Frequently asked, honestly answered.

It's a calm, research-based guide for American parents of teens aged 8 to 18 — built around three things: a library of 200+ plain-English explainers on the trends, apps, and slang your teen is actually encountering; a weekly 10-minute reading on teen mental health and development; and word-for-word conversation scripts you can borrow when the hard talks come up. No panic, no outrage, no ads. Read more about us.

Parents and caregivers of American teens 8 to 18. Most of our readers are moms reading on their phone in spare moments, often after a long day. We're not a clinical service and we're not a curriculum — we're the friend with the latest research who tells you the truth in plain English.

Common Sense Media reviews apps and movies. Wait Until 8th organizes families around delayed smartphone access. We sit in a different lane: we assume your teen already has a phone, already saw the thing, already heard the word, and we help you respond well. Our depth is on context — what each trend actually is, where the research points, exactly what works when you talk to your teen about it.

No. My Teen's World is educational and is not medical, psychological, or psychiatric advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We translate research into plain language for parents; we don't replace clinicians. If your teen may be in danger or in crisis, please reach out to a licensed professional or call 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

Built by parents and researchers — see the full team on our About page. We're independent (not owned by a media company, not VC-funded), so we answer to readers, not advertisers.

Every section (Trends, Dialogues, Science, Case Studies) supports a short personalization step. Tell us your teen's age, what's on your mind, and a bit of family context, and the library re-sorts to surface the most relevant items first. Personalize now — it takes about three minutes.

No. Every page is browsable without signing up. The questionnaire just makes the sort smarter and unlocks personalized recommendations. You can skip it and explore — we won't gate the basics.

Members can — your full profile keeps your reading history and a personalized library you can return to. For non-members, bookmarking the URL works fine; everything is at a stable, indexed permalink.

Trends covers what teens are doing online (200+ entries). Dialogues gives you word-for-word scripts for hard conversations, in both the version that backfires and the version that works (200 scenarios). Science explains adolescent development in plain language (50 concepts, each with a chart). Case Studies shows real situations where the right intervention helped, source-linked. The Friday Reading is the weekly synthesis pulling it together for your family.

Two good starting points: the welcome Reading (free, ~10 min) for the big-picture frame, or the trends library if there's a specific thing — an app, a word, a worry — that brought you here today.

A weekly, ten-minute synthesis on what's happening in teen mental health, screens, and the parent-teen relationship — written calmly, grounded in real research, and personalized to your family's specifics. Lands in your inbox Friday morning. Members get a customized version based on the questionnaire; everyone gets the welcome reading free.

Most are 8 to 12 minutes to read. We deliberately keep them short because we know you're reading on a phone between things. If a topic needs more space, we link out to the relevant trend or science entry rather than padding the email.

We picked Friday morning because that's when most parents have the smallest gap of time to themselves before the weekend. We're not currently sending other days, but you can read at any time — past readings live in your member archive.

If you've completed the questionnaire (age range, what's on your mind, family context), the Friday Reading is matched to those answers — the topics, examples, and suggested conversations are picked for the kid you actually have, not a generic teen. We don't share your answers with anyone.

Members get the full archive. The free welcome reading is always public. The Friday-Reading archive is part of the Pro tier.

Pro is $11.99 per month — everything unlocked, with one careful Reading delivered each month. Max is $99 per year — everything in Pro, plus a deeply customized Reading every week, and a saving of about $44 a year vs paying monthly. There's also a free Plain tier with no card required.

Free (no signup): the welcome reading, the first 10 trends, the first 10 dialogues, the first 10 science concepts, the first 10 case studies. Signed up (still free): 20 of each. Pro ($11.99/mo): all 200 trends, all 200 dialogues, all 50 science concepts, all 50 case studies, a customized Reading once a month, the full archive, and family-aware sorting throughout. Max ($99/yr): everything in Pro, plus a customized Reading every week. See the full comparison.

Open your profile and click "Manage billing." That opens Stripe's customer portal where you can cancel in one click. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep access until then.

If something has gone wrong — a charge you didn't authorize, a Friday Reading that didn't arrive — yes, email [email protected] and we'll work it out. We don't make people fight for refunds; the relationship matters more than the transaction.

Not yet — gift memberships are on the roadmap but not built. For now, the closest thing is paying for a year on the other parent's account directly. Email us if you want to do this and we'll help you set it up cleanly.

No, not ever. We never sell, rent, or share your email or your questionnaire answers with any third party. Our business model is reader-supported — we want your membership renewal, not your data. Full privacy policy.

It's stored in our database, used only to personalize what you see on the site and what we write in your Friday Reading. We don't share it with marketers, analytics partners, or anyone. We don't ask for your child's name, school, or location — only age range, gender, and context that helps us tailor the reading.

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is privacy-first by design — no cookies, no cross-site tracking, no individual user profiles. We see page-view counts, not your reading habits. We don't run Google Analytics or any ad-tracking pixels.

Yes. Email [email protected] and we'll delete your account, your questionnaire answers, and your email from our list within 7 days. California and other privacy-law residents can also request your data at any time.

None. My Teen's World takes no advertising and uses no affiliate links — what we recommend is what we'd recommend if no one were paying us, because no one is. Our business model is your membership; that's the only incentive we want.

Trends and case studies cite real, verified sources — federal agencies (NCMEC, FBI, CDC), peer-reviewed journals, major news outlets (NYT, WaPo, Atlantic), and named research organizations. We don't invent URLs and we don't link to misinformation sites. Every case study page has a 'Read it for yourself' source list at the bottom.

Continuously. We add new trends as they emerge and revise existing entries when the research or platform behavior shifts. The trends library was at 150 entries in May 2026; it crossed 200 by early June. Each major content change is committed and dated.

Real. Every case study links to verified outside sources — federal agencies, major news outlets, peer-reviewed journals, and named foundations — listed at the bottom of each page so you can read the original yourself. We never invent a source URL. If we ever publish a composite case for illustration, we label it that way clearly at the top.

Please tell us. Email [email protected] with the page URL and what you'd change or correct. We do real revisions — most weeks we get at least one note that improves an entry. Parenting is too important for us to be precious about being right.

Three inputs: (1) what readers are asking about — questionnaires and contact-form notes drive a lot of new topic selection; (2) what's measurably rising in research literature, federal advisories, and pediatric journals; (3) what's missing from the existing parenting-internet conversation. We deliberately cover the harder, less-discussed stuff because that's where parents most need help.

First, check your spam folder — Gmail occasionally routes a first email from a new sender there. Second, confirm the email address you signed up with (sometimes a typo lands the email at a stranger's inbox). If neither works, email [email protected] and we'll resend manually.

Go to Sign In and click "Forgot password?" — you'll get a reset link by email. The link works for one hour. If it expires before you click, request a new one.

Yes — the site is built mobile-first because that's how most parents read us. Every page reflows for small screens, the type is sized for comfortable phone reading, and there's no app to download.

Sign-in cookies last about 30 days. If you're getting signed out faster than that, your browser may be clearing cookies on close, or you might be using a private/incognito tab. Switch to a regular browser window and your sign-in should stick.

Email [email protected]. A real person (usually within a day or two) replies. We don't use chatbots and we don't bury support behind a help-center maze.