Contemporary Relevance

      A teen issue that is explored in my novel “Gravity Brings Me Down” is Teen Stress. The main character Sioux Smith is going through Grade Eleven in high school. Sioux doesn't like high school because of all the work and the people. She is a grade A student and hangs out with the people in black (PIB). She has a very pessimistic view on high school and life, she is constantly thinking about suicide and different ways to die.
      She has a lot of stress because she has to do like a major project on Cultural Paradigms, has to deal with a crazy teacher who has naked pictures of girls in his house, take care of Mabel an old lady who is losing her memory due to a stroke. She also has to put up with guy named Biff who is a jock and keeps harassing Sioux. She fells so stressed out, so she is constantly smoking.

      I think the teen years of a person's life is the most stressful part because they have to deal with school and all the work they get and trying to choose the right path for university/college. They have to deal with what clothing to wear, peer pressured into trying alcohol, drugs, sex, fitting in groups, family problems, changes in their body, etc.

      There is a real life story that came up on the news about a boy who had killed himself because he was under too much pressure at school. He used to stay up late at night working on projects and assignments. At school he was also trying to fit in, but he was hanging out with the wrong people and doing drugs and started smoking to deal with the stress. He had done drugs like marijuana and cocaine just to deal with the stress. His parents were also divorced which made things worse, since he didn't have a stable house and couldn't ask both his parents for help because they were too busy fighting. One day he was just tired of all the stress and he had hanged himself. He was sixteen when he had committed suicide. This had taken place last year in U.S.

      The story about teen stress relates to my book because they both the boy and Sioux were going through high school and were trying to complete assignments on the last minute. Secondly, both of them started to smoke to cope with the stress and to feel relaxed. Finally, they both are sixteen and both have thought about suicide, except the boy killed himself, Sioux just thinks of it as a way to be released from all this stress and her boring life.

      There are many teens across the world who have to deal with these problems through their teenage life and if they need information or advice they can go to the following sites or call the following numbers:

Kid's Help Phone- 1-800-668-68686
http://www.lifespan.org/services/childhealth/parenting/teen-stress.htm
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/emotions/stress.html