Sasha, Paul, Jessica and James attend the same magnet school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In this three-part series, host John Merrow takes you on an engaging and honest journey inside these young adolescent's lives, who differ in race, gender, and ethnic background.

Part 1: Will the school be "attacked" on Halloween? Do my clothes have the "right" label? Am I pretty enough? This segment explores the fears and pressures adolescents face in today's complex and rapidly changing world– gang violence, the hunger to be cool, boyfriends and girlfriends... told from the heart and in their own words.

Part 2: How do adolescents struggle with the meaning of color and the discovery that race is becoming a defining issues in their lives? In this segment young adolescents talk about a variey of race-related issues, from dating "one's own kind," to being a young black male in a white-dominated society, to being one of the only white girls at a public school.

Part 3: This segment focuses on the home life of five adolescents, in particular, on the adults who are struggling to raise them. They are typical urban Americans and their dilemmas are age-old: how to help their children combat negative peer pressure, how to teach them city safety without making them overly fearful; when to hold on to their young adolescents and when to grant them the freedom they desire.

Documentary  

Adolescence, Family Issues, New York City, Cities, Ethnicity/Race, Geographical Areas, Identity Ethnicity and Sexuality, Life Stages, Materialism, Society and Culture, Values

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