Ask Mary Jo celebrates 20 years
I wrote my first Ask Mary Jo column in January 2005. In honor of those 20 years, I’m responding to a few of the questions I’ve received about writing this column.
Q. What do you do when you receive a question from a teen?
Mary Jo’s Response: I always respond with the best answer I can give. Then, if I think the question would be of interest to other teens or families, I ask permission to use it in the column. I only use it if I receive a yes. I then ask if the author wants any details, like age or area, changed – typically, they do not. I try to make the question as anonymous as possible. I then send the teen the response I plan to print, and we go to press with it.
While I answer all the questions I receive, I only use the ones teens are comfortable with me using.
Q. Do you use actual teen questions, or do you make them up?
Mary Jo’s Response: I only use real questions from teens (or parents, grandparents, or trusted adults). I promised I would not create questions when I started writing the column, and I’ve never broken that promise. As a registered nurse and childbirth educator, I’d answered questions from a magazine about birth in the 1990s; I was surprised when I discovered the editors were making the questions correspond to whatever topic they wanted to stress. I didn’t want my column to be fabricated. I wanted it to reflect real teens.
I have thousands of questions in a file and receive at least six to seven weekly. Occasionally I want to teach about a topic, and I have no questions on the topic. In those cases, I’ve asked for a question from an expert in the area. For example, for suicide prevention, I’ve requested a question from a mental health therapist.
Q. How do teens send you questions?
Mary Jo’s Response: It’s interesting – when I started teaching in the 1970s, I gave my students my home phone. In the 1980s, I used a pager. In the 1990s, I had a car phone, and in the 2000s, of course, cellphones became popular. I receive most adult questions or comments via email, but teens typically text. I find even my college students are not fond of email.
Q. I notice you use peer educators to give a youth perspective. How long have you done this?
Mary Jo’s Response: I started training teens to teach with me as peer educators in 1995. A year after I began the column, in 2006, I created the Ask Mary Jo Advisory Board to give young people a chance to share their thoughts. Young people’s voices matter to me. The teens from that first board are adults now and some have children of their own. Every year, a new group of dynamic young people joins me.
Q. Have you missed any columns in 20 years?
Mary Jo’s Response: Only one. I taught in China in 2008 and 2009. During my first China visit, I couldn’t get internet access the first week. I’ve written the column through seven surgeries, three cancers, and chemo.
Q. Are there any topics you avoid?
Mary Jo’s Response: No. My mission is to reach teens. If they ask me a question, I believe they deserve an answer. I keep my responses developmentally appropriate and follow the foundational principle that “less is more,” but I do not shy away from a topic. I focus on empowering teens to own their self-worth. It’s easy for me to hear teens and to respect them. Teens are my favorite people!
Have a question? Send it to Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski’s email podmj@healthyteens.com.