Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've read in a few books and blogs on writing for YA about different ways to research teen lingo. Some say to listen to YA family members, or hang out at fast food joints or malls (or anywhere frequented by teens) and eavesdrop. Read YA books and watch teen movies or TV shows. I think these are great ways to research, but I stumbled upon another way; teen MySpace (browse by age and location, hell you can even narrow the search to orientation, relationship status, Ethnicity or religion). Ok, so they ramble sometimes, and can be a total bore, but there's a goldmine of up-to-date jargon to be found in some of those blogs.

If you know of other ways, I love to hear about them.

BG

Luckily I work in a junior high, so I can "research" as I work. I love these kids and the way they think (a boy told me the other day that he wants to visit Forks because he heard those Twilight characters are real). They are all so different, I think that you can often get away with anything as long as you build a strong character and stay true to her or him. There's the 7th grade boy who still gets excited about Pokemon and then there is the 8th grade boy who's got an old soul and tells me he wants to be an editor when he grows up because books are all he cares about. Etc. Etc.

Online video games and video game forums aren't bad. Though that tends to be 'leetspeak,' a sub-category of teenspeak.