Teenagers & Adolescence

As their parents engage in a bitter real-estate dispute, the friendship between two adolescent boys deepens in Ira Sach's new film. Critic David Edelstein calls Little Men "quietly devastating.

Social media and dating apps are putting unprecedented pressures on America's teen girls, author Nancy Jo Sales says. Her new book, American Girls, opens with a story about one 13-year-old who received an Instagram request for "noodz" [nude photos] from a boy she didn't know very well.

Indian director Satyajit Ray first came to prominence in the '50s with the three films known as The Apu Trilogy. John Powers says that even half a century later, the films "still expand our horizons."

New research shows that teenagers' brains aren't fully insulated, so the signals travel slowly when they need to make decisions. Neuroscientists Frances Jensen, who wrote The Teenage Brain, explains.

If the story fell apart after 12 years of filming, it would have been a "real drag," says Patricia Arqette, and a "colossal waste of time," says Ethan Hawke. Instead, it won three Golden Globes.

Two doctors wrote a book that probes the environmental, biological and socioeconomic factors contributing to early puberty. These girls face risks like anxiety and depression, one author says.

John Darnielle's novel, Wolf in White Van, is about a man who survives trauma. The songwriter tells Fresh Air and finding shelter in music and the Incredible Hulk.

In the Teacher Wars, Dan Goldstein chronicles the history of the profession and current topics like tenure. She says the idea that teachers can help fight poverty has existed since the 19th century.

Boyhood is about a boy in Texas whose parents have separated. Filmed over 12 years, audiences watch him grow up — and his worldview evolve. The cumulative power of the movie is tremendous.

After college, director Destin Daniel Cretton took a job at a short-term care facility for at-risk teenagers. His time there became the basis for Short Term 12, a film that took two awards at this year's South by Southwest Festival. (Recommended)

From the writers of 500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now examines the not-so-spectacular markers of teenhood: the awkwardness and anxiety that everyone must endure. Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller are the two lovers at the forefront of this story based on a novel by Tim Tharp.

As the brains behind the hip-hop parody group responsible for digital shorts like "D--- in a Box," Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have produced some of the funniest Saturday Night Live material in recent memory. Here, they talk about comedy, Yo! MTV Raps and adolescence.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg met as adolescents on the Vancouver bar mitzvah circuit -- and soon after began writing the script for what would become the movie Superbad. Their project This Is the End, is a disaster-movie spoof in which the Rapture hits home in Hollywood.

Known for rom-coms, the actor, currently starring in Mud, is taking on more dramatic roles.

In her new book, Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon explores teen bullying, what it is and what it isn't, and how the rise of the Internet and social media make the experience more challenging. "It really can make bullying feel it's 24/7," she says.

Writer-director Stephen Chbosky brings his 1999 young adult novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower to the screen. Critic David Edelstein says the result may be better than the book -- a project that communicates the trials of high school in a way that is both painful and elating.

David Edelstein says the extended cut of Kenneth Lonergan's second film is "as close to a masterpiece as any American film in a decade." Never widely screened, the film, starring Anna Paquin, is out now on DVD. (Recommended)

Kenneth Lonergan's critically acclaimed film Margaret stars Anna Paquin as Lisa, a Manhattan teenager who tries to make sense of a bus accident she may have caused -- on that resulted in a woman's death.

Rachel DeWoskin's novel follows a gutsy 16-year-old girl navigating her way at a new performing arts high school. The book is a distinctive addition to the already packed library of coming-of-age stories.

Allison Pearson follows up her 2002 best-seller, I Don't Know How She Does It, with I Think I Love You, a novel about a teenage girl's obsession with teen star David Cassidy. The book wasn't hard for Pearson to write. When she was growing up, she was madly in love with Cassidy too.