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My group consisted of myself, Gladys, and Kelechi. Our topic for the podcast was stress, with a focus on how stress effects the lives of SMASH scholars. During the project, we did multiple takes of the same sentence or paragraph just to make sure that we got the best thing we possibly could. I edited my podcast by shortening the interviews and cutting out unnecessary dead space.

My group consists of Kelechi, Gladys, and myself. The main point of our podcast is to inform others about the ways stress is created, the physical and mental effects, and things to do to manage stress.

How does stress effect your everyday life at SMASH?

My PSA is on the importance of locking and closing windows and doors when someone isn’t home. This is an important topic to me because my house has been broken into once and attempted once again. If my windows and doors weren’t locked, who knows what could’ve happened. And even if people think that a city isn’t at risk for robbery, you can never know what can happen. People need to realize that a risk is always present when leaving windows and doors open when nobody is home. Hopefully my PSA will help people come to their senses about home security.

1. Second hand smoke

Why is this an important issue to you?

This is important to me because I know someone who died because of second hand smoke.

What about this topic is of interest to other people? 
This topic isof interest to others because everyone who passes by a smoker is affected by second hand smoke.

Who do you want to speak directly to?
I want to speak directly to parents of young children that smoke in the household.

What imagery represents this idea?
A young child affected by smoke is an image that represents my idea.

2.

Select a media sample that you feel has imposed a stereotype that is untrue in relation to you.

On Family Guy, a teenager recites “ponies and stickers and myspace.com!”, showing the common things related to teenagers. When someone is asked about what they think a teenage girl is interested in, a few answers become repetitive: twilight, the internet, celebrities, and shopping. Most adults have these biases about teenagers because the way they are portrayed in television shows. If you watch any show with a teenage character, they are always doing the same things; obsessing over a boy, talking on the phone or over the internet, drooling over a poster of a celebrity, and trying to become popular at school by using make-up hairstyles and clothing. These stereotypes may be true for some girls, but every teenage girl is different and many like some or none of these things.

One of the biggest stereotypes about teenage girls right now is that all girls are obsessed with both the twilight series and the two male leads in the movies. Twilight has become widely popular with people of all ages, but especially with teenagers. Girls dream of having an Edward or Jacob for themselves. They choose a side, Team Edward or Team Jacob, and argue about which one is better. There is Twilight merchandise in a majority of stores. When a new twilight movie hits theaters, girls stand and wait in line for days, and when they finally get into the theater they scream and shout when a main character takes of his shirt. The director sees how the girls respond to things like that, and adds more and more scenes that make more girls want to watch. These girls contribute to the major success Twilight has made in theaters, most recently the release of the third movie Eclipse. In its first weekend in theaters, Eclipse made over $100 million. Most movies have to be in theaters for around a month to reach anywhere near $100 million. But in contrast there are some girls who, like me, haven’t picked up a Twilight book nor feel the desire to watch the actors.

Teenagers of this generation are always connected to others in some way, mostly with the internet. Girls especially use the internet to start more drama with others using anonymous bashing sites to make their opinions about others known. In my own personal experience, a girl tried to threaten me over Facebook using her about me section and status. First, I wouldn’t have known she disliked me until someone told me what was on her Facebook. Secondly, threats over the internet don’t mean nearly as much as a threat in person, 68% of people do or say things digitally that they wouldn’t do in person. Though the reason for the threat is to scare the person being threatened, when I realized that this person was trying to threaten me all I did was laugh and move on with my life. It isn’t a big deal unless you make it one.

Teenage girls are thought to have at least one celebrity obsession. Justin Bieber, a 16-year-old singer, has been a new obsession of many teenage girls. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as having “Bieber Fever”. But in some cases, the fever has spiked too far. After pictures were posted of Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian together and posts on twitter from Bieber saying Kim is his “girlfriend”, Kim was faced with death threats from fanatic Bieber fans. On the other hand, there are teenagers like me that couldn’t care less what Justin Bieber does. Teenage girls are also thought to keep up to date with the drama between celebrities. Surprisingly, not very many girls care about the drama going on between celebrities, most likely because they have drama of the own to worry about.

Lastly, teenage girls are known to follow trends that celebrities wear or things that are considered in style right now. During the beginning of sophomore year, I remember looking out at the students and seeing groups of girls wearing the same clothes: high waisted skirts and gladiator shoes. Both girls and boys were seen wearing plaid. It got to the point where I had trouble distinguishing people from one another because they all looked the same. There’s a difference between seeing whats in style and conforming to that and making what’s in style your own.

Stereotypes may be true for some, but in reality are false for most. Just because one girl likes all the stereotypical things people think she should as a teenager doesn’t mean every teenage girl you come in contact with will be the same. Everyone is different, and that is something that people need to realize.