Strange Teenage Facts!

1. 75 percent of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered eating. This compares to 25 percent of girls with high self-esteem.
2. About 20 percent of teens will experience depression before they reach adulthood.
3.  The top wish among all teen girls is for their parents to communicate better with them!
4.  38 percent of boys in middle school and high school reported using protein supplements and nearly 6 percent admitted to experimenting with steroids.
5. 7 in 10 girls believe that they are not good enough or don’t measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationships with friends and family members.
6.  More teens die from prescription drugs than heroin/cocaine combined.
7.  Young people who drink alcohol are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than teens who never drink.
8. About 64 percent of teens surveyed who have abused pain relievers say they got them from friends or relatives.
9. Around 28 percent of teens know a friend or classmate who has used ecstasy, with 17 percent knowing more than one user.
10. By the 8th grade, 29.5 percent of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 15.5 percent have smoked cigarettes, and 15 percent have used marijuana.
11. Teens whose parents talk to them regularly about the dangers of drugs are 42 percent less likely to use drugs than those whose parents don't. However, only a quarter of teens report having these conversations.
12. More than half of all teenagers aged 15-19 has engaged in oral sex. 55 percent of boys and 54 percent of girls have given or received oral sex, while 49 percent of boys and 53 percent of girls have had intercourse.
13. About one in five ninth graders report having oral sex and almost one third said they intend to try it during the next six months, a small study of teens at two California schools report.  
14. On average, young people have sex for the first time at about age 17.
15. Approximately 1 million teenagers every year become pregnant. Up to 95 % of those pregnancies were unplanned and unwanted.
16. Teenage pregnancy rates are directly related to the income and education level of the teenager's family. Almost half of the girls living in poverty will become pregnant before becoming an adult.
17. For every sexually active teenager, one in four will get an STD within one year. 
18.  European teens are more likely than U.S. teens to use contraceptives generally and to use the most effective methods; they therefore have substantially lower pregnancy rates.
19. About half of all new STDs in 2000 occurred among youth ages 15 to 24.