Teens can be influenced by many factors, the most common one being peer influence. Most teens grow up feeling insecure about themselves and try to fit in, this causing them to act a certain way that they aren’t used to. “I was trying to make friends… i didn’t realize it at the time, but it was an initiation into the crew” (Akinsanya). Segun Akinsanya had lost his mother at a young age, eight years old, due to a car accident because of the weather condition leading to killing her instantly. He had moved to a different location with his father and sister and he went to a park to go look for friends. Little did he know this group of friends was a gang and he ended up being part of it. Because of the terrible loss at a young age, he started to …show more content…
Sarah Dessen is an author who has written lots of novels based on her life and on what teens go through. In one of her novels, Keeping the Moon, Nicole Sparks, the main character, gets help from her mom to lose forty-five pounds and still is rejected by her peers because of her appearance so she ends up dying her hair to see if it will help her make new friends. Whether it be a girl or boy, those who think that getting “thinner” will help them make friends can end up having an eating disorder and sometimes it can lead to having anorexia. Teens always figure out a way to fit in, and if they don’t, then that’s when they think they’re just not “good enough”. “Youth struggling with depression are more likely to engage in risky behaviors … acting violently, sex, hurting themselves and ultimately, suicide”(Everett). Everyone goes through depression at some point, Everett writes about Josh Devou, who thought depression was when one was sad all the time, but he figured out that being depressed was feeling alone, isolated , and even scared. “One in four teens will experience symptoms of depression, says Dr. Sibel