Note from Anastasia: Monica was also a part of the Youth Talks podcast team and will be occasionally posting her thoughts on Ypulse beginning with her unhappiness at the current creative state of Lonelygirl15. From Monica's bio:

Monica is a sophomore in high school, turning 16 in March. Her hobbies include editing, filming, listening to music, and hanging out with friends. She likes to create Beatles music videos featuring herself acting out the lyrics in the song, and political anti-Bush music videos. She is a huge Beatles Fan, and mainly listens to 60’s and 70’s hippie rock music, but she also sometimes listens to present day singers like Regina Spektor.

Even though you might not hear much about her in the news these days, Lonelygirl15 is still the "Most Subscribed (Of all time)" on YouTube. I first found lonelygirl15 (a.k.a, LG15), last summer when I began to surf the net for the first time. I went to the "Most Viewed (Today)" section on YouTube and I saw one of her videos was #1. It seemed really interesting. Her name was Bree, she was homeschooled, practiced some weird religion, had overprotective parents, yet somehow she was allowed to have her friend who was a boy come over to her house and stay in her room with the door closed for hours.

The videos really became interesting and addictive when the world discovered she was a fake. I remember watching the news, and the YouTube posts "LG15 FAKE!" A lot of people were mad, others didn’t care. I kept on watching because I was curious to see if the blogs would stop, or keep on going. To my surprise, the LG15 blogs had exciting endings that kept you wondering what was going to happen. Even though I knew she was fake, I wanted to know what would happen to her. As LG15 began to get more and more publicity, they became more popular, "bigger than Jesus” as one commenter posted.

The LG15 people decided to move to www.lonelygirl15.com, where there is a “LGpedia” — it’s like Wikipedia, but it’s all about LG15 blogs, characters, and recaps of what happened in each blog. Somehow, as time went on her videos seem stupid to me now. I just watched some of her latest posts, and they’re really boring, not only are they boring but they’re long, some are as long as four minutes! A four-minute blog about how one character feels about the other…and that’s it! All talk and no action!! What happened to the adventurous endings that kept you longing and constantly refreshing the page over and over for a new blog? It seems that the directors of LG15 have run out ideas…

Update from Anastasia: The L.A. Times, reg. required, is reporting there will be an "edgier" Lonelygirl spinoff on Bebo - "Lonelygirl15 Presents…KateModern," is the story of a LonelyGirl-esque 19-year-old British college student, her friends, and the mysterious dark forces that permeate their life (the same forces featured prominently in recent LonelyGirl episodes).

Note from Anastasia: While I've had to put the Youth Talks podcast on hiatus for now in order to focus on making Ypulse a viable business, luckily a couple of the teens from the podcast have decided to write periodic posts to Ypulse. This first post is from Kate. From her Youth Talks bio:

"Kate is a lover of film, literature, swimming, cartoons, humor, long walks, bears, and donkeys. She likes to write, make cartoons, and has developed a passion for video. Other times she just likes to be with her family and friends, swim, read, or sleep."

You will see more posts from Kate over the next couple of months. If you want to make her day, leave her a comment!

Kate wrote this post in response to the recent New York Times story (it's in their paid archive now) on "Amazing Girls":

"Be yourself" is a piece advice that has come out of the mouths of parents, teachers, and pop icons for a long time. For high school girls, this is not good enough. According to the New York Times, teen girls can be themselves as long as they're perfect. The Times follows girls who attend a prestigious high school in the very affluent Newton, Massachusetts. These girls are under pressure to push themselves past their limits in order to get into elite colleges and universities. Like the Newton teens, many girls feel the pressure to do it all: AP classes, honors, perfect test scores, sports, being thin and pretty, performing arts, jobs, clubs, and maintaining a healthy social life. They are pressured to do all this as though it's easy.

When I read this article, I felt baffled and depressed, but then it began to make sense to me. I have witnessed high expectations put on girls at my school. The main reason why everyone is stressed out is that more people than ever before are going to college, especially girls. They are pressured to outdo themselves at school so they can get into elite colleges. The college process has become more tedious and selective since colleges are also dealing with the "echo boom" (children of the baby boomers). Parents play a big role in the pressure, but teachers can also have high expectations for some of their top students. I personally know some girls at my school who are pushed by their parents to work hard, usually with the subtext that they want their children to have better opportunities and sometimes they feel that getting into top schools will give them that.

I’m all for women having access to higher education and being successful, but not if they can't have lives of their own. There is insane pressure to be perfect in high school. Adolescence has always been a tough stage of life, but now unrealistic expectations make this worse. Teens should open themselves to challenging classes and extra curricular activities that interest them, but they also need to live, sleep, and have fun. They are at the peak of their curiosity and self-discovery, so why do parents, teachers, and other authority figures put such burdens on them?

It's fall so change must be in the air. After posting on Ypulse for over a year and a half (which is quite frankly an eternity in teen years) my amazing overachieving teen editors, Julia & Katie, have decided to move on. I have been so lucky to have them (and that they FOUND me). Julia & Katie, you will be missed. Here is their goodbye:

"After one and a half years as Ypulse's teen editors, we are saying goodbye. We are focusing on our social ventures promoting literacy and a variety of healthcare issues for children and teens. We love our collaboration with Anastasia and this has been a wonderful learning experience. We have also learned that it is not so easy to find teen-produced Digital Graffiti that are high quality and recently updated. We hope Ypulse readers will continue to find and appreciate teen-produced media. GenY has a clear, creative voice and a social conscience, so please keep reading!"

If any of my teen readers would be interested in filling Julia & Katie's large shoes, email me.

Note from Anastasia: While I was chained to my computer every weekend finishing Totally Wired, Julia & Katie were out changing the world, one book at a time. Here's what they were up to during my hiatus.

Since 2003, we have been involved in service work that is both exciting and constantly evolving with the goal of systemic change as well as giving time, materials, and funds when possible. We have been so fortunate as young social entrepreneurs to have obtained grant support many times. One link on Socialedge.org details two of our projects supported by Ashoka's Youth Venture.

This summer, the Library Resource Grants of Philanthropic Ventures Foundation made it possible for us to bring our global literacy work at Teenlit to East Palo Alto Charter School's 8th grade class by giving us financial support to promote new young adult literature with teaching supplies, bookcases, and coordination for publishing book reviews online at Teenlit. We are bringing them new YA books that we obtain from publishers for free, in exchange for promoting the books with reviews along with our goal of spreading literacy skills. Fortunately, we were then able to receive a postage grant from Bread for the Journey of Santa Clara so that we could continue to send books globally for web-based reviews. Social ventures are on the rise and we are continuing to add layers of interest to our projects with the support of this movement and our own initiative.

Candid Magazine was started this summer by four Austin teens who wanted teens to have a free magazine made just for them. It debuted on August 12 and focuses on both entertainment and education, and the editors hope that it will soon be available to teens in multiple districts. Take a look at the artsy photos that did not make it into this issue of the magazine. They raised the $5,000 required to print 5,000 issues by advertising their garage sale in print and on Craigslist. According to their website, the writers sat in a converted guest room with a system of rotating laptops while looking at a wall of inspiration full of magazine clippings. This idea is just taking flight, but the combination of teen-produced free material for other teens sounds like something that will float. What do you think? Teens definitely aren't going to give up on their "Totally Wired" networks, but they might just be willing to embrace a little print education and entertainment as well.

Smashcast is run by SMASH, the Summer Math and Science Honors Academy. It's a collection of podcasts created by teens in San Francisco and is sponsored by the Level Playing Field Institute, an organization that "promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and workplaces by removing barriers to full participation." The teens creating these podcasts are not the teens you would think of as having a deep interest in science or math. They defy stereotypes. One teen podcaster, Iris Rodriguez, presented this past weekend at Blogher about her involvement in a math and science honors program as a Latino female. Smashcast has podcasts that are updated frequently and range in topics from artificial sweeteners in drinks to the white water rafting trip the SMASH team recently went on. Head on over to Smashcast yourself and listen to what these teen are talking about.

Produced Museum of Modern Art in New York, Red Studio is a site just for teens. It features interviews done by teens with prominent artists such as Ralph Eggleston, who won an Academy Award for his work at Pixar. Teens who visit the site can "remix" their own virtual collages using various art techniques. The Talk Back section allows teens to answer thought-provoking questions like "what qualifies as art." The site is also running a contest is for teens to develop the next Mickey Mouse. Red Studio is an innovative outlet for teens where they can experience, discuss and tap into their artistic side.

Note from Anastasia: Welcome back Julia & Katie! For new readers, Julia & Katie are Ypulse teen editors (who also happen to be sisters). You can read their bio on the "About" page (scroll down). They write the Digital Graffiti section of Ypulse, which reviews non-profit media projects that are either produced by teenagers or where teens play an active role in creating the content. If you have a site you want them to review email me and I'll pass it on.

Note from Anastasia: Julia & Katie will be going on hiatus with me beginning next week and will return to posting when I do.

Smart Girl, founded by Isabel Walcott, aims to create a site "just for girls," with content that they're excited about. Isabel's mission in creating the site was "to make something girls want, and to give them a place online where they're in charge." The site has some awesome "mentor journals," interesting reviews, DIY instructions. There are also tons of recent writing submissions, including poetry. The site is well-designed and recently updated, featuring plenty of "real girl" advice, stories and submissions, without all the glossy over-hyped adulthood pushed on young girls by many other "girls" sites and magazines.

Girls for a Change, a non-profit organization that pairs professional mentors with inner city middle and high school girls to create social change projects, recently launched a bloc called InHerCity, based in Silicon Valley and Arizona. This girl-powered blog lists diverse contributing authors and features posts on a huge array of topics like feminist literature, high school girls for a change and respect. One of our favorite sections is the "Girl Blog Entries" (click on the bar to the left of the blog), which features quotations from girls saying what's important to them and how they have changed because of GFC. One 15-year-old said "I feel very powerful because I am able to make changes in my community and make changes in people's lives." This blog seems like another great way to encourage young people to make a difference.

Youth Service California is a wonderful resource for young people in California who want to be involved in serving their communities and helping make change. Articulate young adults on Project 540 speak about the need for after school programs, smaller class sizes, and other concerns. The calendar highlights activities nationwide, including the highly publicized National & Global Youth Service Day. Ours is not a disaffected generation.