Whitney Ballen, 18, has a variety of artistic talents, ranging from painting to making books to writing and performing original songs.

In Des Moines, Iowa, music venues are not allowed to hold all-ages music events after 9 p.m. That has not sat well with under-21 activists who have been working with city officials in hopes of changing the code to make music venues more available to the city’s youth.

Fans of the book “The Giver” will find much to like about IRT’s production of the same name. Because the play focuses less on the lead character, Jonas, as the newly appointed receiver of memories, it manages to maintain a faster pace and keep the audience’s interest, even for those unfamiliar with the book.

Almost every hour of the day, people can be seen in tanning salons. And every hour of the day, one American dies from melanoma.

Mimi Madrid, 21, first became involved with COLOR, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, in high school. Fast forward a few years, and she is the Youth and Reproductive Justice Programs Coordinator for the organization, founded in 2000 in Denver.

The health of young people is always a cause for concern, whether it be childhood obesity, tobacco and alcohol use, teen pregnancy or serious automobile accidents.

Students from Ina Bendich’s class at EXCEL High School in Oakland had little idea how much they would be impacted when their teacher handed them a list of pollution laws and took them for a walk down the street from their school.

Young people have a unique relationship with the environment: They are often the first affected when something goes wrong, yet the least represented when decisions are made.

Teenagers’ abuse of drugs is nothing new. Since the drug epidemic in the ’60s, countless students – from cheerleaders to goths – have been known to experiment with some sort of illegal drug.

Ask a group of kindergartners what they want to be when they grow up, and many will talk about becoming singers, actors, actresses or basketball players.