Michael Raskin, age 14

Berkeley, CA

If I could be anybody else in the world, I'd have to be my mom, so I could know how pissed off I make her.

Money's important to me because it gets me stuff, but just having money and being able to say, "Oh I have money so I can go get me some 'ice'" – is just pointless. I'd say my family is upper-middle class... I'd like to start off at the bottom and work my way up. Be able to earn my class.

A year ago today, on 9/11, I was laying in bed watching TV because my TV has a cool alarm-timer that turns on in the morning. It was showing when the TV came on... I was frightened at first, but not for my own safety, but for the safety of the entire country, because I wasn't sure what Bush would do. Would he immediately say, "Hey it's this person, let's go bomb them" – and then find out later that it wasn't them? Or if he wouldn't do anything for a while. Something like 9/11 could happen again; anything could happen. That's pretty much when my views of society and government started to completely change. When that happened it just went – Boom.

Rosie Fisher, age 14

San Francisco, CA

I'm completely atheist. I don't believe in any of it. It seems like it's all a big story to me because someone was bored and decided to entertain people a really long time ago.

And my biggest fear is being the only person left alive on Earth.

Bill Gies-Smith, age 16

Berkeley, CA

Everyone has parents. Mine just happen to not live with me or speak to me often. I haven't seen my mom in a year or something... My dad lives a couple blocks away from me, so I see him often.

I might marry one day, but absolutely I would never breed. I'm getting surgically sterilized as soon as I possibly can... both for genetic and social reasons, I feel I'm most likely gonna turn into someone that would pose more of a threat to society. The way I would raise kids would be a harm to other human life. Based on the way my dad raises kids, that is. If I lived with him, I would probably be in jail right now. I just have views that should not be spread. I'm trying to change...

I've been discriminated against. A group of guys jumped me a couple years ago under the assumption I was racist ... I got beaten up. Because of my sexual orientation – I'm bisexual and tend to dress as such. I've had guns pulled on me. In one instance this guy just said, "Let's go beat up a fag."

The toughest thing about being a teenager is the overpowering ignorance of other people in society. If I could be someone else in the world? No one. I would never give this up. My life has gone too amusingly to trade it for anything.

Jacob Medina, age 15

Berkeley, CA

My mom is a neurotic Filipino woman; my dad a gay Filipino man. They were married for fourteen years and then my dad decided to come out. My mom didn't like that much. So... I go to my dad's house one week, then I switch the next week to my mom's.

I have a little brother who is the smartest, most pure, beautiful kid that I have ever met. He can figure out things that I could never figure out when I was older than him. I think family's important, but not to the extent that you need to sit down with them all the time and freak out about stuff.

I was almost thirteen when I lost my virginity... it was like the scariest shit that's ever happened to me... I think teenage sex is stupid, because it ruins relationships.