What advice would you give your younger self?
These teens’ answers may surprise you.
During the week leading up to New Year’s 2020, I decided to send out my first ever Instagram survey. The idea came to me late one morning as I lay in a hazy fog, the kind that happens right before you fully wake up from a decent night’s rest. I was looking for a way to reach teen girls, to pose questions to them, to know what they thought about life, their lives and the future in general. Then it hit me to just ask — via a survey. Teens love taking surveys, right? Yes. But I also knew that teens don’t have the attention span for a longer than short survey :-).
So, the Instagram inquiry I sent out included only two questions: 1. What advice would you give your younger self? And 2. What would you tell your older self?
I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I would get, but by the end of the week I had over 1,000 takers. Feedback came from every state in the country (except West Virginia). Comments ranged from boys to body image. The bulk of responses were submitted by 15 and 16-year-olds, although I also received input from 13, 14 and 17-year-olds. This was all very exciting and right off the bat it told me several things:
- Teens do like taking surveys (duh);
- Teen girls actually want to be asked about what…