Just in case you need to be reminded that teens are indeed creating copious amounts of content online as well as pursuing other entrepreneurial ventures, I'm rounding up several links sent to me over the weekend.

First up, the folks at Flip.com (CondeNet) sent me a bunch of links to contests they've been running with various organizations to give away scholarship money. Each promotion has links to the winning Flip book and staff picks. It's fun to see what girls are creating using this tool.

- Do Something
- Keep A Breast
- Music Saves Lives
- ASPCA
- Music For All
- GoGoWorld
- AmeriCheer

Speaking of contests, the American Film Institute just launched its site for middle and high school students called Screen Nation, "an online video posting-and-sharing community." Check out their first Claim to Fame Challenge.

And while we're talking about creating videos, the folks at Animoto have been trying to get me to mention them for awhile. This user submitted prom video finally did the trick. It made me want to go to prom again or at least wish I had something like this to document it.

On to teen entrepreneurs. Check out these teens at 1308 Productions (Plum TV profile), a south Florida company that "sponsors all ages live music shows show featuring great young bands and bringing teens together for community service involvement." Finally, who better to promote teen events...than teens? Exactly. That's what inspired these Connecticut teens to create their own agency.

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Ellegirl.com gutted (So sad. I thought they were doing ok. They laid off fashion editor Joyann King; senior editor Holly Seigal) (Paid Content)

- Dove fires back (says ads were not digitally altered, at least not "substantially") (AdAge.com, reg. required)

- Beyonce's creepy new kids' line (a little too adult for the Romper Room set. And Perez Hilton has a new fashion line, too) (Gawker)

- Grand Theft Childhood (reviewed by Ars Technica - in a nutshell: games don't make teens killers. Plus game sellers getting better at enforcing ratings, i.e. not selling M rated games to teens and tweens)

- Mobile social networking (is growing. Plus youth consume the most online video. And stats on the aging hip hop/urban youth market) (MarketingVOX) (MarketingCharts) (Media Post, reg. required)

- MySpace goes portable; let's users share (allowing you to import your data on lots of sites) (SFGate.com)

- You have to watch 'real' news (to get Jon Stewart....according to this think tank.) (AP)

- The greening of campus food (Plus Gradspot.com offers a free eBook on life after college.) (WireTap)

P.S. If any Ypulse readers attended the Joan Cooney Ganz Center Symposium today and would like to write a guest post summarizing -- let me know! They released two papers: The Power of Pow! Wham!: Children, Digital Media and Our Nation's Future and a policy brief from Dr. James Paul Gee. And more research on parents' perspectives on digital kids.

P.P.S. Here's another silly but fun Obama video for all you supporters out there. Have a great weekend!

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'Deathbowl to Downtown' (cool looking doc about the New York City skateboarding scene from the 70s 'till now - thanks Bill!)

- Grand Theft Auto biggest selling game... (ever. I get to hear it being played for the next few weeks in my living room) (Reuters)

- More 'advertainment' on MTV (the network will be creating more branded entertainment. Plus the nerds of "Superbad" rule the MTV Movie Award noms) (New York Times, reg. required) (Reuters)

- Turner's comedy site Super Deluxe (to be absorbed into Adult Swim...anyone heard much about Funny or Die lately?) (NewTeeVee)

- Tweens abandoning Miley? (maybe, but the ratings decline seems to have started before the Vanity Fair photos) (Gawker)

- Dove's 'real beauty' (not so real. Evidently the "real" looking women were airbrushed - big credibility blow) (AdAge.com, reg. required)

- School administrators concerned (about teens hopped up on energy drinks - thanks Andrea!) (The Moderate Voice)

- Fashionspace (social networking for fashionistas last year is evidently doing pretty well. And check out Coolspotters where you can find out how to dress like your favorite celeb. Plus Stardoll launches an app for girls to design their own virtual clothes) (Reuters) (Media Post, reg. required)

- If you love M.I.A.'s colorful videos (you'll probably love her new fashion line) (PSFK)

- Salvia madness (evidently kids' posting videos of themselves high on Salvia is helping to get the drug banned. Plus Facebook about to launch major new safety measures. And a new UK safety campaign for little kiddies online called Hector's World) (Gawker) (Tech Crunch) (BBC)

- Teen pregnancy prevention (goes viral - with a new campaign from our friends at Nextgreatthing.com)

- Totally wired youth activism (danah has the scoop and an essay in a new book focused on youth leveraging social media to organize)

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Like Oxygen, Lifetime is looking for glamour (with a "fabulous" lineup including "Project Runway" and Carson Kressley's "How To Look Good Naked") (New York Observer)

- Social media expert danah boyd discusses teen e-socialization ("If you're not on MySpace, you don't exist.")

- The ascent of "Generation Virtual" (a generation characterized not by age, but by technology reliance) (Forbes)

- Three high schoolers blog about the stress of college admissions (an interesting addition to Tuesday's article) (New York Times, reg. required)

- Capturing an experience for the purpose of social status and social networking (instead of enjoying the actual event) (PSFK)

- Burger King creates a value menu of ringtones (Madonna, Estelle, and more for a buck - Virgin Mobile customers only) (Yahoo News)

- Young professionals with not-so-professional Facebook profiles (recent graduates cling to their college lifestyles online) (Washington Post)

- VW hopes to attract young consumers with a talking beetle (but will a chatty car appeal to anyone of driving age?) (MediaPost)

- Personalize iGoogle with Jeff Koons, Michael Graves, and Diane von Furstenberg (youGoogle?) (San Francisco Chronicle)

Posted by casey

Note from Anastasia: Just a reminder that I am traveling this week so Casey and Alli are holding down the fort. Lighter posting than usual...

Forget 'Gossip Girl,' I'm watching 'Little House on the Prairie' (A new generation can stream golden oldies "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Bewitched" and "Miami Vice") (New York Times, reg. required)

- A grandma's guide to clubbing (Young grandmothers in Britain are hitting the clubs in a very Mrs. Robinson kind of way) (The Mail)

- A topless Hannah Montana (An embarrassed Miley apologizes about provocative photos in Vanity Fair) (Associated Press)

- Hilary Duff heads to '90210' (the Duffster is said to be joining the cast of the new Aaron Spelling-spinoff show) (E! Online)

- Celebrities love OP (the beachy clothing label is enlisting B-listers like Kristin Cavallari, Christina Milian, and Pete Wentz to revive their image)

- Anything boys can do girls can do better (writer of It's Different for Girls believes girls are more competitive than boys) (Teens Today)

- Kurt Cobain + Coco Chanel (Karl Lagerfeld is said to be eying the daughter of king and queen of grunge, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, for future ad campaigns) (United Press International)

- Teens watch ABC Family (Gen Y loves "Greek" and "Kyle XY" because they are "really much more optimistic than the previous two generations") (Multichannel News)

- Bored? Teach yourself html, yoga, and spanish (Barnes & Noble launches a how-to site) (Quamut via New York Times)

- Generación Y provides a look at teen life in Cuba (Just one month after Cubans were granted the right to own computers, a young teen blogs about life) (Generación Y via Associated Press)

Posted by casey

Lauren Conrad joins College Tonight (as their official spokesperson)

- Wired weighs in (on The CW's "Gossip Girl" streaming decision)

- Nick's iCarly (number one in the UK. Plus "Juno" number one DVD - no surprise) (KidScreen) (Reuters)

- Gay teens kissing again (on "As The World Turns" luring teen viewers to CBS daytime) (Media Life Magazine)

- Spike Lee teams with Nokia (to "direct a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers and adults using their mobile phones") (New York Times, reg. required)

- Blyk reaches 100k subscribers (in the UK - Blyk is one of the Ypulse 2008 Mashup keynotes!) (Cellular News)

- Experience Green (new green job/internship initiative for college students/grads...sponsored by Chevy [remember those ugc Chevy Tahoe ads?])

- Unilever rebrands Duran Duran's Rio for Gen Y (it's now sung by a Pussycat Doll to sell Caress) (MediaPost, reg. required)

- Scrapping abstinence only (I say scrap it and replace with comprehensive sex ed emphasizing abstaining) (WebMD)

P.S. I'm bummed that Carly got booted off "Idol." Do you think her husband's tattooed face influenced the voting? Also, I'm interviewed on YourBusinessChannel in a bunch of shows here. I realized I said Soulja Boy was from Memphis -- oops, he's actually from Mississippi.

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Teens copying Kobe (evidently there are teens attempting to copy Kobe Bryant's doctored "jump" over a speeding sports car after the ad became a hit on YouTube) (Media Post, reg. required)

- In spite of recession fears (teens still positive about spending according to the NPD Group [until they ask their parents for cash]. Plus it's time for another youth media blog-a-thon -- the issue is "money." If you're between the ages of 14-26, get blogging!)

- Youth voter registration way up... (in PA. Plus yet another article on Obama's use of social media to reach youth) (Politico)

- Piczo launches gossip channels (another site partnering with Spleak) (Mad.co.uk, subscription required)

- Facebook offers a guide... (to viral marketing on Facebook) (TechCrunch)

- Dilbert 2.0 (cartoon's creator asks readers to submit via the web) (Washington Post, reg. required)

- Banks going mobile (to reach younger users) (AP)

- Japan grapples with cyberbullying ("Japan has over 38,000 unofficial middle and high school Web sites that are not overseen by the schools" where bullying is happening....so these are sites about the schools created by students? Wild.)

- Has "American Idol" jumped the shark? (ratings are down, down, down...) (Idolator)

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There are over 100 virtual worlds for kids... (either live or in development. Wow. Add Moshi Monsters to the list of now live and Cartoon Network's Fusion Fall to the list of "taking its time.") (MediaWeek) (Reuters)

- Call GoFish (GrowFish -- the tween/teen ad network keeps adding new sites)

- Coming in July... (the "High School Musical" reality show) (MediaPost, reg. required)

- MySpace launches 'Beyond the Rave' (with an 18 and up wall sure to entice every teen under 18 [already lying about their age on MySpace] to watch. I haven't watched it yet...feel free to weigh in if you have in the comments)

- MediaPost on The CW's OMFG campaign (and the mags who turned it down. I thought "Gossip Girl." Evidently no matter how big a hit you may be on iTunes, TV ratings still matter)

- TommyTV (Tommy Hilfiger launches a YouTube Channel)

- 'Iron Man' mobile promotions (LG pushing the latest Marvel flick) (AdAge.com, reg. required)

- WeCheer (for all those girls who didn't make the squad. You can still cheer...on the Wii) (WorthPlaying.com)

- Young people beginning to feel the pain (of inflation. Plus another column on "Gen Me" @ work - this time in the New York Times Style section, reg. required) (Quad City Times)

- Marketing the priesthood (the Catholic Church updates its recruiting posters for the internet generation) (Miami Herald)

- Baracking the vote (online. I'm going to try to check out this event [Facebook link] focusing on the youth vote tonight in SF) (Search Engine Watch)

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Note from Anastasia: I'm pretty tired from traveling this week -- still in CT posting this from a bar before heading to the airport to fly home. I'm sure I'm missing stuff today -- if I did, please let me know so I can post it Monday. Have a great weekend Ypulse readers!

Folks rallying to save Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom (plus one mom's perspective on the shutdown)

- Classic 'Mortified' (the "Mortified" gang put up new videos of some classic performances from celebs like Elijah Wood and Busy Philips)

- Responses to death by blogging (Ypulse reader Jaclyn sent over "Gen Y responses" to the recent New York Times tech piece on stressed out bloggers) (The Schiff Report)

- Not the Foo Fighters (but Peta2's new Fur Fighters game - thanks Laura!)

- Pepsi targets Chinese teens (with a new contest/mobile campaign just in time for the Olympics where teens can win a shot at being featured on a Pepsi can) (Media Post, reg. required)

- Design undies (to encourage safer sex in a new contest from ISIS)

- 'Make your plastic fantastic' (new "green" effort from Coke - t-shirts made from recycled bottles.) (BrandWeek)

- Teen girls watching less TV (on TV anyway. Maybe that's why these OMFG promos from "Gossip Girl" seem so desperate) (Media Life Magazine) (Entertainment Weekly)

- White Gold (Pop Candy on the Spinal Tap-like spoof campaign promoting milk on YouTube)

- NPR's Bryant Park on The Webby noms (in the internet TV category)

- Yeah, baby! (Mike Meyers back to host the MTV Movie Awards) (Mediabistro)

P.S. Newsletter readers: Check out the Ypulse Guest Posts from yesterday on tweens "treating" their hair (some great comments on this one) and youth media and marketing's role in educating teens about sex.

Posted by anastasia

Since I have a little time this morning, and several Ypulse Guest Posts to share, I'm going to post a couple today and a couple on Thursday to fill in "the blanks" while I'm traveling. First up is a post from Casey Lewis. I first met Casey when she was a senior in high school and one of two teen bloggers on my first SXSW panel a couple of years ago. She is a longtime blogger and journalism student. When her head seems to be buried in college textbooks, you can probably find an issue of Vogue slipped into the binding.

'The Hills' Are Alive...With Self Esteem?

Smack dab in the middle of a recent episode of MTV's The Hills, a curious commercial flashed on the screen. Instead of a brief 10-second advertisement, however, this was a three-minute reality show-inspired film about... self-esteem. Ironic, considering "Hills" star Heidi Montag's name (and, ahem, body) has made headlines in every celeb tabloid for the past year. Also ironic: there has been an obvious correlation between the show's success and the casts' dress sizes: As the success rises, dress sizes steadily decrease.

Starring Alicia Keys and a handful of unknown actresses, the series follows a petite girl as she struggles through a yoga class, awkwardly twisting her bod into pretzels while the rest of the class expertly flows into downward dogs. Her friends express doubt about her new exercise regimen, and then she eventually confesses to working out only because of her unhappiness about her skinny "12-year-old body" while in-demand models look so fabulously athletic and "curvy." It is certainly an interesting angle on the body esteem issue (accepting one's twiggy figure in a world of curvy, strong women), but it is also rather... inaccurate. When was the last time you heard a thin girl express discontent with her own litheness and feel jealousy over supermodels' incredible "athletic" figures?

Created to promote Dove's new fragrance-driven collection, "Fresh Takes" follows 20-something besties through the tough insecurities that young women face. In addition to typical scripted dialogue, each character has an inner voice that reveals her true feelings about a variety of issues. It's a similar concept to Lauren Conrad's frequent voiceovers on "The Hills," except with emotion.

Because "Hills" viewers are typically girls in their teens and twenties, "Fresh Takes" couldn't possibly be played during a better show, on a better channel, or at a better time. But how effective will it be?

The question is whether the audience will be able to identify with Dove's characters. What will viewers think of the self-consciously skinny girl who looks up to those "curvy and athletic" models? And furthermore, just who are these models and where can we find them? They certainly weren't the mannequins prancing down the Sass & Bide runway, as seen on "The Hills."

Photo of Casey by Magda Sakaan/Missourian.

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