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​There was a period in history when we assume being a teenage girl or a girl on the verge of teenagedom must have meant listening to a Joni Mitchell record while writing in a diary. Now, there's Taylor Swift, blogs, Facebook, texting and the like. It's all so confusing. So two recent studies have tackled how the Internet affects young people. Let's take a look.

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​According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, texting -- beloved, good old American texting -- is starting to be slightly less new and exciting. The average number of texts per day sent and received by Americans only increased a tiny bit this year, though it's still more than 40. (Forty! For real.) It's no surprise that teenagers are still texting their hearts out and old people still don't know how. Some relatively astonishing figures:

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Taylor Momsen, teen smoker.

​There is a new quitting-smoking study coming out in October, and this one focuses on teenagers at the beginning of their illustrious smoking careers. The study shows that a smoking cessation program in combination with exercise is the most successful way to get teenagers to stop smoking entirely, compared with a "brief intervention" (a 15-minute stop-smoking lecture that could only have elicited eye-rolls) and an old-fashioned smoking cessation program. The researchers think they've pinpointed the reason: More >>

​Interpol is investigating the peculiar story of a 17-year-old boy who walked into Berlin's city hall and said he had been living in a forest outside of the city for five years. He told investigators that he lived in the woods with his father who died two weeks before the boy arrived in Berlin. Despite living in a German forest, the Independent reports the boy speaks fluent English and only knows a few German words.

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​A new study has found that only 10 percent of parents believe that their teenagers drink, and only five percent think that their kids smoke weed. For comparison's sake, consider the fact that 52 percent of teenagers say they drink and 28 percent say they smoke weed.

In other words, science has found that teenagers lie to their parents. Revelatory enough in and of itself, but the New York Times ups the ante and asks real live teens about their drinking and drugging behavior in a blog post: "If You Drink or Use Drugs, Do Your Parents Know?"

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via Rookie

​Tavi Gevinson, the teenage fashion blogger and budding media mogul, has launched her new online magazine for adolescent girls. Rookie is here, it has a cool vintage-y design, and the first issue features contributions from big names like Sady Doyle, Dan Savage, Joss Whedon, and Zooey Deschanel. There are a handful of articles so far, from a roundup of different adults recounting their first year of high school to a back-to-school fashion editorial featuring girls who are impossibly chic for high-schoolers. Overall, Rookie looks to be miles ahead (aesthetically and substance-wise) of most media targeted towards teenage girls.

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​Learning to drive can be an embarrassing experience. One or both of your parents is in the car with you clinging to the armrests for dear life, you are being cursed relentlessly by surrounding drivers, and your mistakes are very public. That's why we kind of pity this kid who crashed into the Nevins Street subway station in Brooklyn yesterday. The teenager was driving with his father on Flatbush Avenue when he, according to the New York Post, "lost control, jumped the curb and smashed into the railing and sign."

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​In a bit of news that got passed over yesterday because of some adult sexting, New York state is working on a bill that would send teens caught with naked photos to an "educational reform program" instead of it being a criminal offense. Proposed by the Democrats, the "Cyber Crime Youth Rescue Act" is meant to be more lenient, so sexting kids don't have to be charged with possessing or spreading child pornography and register as sex offenders just for exploring their bodies together with technology; New Jersey has already made similar steps.

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​Lately, it seems as if everything has to be turned into a diagnosis and a treatment. Trouble sleeping? You probably have restless leg syndrome. Bored at work? You probably have ADHD. Check your Facebook a bit too often? You probably have an internet addiction. And while we won't deny a mild case of internet dependency, it seems a mite overboard that a study conducted on more than 3,500 Connecticut high schoolers found that "problematic internet use" could lead to future issues with drugs and aggression.

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Nicole and Jackson.

​A high school couple are sought by police in Florida after having disappeared two days after their senior prom. Jackson Powell, 18, and Nicole Dones, 17, are believed to have run away together due to their families' disapproval of their precociously serious relationship. They've been missing since April 18. More >>