages could usurp the power elite of the eighth grade.
Eat Yr Veggiez
There’s nothing better than kicking back with your friends and tearing open a bag of Doritos Late Night: Cheeseburger Carrot Sticks—or so some farmers hope.
Planet Zoo
More than a generation of Americans have been urged to save the Earth. A survey of the current climate and every H.G. Wells-inspired geoengineering project shows it’s time to pray for Homo sapiens.
It's Only Pretend
Labor Day is coming soon, and along with it the start of school. But the TMN writers' children still have a little August reading to do, in this final installment of their book reports.
The Unbearable Lightness of Declaring a Liberal Arts Major
Faced with a deadline to choose her major, our writer hunts down interview subjects to learn where their studies got them, no matter her mother's loathing of the liberal arts.
Let's Make It Better
Summer yawns ahead, hot and school-free. What better way to spend the afternoon than with a book? The TMN writers' children fill us in on their latest reads and rethink the endings.
The Seven-Cent Advance
For most of us, assigned summer reading is a distant memory. For the TMN writers' children, however, it's time to crack the books--and inform us about scary bits, cover designs, and authors' advances.
Cheater Cheater
Everyone remembers their first, especially English professors. A professor confronts a student he busted for cheating—and who caused him to completely rethink plagiarism.
Standard & Poor
Accountability in education is here to stay--but you try creating tests that equally suit Texans and Hawaiians.
From Cover to Cover
Music connects to memories, and so do album sleeves. From ELO’s spaceship to Róisín Murphy’s see-through top, the covers that made one writer a fan.
A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families
Thousands of different Lego exist, yet when your seven-year-old asks for “a clippy bit,” you know exactly what to hand him. A breakdown of the atoms of a Lego universe.
Second Place Is First to Lose
The current war between console makers is bloody, and sides must be chosen. A look toward the next generation.
The Dream Vacation
When appointments and schedules get in the way of travel plans, it’s easy to think of the summer as a lost cause. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Tilt
A look back to the dot-com boom years when money grew on trees, dreams were cast, and happiness could be delivered via Urbanfetch.
A Mnemonic Guide to Remembering New Planets
Memorizing the newly assigned 11 planets may be tough for anyone who’s already graduated fifth grade.
Praystation
Discovering Chinatown's black market for gaming, and risking your dating life and career for long nights of back-alley entertainment.
Three Thousand Head-Butts
Strong men also play video games. The story of how a young depressed man became a bear, dragon, tiger, and man-wolf.
The Most Competitive Man Alive
Recounting lessons from a first Nintendo, particularly as taught by the highs and lows of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.
A Very Weird and Blocky Future
How many video games does it take to make a man? An epic new series traces a man's life in gaming systems. Part one: paddles to jump-start your heart, and the end-all, be-all red fire button.
Children’s Letters to George W. Bush
The White House is besieged by requests from all corners, even America’s classrooms. A trove of letters to the president, discovered.
Back to School
This September students headed back to class to absorb knowledge and life skills. Some even found time to work STDs and partners-in-crime into their curricula.
Like Pulling Teeth
Whether it’s experimental injections, sleep deprivation studies, or freelance writing, sometimes the best way to look after your health is to risk it.
Room to Read: A Modest Proposal
What better way to relax after a kid-filled day than with a nice book--and what less likely scenario can many parents imagine? For page-turners everywhere, a novel idea.
My Hairy Boy
Maybe you don’t have a problem with really hairy arms, but then again, you’re not the father of a Wookie.
The Mommy Wars
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we help a frustrated mother cope: how to deal with--nevermind survive--those overly nice mothers at play dates.
Tricks, and Beer, Are for Kids
Adding another log to the public-relations pyre where several corporations recently burned, an exclusive, damning memo from Toys’R’Us.
London
When you're a twenty-something in love with the urban life, parks can seem invisible. But, as they say, having a kid changes everything.
Virginity Pledge 2.0
With more and more kids reneging on their signed virginity vows, it’s time for swift action. An updated pledge from LifeTime Ministry that explains all you really need to know to keep your ticket to salvation intact.
Be Not Afraid
Between rescuing Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck and dodging bullets during an interview, German director Werner Herzog leads a dramatic life. According to his private diaries, we shouldn't be surprised.
New Fathers, Round III
Are you ruining your child's chances at future employment by blogging about his poop? By becoming a father yourself, do you finally understand your own dad? A look at the challenges of contemporary paternity.
Flying Babies
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we dive into the great button fly vs. zipper fly debate, and give advice to a man whose wife is addicted to children.
MiniDisco
Portable audio used to be strictly for joggers and the kids who smoked under the bleachers, but these days everybody and their guidance counselor has an iPod. So how did headphones become fashionable, and MiniDisc devotees get left by the wayside?
New Ways to Lose Your Lunch
Everybody barfs. But it’s an altogether different product depending on if you’re an infant or the last one standing at tequila happy hour.
40 Watts Later
Men buy cars, boats, and watches to make up for their shortcomings; some even purchase stoves. Our food writer looks back on the path that led him to 15,000 BTUs, and consults the Queer Eye staff for advice: What kind of boy goes nuts over an Easy-Bake Oven?
New Fathers, Round II
Twelve months ago a number of TMN contributors were becoming first-time dads—now it's time to check in and see how they're doing. A look back at a year of highs, lows, and Diaper Genies.
Untitled Fall Project
What to do when you and your sister are worth billions, on the brink of adulthood, and then your brand new movie flops? Go to college? Our Los Angeles reporter goes undercover to discover the starlets’ new plans.
Children’s Music
We've seen their drawings of Radiohead songs, they tell us the Strokes make their heads hurt "like 100 dogs," but how do we feel about their songs? A panel listens to children's music, weighing in on the state of the pint-sized.
Is Illiteracy So Bad?
When people can’t explain global warming or mad cow disease, perhaps they should look at a less than obvious scourge: the dreaded literacy plague.
New Fathers
For some reason not involving pods or alien harvests, a number of our writers are about to be fathers, or have recently become dads, and it seemed appropriate to convene a meeting of minds. A discussion of fears, frustrations, and why the name you've picked out for your kid will inevitably be mocked
Another Roadside Attraction
The Washington Post's new free newspaper Express is targeted to illiterate youngsters with wallets. A report on the difficulties of selling young and hip.
Branded for Life
Teenagers: They've got cell phones, credit cards, and brand identities. A review of Alissa Quart's Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers finds a shared past not too dissimilar, and a terrifying prospect that may lie ahead of us all.
75,000,000 Toddlers Can't Be Wrong
Steve Burns, the former host of Nickleodeon's kids show Blue's Clues, has embarked on a new career path: musician.
The Harry Potter Nimbus 2000
The hottest new toy is the Harry Potter Nimbus 2000, a vibrating broom proving popular with lots of little girls. An inside look at its insidious development.