Imagine this: you're at the dinner table when your children start to tell you about their new teachers. Mr. Smith is a laidback web surfer who prefers reading email over grading papers; he leaves the teaching up to the student TA. Mrs. Farn (tries to) rule the classroom with an...

This blog post was submitted as an entry in the Teen Impact contest and awarded as a finalist.

It all started on a stage in Long Beach, Calif. in February 2010 with a few words and a thought: The world needs "childish" thinking. At my widely watched...

While waiting for my mom to get out of the fitting room at Target, I started looking at clothes. Seeing nothing that looked like it would fit me (unsurprisingly, since I was standing in the middle of the women's section) I started walking toward Juniors. (Juniors is generally inclusive of...

A sweltering parking garage filled with wand-wielding Harry Potter enthusiasts (all waiting in line for the midnight premiere of HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) may not seem like the most obvious place to quiz one's sister's friends about current events, but it was still an hour until the...

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, gave a TED Talk a while back, which I watched; I was impressed with her poise and interesting opinions. Her talk helped answer a very important question: why we have too few women leaders.

I would...

Apathy is defined as "lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern." I worry a lot about apathy toward, or superficial interest in, world affairs -- even among the most seemingly charitably minded people. Lots of people drive a Prius, dutifully donate the occasional hundred dollars to various respectable charities, and bring...

The other day my family went looking for prom dresses for my sister. The first place we stopped was an expensive boutique with thousands of dresses. As I was about to step inside, Adrianna remarked casually, "This place is really crowded with dresses."

"What do you mean?" I...

My mom once asked me about the first steps I would hypothetically take to make a "better school." I don't claim to be an education expert, but I do have personal opinions about the ideal school -- one I'd like to go to. Among many other things, I said that...