Youre not feeling well . No, im sick. The actors in this video are portraying four teens who have something in common, even though its affecting them in different ways depression. Depression is a medical disorder, and its a mood thats down, down in the dumps, depressed, anxious, tense, nervous for more than two weeks pretty solidly. In front of you, i gave you a fact sheet that tells you a little bit about teen depression for warning signs, things to look for, and well talk about that later on in the week when we prepare your lesson plan. This new Jersey High School has developed a program where students help other students recognize and deal with depression. The Peer Leadership Program is unique to our school in the sense that its a fivecredit course. Its not a club or an activity that the students participate in after school. First, theyre selected by their peers and their teachers. They write an application and participate in a group interview. Its comprised of 18 seniors. They apply when theyre juniors. And, ultimately, they are peer mentors for the eighth graders. Im calling because i cant stop worrying about things that i dont need to worry about. The mentors use this video as a tool. It helps them understand what their younger peers may be going through and how to provide guidance. We brought peer leadership to the eighth grade cause were seeing a lot of incidents of real serious mentalhealth issues and social issues starting much younger. I think that the kids respond to it really well because its coming from a peer someone whos older than them, but not that much older than them. And the seniors are guided by myself as the School Counselor and by two other faculty members, and we teach them how to write lesson plans, what to look for in Mental Health and substance abuse. I chose to be a peer leader because when i took the program back in eighth grade, i really felt connected to what it had to offer and what it taught. If a teen is depressed, i asked miss cobylinski, who should the teen talk to first . I would love for kids to talk to their parents, to have an open dialogue with their parents. But in some cases, parents are a source of the depression or anxiety. But even with understanding parents, kids may feel too ashamed to speak up. I could understand how it would be embarrassing to tell people you have a problem and have to approach someone to get help when you want to fix things yourself. But with things like depression, you cant always help yourself. Yyou know how jake is. He can be chill and really cool. But sometimes, you know, you Say Something to him, and he takes it the complete wrong way. The peer mentors are also taught to help teens who suspect a friend may be suffering from depression. If a teen thinks his friend or her friend is depressed, probably the first thing you should do is talk to that kid. You guys just gonna leave me here . If that doesnt help, the experts say dont give up. Every schools got a guidance counselor, studentassistance counselor, and thats why were here. Theres nothing that we havent heard. Weve heard it all. You wont be seen as silly, no question is stupid, and well try and help you navigate the road to get your friend the help that they need. Its the thirdleading cause of death in teenagers. And so, really, its treatable. Yeah, ive known a few people who have had depression, and theyve gotten help, and it seems that now theyre living normal lives and feeling a lot better about their life in general. If you suffer from depression, remember, there are many people waiting to help you. One place is the Suicide Prevention hotline. They also have a website. If you love amusement rides, stay tuned for Important Information about your safety. Amusementride safety its something we all need to know about. Heres brittany. When im on a roller coaster, normally i, like, let go and put my hands in the air. I highfive my friends and just have fun with it, i guess. Me and my friends like to do tricks. So, like, well take a newspaper and look like were reading. I like to wave my hands and scream. Taking a chance like that is what caused desteni to break her arm. She had reached back to highfive one of her nieces, and then she was bringing it back, the wrist part got caught in the corners of the ride. And accidents like that happen way too often. There are more than 4,400 children treated in hospital Emergency Departments each year in this country for amusementriderelated injuries. Dr. Smith has been studying amusementride safety. He says the big, scary rides are not always where the danger lies. When we talk about amusement rides, we often think immediately of the roller coasters and the large rides. But in this study, weve found that a surprising number of injuries were occurring at local shopping malls, restaurants, and arcades. These rides are regulated by local and state governments and might not get a lot of supervision. Surprisingly, the temporary rides at fairs and carnivals might be safer. Theyre controlled by federal safety rules, which tend to be tougher. But the first rule of safety is follow the rules. If you horse around on an amusement ride, your next ride may not be so amusing. It might be a ride to the hospital. This report is brought to you by big mountain entertainment. I was never the one to be a trend no if you would like a chance at being in the music video for i just wanna be me, go to facebook. Com sixstoriestold and select music video contest from the more tab. The song i just wanna be me is about being yourself. Sing it, show us what makes you unique, and send us in the video, and we can put you in our music video. Youve got until september 1st to enter. All of the submissions will be judged by the band. Good luck. In flag facts this week, the story of a state flag that owes its design to a teen. Our state flags are more than just pieces of fabric. Theyre actually history books if you know how to read them. Brandon tells us more. All our other states coastlines combined, so it would be reasonable to imagine that the state flags blue background represents the oceans surrounding alaska. But, actually, that field of blue represents the magnificent skies above alaska, as well as the states official flower the forgetmenot. The flag was designed by a teen who entered a contest in 1926. It was actually a 13yearold orphan named benny benson who submitted the winning design. It was a territorywide flag contest alaska wasnt even a state yet and they got all sorts of wonderful entries with polar bears and Everything Else youd relate to alaska eskimo images, those sorts of things. But he simply went with the big dipper, which is a part of ursa, the great bear, because he saw strength in the people in alaska. And then he also included the north star because whether it was his foresight, his hope, whatever it might be, he saw that someday, alaska would be, or he hoped it would be, the northernmost of the United States. His hope became a reality in 1959, when alaska became our 49th state. Today, alaska remains our nations largest state, geographically, but our smallest in terms of population. With flag facts, im brandon. Is your radio collecting dust in a corner . Does your mp3 player recycle the same boring songs over and over . Then youll definitely want to listen to this weeks click this. Pandora. Com is an online Radio Station that takes your music to the next level. Think of it as your own personal jukebox. After you register online, all you do is pick a song or artist that you love. Pandora will do the rest. Itll create a playlist just for you including the music you chose along with more of the same genre. And its also available on most mobile devices. You can spice up your music collection and still hear the classics you love all without spending a dime. With click this, im isabel. Coming up, a recipe for a tasty and healthy snack. There are lots of recipes you can cook up without ever turning on a stove. This week, chef johnny prep shows nicole how to make a zesty salsa. So, chef johnny, my hands are washed. Im eager to get started. Whats first . Well, lets get going here. Were gonna make red salsa, which is a very simple salsa that is very traditional in mexican cuisine. Were gonna start with some tomatoes, a jalapeno, a little bit of garlic, were gonna do some cilantro, were gonna do some sea salt, and then im gonna pull out a secret ingredient later. Whats the secret ingredient . The secret ingredient is chicken base. Mmm. A really, really good mexican chef years ago took me aside and said, my secret is i put chicken base in the salsa. Ive done it ever since. It works. So, this looks a little complicated. Is this as hard as it looks . You know what . Its chop, stick it in a Food Processor, push a button, were done. Yeah . All right . All right. And youre gonna help me do that. Youre gonna just slice off a little bit of cilantro. Okay. Okay, cilantros a nice herb. It has a cooling effect, so it kind of counters the jalapeno heat, okay . And were gonna put that in there. Cilantros interesting, because some people its in their dna it actually tastes a little bit soapy. Like 5 of the populations like that. So some people just dont like it, but 95 of people love it, and it just has a really nice, refreshing, cooling effect to counteract the jalapeno. Mmhmm. Now, were gonna use a jalapeno pepper in this. And this is a fairly hot pepper. Now, jalapenos vary in heat. The bigger ones are less hot than the smaller ones. Mmhmm. You know, so you see a really big jalapeno, it might not be that hot at all. But one thing about hot peppers is all their heat is right in here. All these seeds and that white in there, thats where most of the heat is. Most of the heat is not in the meat and the green part. So thats where you should be careful . Yeah, so what i do is, i just take it out. Were just gonna take that out. Because, really, we want the flavor of the pepper, and there will be some heat in the skins, but we dont even need the seeds and the stems. Unless you really like heat. And if you like heat, go ahead and throw it in there, you know . But jalapenos have a really nice flavor. In mexico, they use seranno chilies a lot of times, but theyre a little bit hotter than this. Now, heres a safety issue. Make sure when youre dealing with hot peppers, okay, you get these oils on your hands when you touch this stuff is where the heat is. And you dont want to touch your eyes, your nose any sensitive part of your body, you dont want to touch it once youve played with hot peppers. And then when youre done with hot peppers and were done making this, im gonna go run right over to the sink and im gonna wash my hands. Mmhmm. Because thats a really important thing to know. Mmhmm. All right, so, now, were not really chopping this fine because were putting it in a Food Processor, okay . But we do need to get it chopped up a little bit, or else the Food Processor will just get clogged up, you know . Mmhmm. And i really suggest using a Food Processor. Some people use blenders, but Food Processors have so many safeties on them that you can really its almost impossible to cut your hand inside of a Food Processor cause of all the safeties they have on it, okay . And how about cutting your hand when using a sharp knife . Well, you know, its very important, especially when youre at home dont Start Playing with knives unless your parents have really said its cool to do that, okay . But when youre working with a knife, its important to use good knife safety. Grip the knife firmly right around the stem here like that so its an extension of your hand. Make sure that when you are cutting something, you keep your hand away from the knife. Now, when i cut out, like, this core of this tomato, what i actually like to do is just move the knife in and out and rotate the tomato so im not actually pushing the knife towards my hand. I think thats a much safer approach like that, cause you got to cut out this core cause this core part right here is hard and its not very edible. Mmhmm. And then the other thing about tomatoes is tomatoes have kind of the skin on it thats tough. Mmhmm. And if youre cutting it, sometimes if your knifes not sharp, your knife will slip, and thats how you get cut. Mmhmm. So i always tell people, cut on the meat side. You cut through it much easier that way. And always keep your fingers, when you cut, curled under so that theyre not sticking out. I see a lot of kids sometimes like to stick their fingers out like that. Im like, please, please, please turn your fingers under so that theyre tuck your thumb in behind your fingers like that. So should i be starting cutting the cilantro . Yeah, if you could cut me off just a little swath of that cilantro. You know, one beautiful thing about cooking is, truthfully, the measurements arent that incredible. This is a 4cup Food Processor. And one big tomato is gonna make about a cup of salsa there. So were just gonna make a small batch of salsa right now, okay . So, you really have a newbie in the kitchen here with you. So what should i do . So, you just want to take your knife and grab it and keep your hands away from it and cut right across there and just give me a handful of that stuff. All right. All right . Like heres good . Yeah, just like that. Just pull it right back. Keep your fingers away. There you go. Now just hand that to me. Okay. All right. That was easy. That was pretty easy. Look at you. [ chuckles ] youre already an expert. And thats all the cilantro you need. Thats all the cilantro we need. And notice that i didnt worry about taking it off the stems. You dont want these big thick stems in there. Mmm. I know. I really smell it. Yeah, that smells delicious. Okay. So, now, when you deal with garlic heres a clove of garlic. Okay, an easy way to deal with a clove of garlic is to take it and smash it. Oof so what safety issues do you have to worry about there . Well, the safety issue is, make sure you keep your knife edge away from you when youre doing that, if youre gonna use a big knife. You dont necessarily have to use a knife. You can use a spatula and go like that, okay, which is a little bit safer. But, obviously, you know, chefs have their knives in front of them. So we just use whatever we have at hand. But that way, it makes it really easy to peel, okay . Because you got to get the peel off. This is kind of woody. And just throw it right in there. And then were going to sprinkle some salt in there. Now, you can always add salt. You cant take it out, okay . Start with less than you think you need. Start with less. Were gonna have about 1 2 teaspoon. And, you know, the best way to deal with salt is like this in a bowl between your fingers so that you have the most control over your salt. Mmhmm. Unless you really know your shaker. But sometimes shakers pour, and sometimes they, like, hardly come out. Sometimes they shake. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes they rock and roll a little bit on you, you know . And then i just put in about 1 teaspoon of my secret ingredient that chicken base. And thats it. So what does the chicken base do . It just adds flavor. It adds depth to flavor. I mean, a chicken base is a reduced stock that had onions and carrots and celery and chicken. So theres a lot of complexity. So it just adds complexity to your salsa. It just adds that little bit more flavor to it. It actually makes it taste a little bit like soup, you know . People will start eating it that way. [ chuckles ] okay, so then you got to decide how chunky you like it. [ Food Processor whirring ] some people, and what you want to do, too, is look to see if sometimes that cilantro gets caught on that stem. Mmhmm. So, sometimes, you got to open it up and put it back down there like that a little bit. Dont let the processor do all the work for you. Absolutely. [ Food Processor whirring ] now, if youre gonna put a big piece of garlic in there, you want to process it pretty good, okay . If you want it chunky and you want garlic in there, you should chop the garlic first. Because you dont want big chunks of garlic. Your garlic will kind of [ Food Processor whirring ] thats it. So all we have in there are fruits and vegetables . Thats it. Its completely healthy. You got the lycopene in the tomatoes. You got the herbs in there. I mean, you got the garlic in there. I mean, this is about as healthy a dish as you can have. Wow. Is it time to taste it . It is time to taste it. Wow. That looks beautiful. And its kind of funny, cause when you first put it in a processor, see how its got kind of a lighter color . Thats cause theres air in there. Actually, after about five minutes, it looks redder. Its kind of funny. Is it better with air in it or when its settled . It really doesnt affect the taste too much. So youre gonna be my tasting expert here. Lets see what you think. Ah, lucky me. You can tell me if it needs more salt or not. It might. Mmm. Good . Mmm. Salts okay . All right, you ready to move on to fruit salsa . Mm. Lets do it. All right. Its delicious. Good, good. Good, good. I want another bite. You want a bite . Yeah, im gonna try some, too. What the heck, you know . Im a big salsa fan. I could eat this all night long, you know . You just turned me into a big salsa fan. This and sports thats a good evening. So there you have it johnny prep salsa from chef johnny one of his recipes in his new book. Trust me its delicious. For teen kids news, im nicole. Can i have one more . Absolutely. Go for it. Just ahead, we meet a teen whos making waves in the music industry, beat by beat. Uh just gonna hang out. With gary and todd . Yea. Ive been meaning to ask you, is there any drinking going on in this crowd . No. So if any of your buddies ever pressure you to take a drink, just tell them you promised your dad you wouldnt. Id do anything to keep you safe. Ok. I will. I hope this is working. I promise. I love you too dad. They really do hear you. For tips on what to say visit underagedrinking. Samhsa. Gov its about inner strength. So i push myself. Thats why i serve in the United States coast guard. I train with the best, a team that shares my drive and commitment. We collect intelligence, guard our shores against drug smugglers, and keep our waterways safe. Because our nation expects more. If you expect more, maybe you were born ready. Find out at gocoastguard. Com. The typical teen sends 3,417 texts a month. Thats 114 texts a day, 7 days a week. If youre not already on an unlimitedtext plan, this might be a wakeup call. This teen from North Carolina has a passion for making beats. I try to pump out at least a beat a day, sometimes even two or three if im into it. [ hiphop music playing ] his name is ishmael, but call him ism beatz. Thats the name hes making for himself in the music industry. He started producing hiphop tracks at 15. With his parents encouragement, he took his homemade beats to a competition in atlanta. It was basically like a beat showcase, and it was me and, i think, 25 other producers. And, you know, we were just all up there playing our beats, and mine got some of the big peoples attention. He begins an idea and then starts building it into a signature sound. Whatevers in my head at that time is what i put in the computer. If it comes out as a sound i like, i go with it. This is ism. The music we dance to next year just might be built on one of isms tracks. And despite all the hours he spends at his audio board, ish doesnt let his schoolwork slide. In fact, hes on the honor roll. You can do whatever you want. As long as you put hard work into it, put time into it, you can do it. And thats certainly a message you just cant beat. Thats our show for this week. Thanks for watching teen kids news. Well see you next time. Heres a shoutout to pr newswire for including teen kids news on their big screen in times square, new york city. Announcer brought to you by. For more than 40 years, working to preserve the world we share. Hanna lights, camera. Animals . Its an adventure in the most dangerous jungle of all new york city. And youre invited to go behind the scenes as we go on the road and on the air. [ african tribal music plays ]