Teen Success

I used to blog for my old company, but they took the blog down. I am
not actually allowed to own the writings I put up on that blog, but as
I reference them on occasion in my writing I am putting those articles
up in my archives here for reference sake. I'll put the tag GS on those
articles noting that they were originally published on the http://schoolfinder.globalscholar.com/blog/

Teen Success

July 24, 2008 – 7:34 am by Brendan

I suppose Ms. Van Patton probably isn’t really a teen anymore. I would also guess that some would argue about her success. (Too many people define success in terms of money and or power) Being the old, bald, curmudgeon that I am though, I choose to say that any person who successfully writes her first book at seventeen is a teen success.

Vanessa could be a course in self-promotion 101. I’m happy to hear she went and finished college first, but since graduating she has obviously been building her business and brand. According to her bio Vanessa went to Marlborough High School, where she wrote her book I would assume. After high school she earned her degree in Mandarin from Emory University, she I’m sure would love hear that KinderCare has immersion courses in Mandarin. Successful at college she returned to her book, and what seems to be her passion.

Today Vanessa has finished college and is working hard to promote her book along with the idea of building better communication between parents and their teen children. To that end she has started a web site, a wiki, and her own consulting business.

I am impressed with her choice in teen writers on her main web site. Finding quality writers is a difficult task. Finding writers who can write to both teens and parents at the same time is almost impossible. Truthfully, I am impressed all around.

Currently, Vanessa is working on her second book about the four types of Millenials she has observed. If you don’t know already Millenials are sometimes called Generation Y. (I can see why they changed their name, I wasn’t really excited about being called a Gen X’er either, but at least it is semi original.) Her categories of Teacups, Toasties, Turtles, and Tyrants are similar to other combinations of categories I have seen or heard of in the past. This isn’t to say that teens are exactly the same as they were in the past. Categories change and modify from generation to generation because teens change from generation to generation, but they also have eerie similarities.

If you have a teen or are a teen I suggest taking a bit of time today and perusing Vanessa’s site. Then maybe buying a copy of her book and letting me know if it is as good as it promises to be. Me I’ll put her book on the list of books I plan to buy, but seriously I’ll probably get it from the local library.