Platforms like Musical.ly, Instagram, YouTube, YouNow, Periscope, and more allow anyone with a phone and internet access to build an audience, and today’s teens are spending more time on their phones than ever. Ninety-four percent of teens access the internet using their phone daily and 71 percent use more than one social-media platform, according to a 2016 Pew study. The vlogger-to-riches story has become so prevalent in teen culture that, according to a 2014 survey by Variety, YouTube stars are more popular and influential than mainstream celebrities in the eyes of U.S. teens.

Parenting these young internet stars, however, is not easy. As social platforms rise and fall, moms and dads across the country with zero experience in the entertainment industry are seeing their families’ lives transformed.

Parents can go years thinking their son or daughter is just an average teen on YouTube or Instagram until one day a marketing…

Dearest boy,
I am counting down the days
and knitting. I am amazed
at the butterflies of anticipation,
imagining your eyes, mouth and nose,
your tiny fingers and toes,
the fresh-baked smell from the top
of your head. I can’t wait to sing
the songs I once sang to your mother,
and the ones mine once sang to me.
I have so many stories to tell
and poems to read to you until
your eyelashes flutter and I will keep
watch as you drift off to sleep.

Kim M. Russell, 2018

Visiting Grandma by Felix Schlesinger

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar with a Letter

Björn is our barkeeper today and he tells us that one of the poems he read at school was written by Anna-Maria Lenngren (1754-1817) and entitled: Some words of advice to my dear daughter, if I had one. From the title he…

When you write, you want to use the active voice. It’s clean, concise, and simple. The active voice is easy to read and understand.

Subject + Verb

• Susie sang.
• Michael ate.
• Jeffery kicked.

Subject + Verb + Direct Object

• Susie sang songs.
• Michael ate soup.
• Jeffery kicked cans.

These examples are basic, and can be embellished with adjectives, adverbs, modifiers, etc. to dress them up, but the Subject/Verb order should remain the same.

95% of your sentences should be written in the active voice. You want the doer/subject at the beginning of the sentence.

When you use the passive voice in writing, you have to introduce new parts of speech just to make the sentence mean the same as it would in active voice. The result is a wordy sentence that makes you wait to find out who the subject is.

Direct Object + Dead Verb + Participle form of…