"Being 13"--TIME Takes a Look at the New Adolescents
Albert Mohler
Wednesday, August 02, 2006

"What does it mean to be 13, back stage adults, watching on tiptoe, waiting to go onstage?" That question sent TIME Magazine and a team of its reporters into an extended investigation of the lives of America's youngest teenagers--contemporary 13-year-olds. The magazine's report will at times shock, inform, and interest America's parents and all others concerned with the nation's young.

The age of 13 has always held a special and symbolic significance. In many traditions, reaching age 13 represents something like an initiation into the world of adulthood. At the same time, any sane parent recognizes that a 13-year-old boy or girl is more child than adult. What's going on here? the rest