About
Who Are We?
The Short Version: We are a parenting advice website written by teens and kids!
The Long Version: Vanessa Van Petten writes Radical Parenting with 120 other teen writers. Vanessa wrote her first parenting book from the kid’s perspective when she was 16. She is now an author with Penguin, a CNN columnist (and you might recognize her from her work helping families on The Real Housewives of Orange County!) You can read the rest of Vanessa’s Story here, but she created the Radical Parenting team to give both sides of the parenting equation a voice. We have made it our mission to change families because of the experiences we have had with our own.
Why Give Teens A Voice?
We understand that sharing our stories, insight and advice can help others not suffer or make the same mistakes we did. Our company is all about sharing research on youth and families and most importantly giving youth a voice. We are the only platform for teens and kids to talk to adults about what is truly going on for them and be able to open up to adults who want to help.
Youthologist: Someone who studies, follows, and observes youth trends, activities and issues.
Vanessa calls herself a youthologist because she loves working with and helping youth. Not only does she work with hundreds of youth everyday writing articles, discussing current issues for teens and tweens, but she also connects with parents to share insights into their kids.
We also are the hub for teaching social and emotional literacy to teens and parents. By using research on social and emotional intelligence we teach parents and teens how to better read each other. This is a totally new technique in parenting and youth relationships.
Listen to an Interview with Radical Parenting Teens and Vanessa Van Petten to hear about our mission and some answers to common questions parents have.
We want to end the war between teens and parents. We are all on the same side!
Three rules we live by:
1) There are no ‘perfect parents’, formulas, easy answers or a ‘right’ way to parent. There is a right way for your family. We want to help you find your way. (Of course, there are also no ‘perfect children!’)
2) Live the You-Them-You Perspective. We promise to share our side, our stories and our secrets, to give you a glimpse into our world.
3) Constantly challenge what we think we know. ‘Radical’ means to question the status quo and what isn’t working. This is how we grow as a family and as human beings.
- We love to do this by incorporating the latest scientific research on parenting and families (in easy to understand terms).
[See the rest of our Radical Parenting Principles]
What to Do Next:
To get your free copy of How to Communicate with Teens and Tweens 101, just subscribe for our free newsletter here.
2) Explore:
- The blog: This is where our teen writers answer parent questions, post about trends and explore behavior.
- Videos: Check out our Video section too!
- Books and Programs: We have tons of programs, webinars and books for parents that have been created by our teens to help parents.
3) Interested in Having Us Post About or Review Your Product/Blog/Service?
Whether you are an author, fellow blogger or company, check out how to do that here.
At most, we know our Radical Parenting ideas can be a little too untraditional for every parent to adopt as a family lifestyle. It takes dedication to tackle bad habits and work to walk the untraditional road with your teens. We believe this is the only way to get the ultimate rewards—a truly close and happy family.
It has been risky for us to say, that as teens we want change. We want to have an easy, fun and, dare we say it, close relationship with our parents. If you are willing to take some risks and try something new…make the leap and take The Radical Parenting Pledge. We challenge you to try.
4) Want More Research?
Vanessa also runs a website called The Science of People.org. On this website she shares the latest research on human behavior, relationships and personal development. She gets the most interesting studies from around the world and synthesizes it into bite-sized science, for every day people to use in every day life.
