There's nothing that will tell you as much about your teenager as the things they screen capture on their phone (and, uh, perhaps a little bit about us too). This blog focuses on my daughter and what is important to her at this time.
First and foremost there are a lot of pictures/screen captures about weight and weight issues:
How she feels about dieting and the SLOW results:
How she feels about her own body:
How she feels about her ability to change that (I would add most of the time here):
Let me show you where she's coming from. This is Kenzie last New Year's Eve with her friends:
This is Kenzie this past New Year's Eve:
She's come a long way and it's taken a lot of patience and persistance.
From her pictures and screen captures you can tell she's had a recent obsession with the Harry Potter books.
Funny side note on this, she swore she would never read the Harry Potter books when she was younger. They were "beneath her". Well, all it took was a little encouragement from a boy she liked and she read them...and fell in love with them. The boy crush didn't fare as well.
You can see her different moods with her pictures and screen captures...some good, some not so good.
Here's one that shows how much inner turmoil she has with homework and school:
And here's another showing how happy she is when it's the weekend:
This one shows that sometimes when she's feeling good...life steps in
A different screen capture that shows, to me, that she's not always okay and perhaps, at times, okay and not okay can look the same.
Yet, I know she searches for methods to cope when she is not okay.
Let me add some advise here from what I've learned. If your kids have a problem, and you haven't talked to them about it, they will search other places for advice. I like these coping methods she found here but would have preferred if she asked me my coping methods. Perhaps that is something I need to talk with her more about.
A meme that she screen captured that shows she has a conscience:
This tells of how she feels if anyone ever touches her without permission
And perhaps may also explain some of her inner-most feelings about getting burned if you get too close to her.
Her loves:
The stars of teen-wolf. She thinks they are Beautiful!!!
Her play [Title of Show]. She loved every second of it. She loved the group. She loved the singing
Snow! She loves snow and snow days!
Music and drawing on things. Uh, I'm wondering what she drew on here....and if it's in my house.
Sunsets, the mountains, water...and being outside in general.
Feeling accepted (Boy in the middle is boy she likes and who likes her. Don't judge him too harshly here...he's wearing pantaloons because they just finished Beauty and the Beast that night).
Her pictures show me what she thinks is funny:
Here, maybe the cats are funny. Maybe the arrogance is funny. Maybe that people can barely stand the arrogant ruler is funny. Don't know what she finds so funny here but she tells me this is her favorite meme.
Self-confidence and pretending you are cool is funny to her.
The hypocrisy of others is funny to her:
A comic showing she has her dad's sense of humor more than mine. (Yes, it's scary!)
Also, obviously from my comment above, McKenzie thinks her dad is funny. (Please know that Brad strongly believes in reverse psychology when reading this text between father and daughter...it is a classic Brad and Kenzie moment so I just couldn't resist sharing).
Finally, her phone tells me what a good friend her best friend is to her...Anna. So glad she has her.
Here's a link to a video that shows how much fun they have together.
Here's something that shows how Anna buoys her up:
Footprints in the snow that she and Anna made together:
And a text that shows just how much they both understand each other:
