'Sweet Spot' With Mike Sugerman: A Look At What It's Like To Be A Kid These Days
"Sweet Spot," by Mike Sugerman
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Is it tougher to be a kid these days?
It's hard to say. Life probably wasn't as easy as it seemed when Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver was growing up.
Today, life is great -- if you look at social media, but obviously not always.
"Kids don't really talk about it, because everyone likes to present a perfect image of themselves," high school senior Allie Campana says.
But she knows it's far from perfect for everyone at Pascack Hill High School in upscale Bergen County, New Jersey. A student committed suicide last year at its sister school.
There's the usual drugs and alcohol, plus the stress of college and test courses.
"It can be unnatural for people to handle it completely fine, because it really is unlike anything you've been through before," senior Nina Rubenstein says.
Is it different than it was for other generations? It's a hard question to answer.
But this generation of parents seems to understand that and is now starting to do something about it, like with a wellness fair that was recently held at the school.
"We want to send the message to our students that mental health is for everyone," says wellness counselor Erica Franceski.
She oversaw the fair that exposed students to coloring, meditation, therapy dogs and even boxing to relieve stress.
There's the stress of just being a teen and now the stress of being a teen online.
"Students are hiding what their flaws are or maybe what their pain is," Franceski says.
Grown ups here and other places want to make sure their students know there are ways to help.