The topic I chose to do a research about is happiness in adolescents who are struggling with their sexual preferences. Being in a public high school myself I saw that there were many kids who were homo sexual and had a hard time being accepted in such a harsh world. I personally had a friend who struggled all through high school with accepting himself and being worried about losing his friends or about what others thought about him if he was to be public about his sexual preference. I believe that everybody should have an open mind about homosexuals because they are no different from us and have the same feelings we do. This topic will most likely attract the people who already accept homosexuals but I want the people that don’t accept them as of yet to see how this affects people. How can someone be happy if they are hiding who they really are? They aren’t being true to themselves and to others around them. A lot of adolescents commit suicide and its always on the news about another teenager not wanting to live because they aren’t being accepted by the world. I want to know how they can find happiness knowing all the hate thats going on around them and how do they stand up to what they believe in because not many people can do that.

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/adolescence/identity-formation

This article talks about the ways adolescents feel pressured about telling others who they really are and how it leads to depression, stress, low self esteem, drug abuse, and even having suicidal thoughts. Also how they have identity problems and not having parents who are accepting who should be the first person to have their back in this situation and it also creates conflict with self and being stereotyped in your teenage years is hard because when in that stage of your life you are still finding who you are and having that holding you back even more can be more difficult for yourself as well.