Acts of Friendship

For Ashley, it was like this: She was sitting with a big group in the school lunchroom when she accidentally knocked her drink onto her lap. As word spread that it looked like Ashley had wet herself, the laughter began to mount. Then she noticed her best friend doing something strange.

“She poured water on herself,” Ashley said.

True friendship is hard to find, Ashley says. But she knows it when she sees it. And so do many of you. We asked our readers what it takes to be a good friend. The responses poured in — more than 5,000 of you shared your thoughts on friendship.

For some, the defining moments of friendship were profound, such as the soulmate who helps you through the grief of losing a family member or camps out in your hospital room when you’re sick. For Continue Reading…

Sometimes it may seem like your skin is impossible to manage, especially when you wake up and find a huge zit on your nose or a cold sore at the corner of your mouth. The good news is that there are ways to prevent and treat common skin problems — read on for some tips.

Acne

A pimple starts when the pores in the skin become clogged with a type of oil called sebum, which normally lubricates the skin and hair. Acne is common during puberty when hormones go into overdrive, causing the skin to overproduce sebum. Because many oil-producing glands are on the forehead, nose, and chin, this area — the T-zone — is where a person is most prone to Continue Reading…

Contrary to what you may have heard, acne is not caused by dirty skin, eating chocolate, or drinking lots of soda. Acne is caused by overactive oil glands in the skin and an accumulation of oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria, which leads to inflammation in pores.

Oil glands become stimulated when hormones become active during puberty, which is why people are likely to get acne in their teens. Because the tendency to develop acne is partly genetic, if other people in your family had (or have) acne, you may be more likely to develop it too.

Although there is no surefire way to prevent acne Continue Reading…

A lot of people think that if a girl has sex during her period, she can’t get pregnant. But it is possible for a girl to get pregnant while she is bleeding. This can happen for a couple of reasons:

• Not all vaginal bleeding is the result of a menstrual period. Sometimes a girl will have a small amount of vaginal bleeding at the time of ovulation — the time when she is most fertile. During ovulation, an egg is released from one of the ovaries and travels down a fallopian tube to the uterus. Girls who are ovulating sometimes have some vaginal bleeding that can be mistaken for a period.
• Sometimes ovulation can occur before the bleeding Continue Reading…

It can take up to 3 years from the time a girl starts menstruating for her body to develop a regular cycle. Even then, what’s regular varies from person to person. Girls’ cycles can range from 21 to 45 days.

Changing hormone levels might make your period short one month (such as 2 or 3 days) and more drawn out (such as 7 days) the next. You might skip a few months, get two periods almost right after each other, have a really heavy period, or one so light you almost don’t notice it. (If you’re sexually active and you skip a period, though, you should visit your doctor or a women’s clinic to make sure you’re not pregnant.)

All this irregularity can make planning for your period a real hassle. Try to keep track of when your last period started, and guess that about Continue Reading…