"Being 13"--TIME Takes a Look at the New Adolescents
Albert Mohler
Author, Speaker, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Thursday, August 4, 2005


"What does it mean to be 13, back stage adults, watching on tiptoe, waiting to go onstage?" That question sent TIME Magazine and a team of its reporters into an extended investigation of the lives of America's youngest teenagers--contemporary 13-year-olds. The magazine's report will at times shock, inform, and interest America's parents and all others concerned with the nation's young.

The age of 13 has always held a special and symbolic significance. In many traditions, reaching age 13 represents something like an initiation into the world of adulthood. At the same time, any sane parent recognizes that a 13-year-old boy or girl is more child than adult. What's going on here?

TIME gets right to the heart of the issue. In the magazine's cover story, "Being 13," reporter Nancy Gibbs suggests that the age of 13 is about magic, mystery, sexuality, innocence, and a host of other conflicting experiences. As she explains, the 13th year "is the age of childhood leaning forward and adulthood holding back, when the world gets suddenly closer, the colors more vivid, the rules subject to never-ending argument."

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