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Drug Facts – Know the Facts Because Hollywood Doesn’t

Lolli — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:17:32 +0000

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of National Institute on Drug Abuse for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart. Between school and personal schedules, the normal ups and downs of teenage emotions, and the ever-present culture of peer pressure, especially when it involves teenage drug and alcohol use, parents of teens may be tempted to hide under a rock for the bulk of those teenage years. From one parent of teen to another, I don’t recommend this course of action.

If you are confused about the dangers of various drugs and their short or long-term effects, you can get a very quick, factual breakdown of the most common types of drugs at NIDA’s Drug Facts webpage. This page has a very thorough and exhaustive list of common drugs, what happens when you use them, and the dangers of each drug. There is probably no better resource on the internet for getting a quick, succinct understanding of each drug.

To help spread the word and educate people about the facts and myths of drugs, National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week® (NDAFW) will be held January 22-28, 2018. This is a week-long observance sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), both part of the National Institutes of Health.

Whether you’re a parent of teens or will be someday, you should definitely check a couple of their most important resources: Drugs: Shatter the Myths booklet, What to do if your teen has a problem with drugs,and Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know. These will get you going in the right direction and prompt an in-depth discussion.

Opioids – The Newest Drug Overdose Epidemic

If you watch the news, you have no doubt heard something about the “Opioid Crisis” that is growing in the United States. Opioid use has grown substantially in the last few years.

The question becomes why is opioid use growing so fast?

A few things to know about opioids that may be helpful in understanding this recent opioid crisis include:

1. Prescription opioids are medications that are chemically similar to endorphins.

2. Endorphins are opioids that our body makes naturally to relieve pain.

3. Prescription opioids are similar to the illegal drug heroin.

Opioids are some of the best drugs available for dealing with severe pain, often after surgery. Opioids are also used following sports injuries.

Oxycodone (found in OxyContin, Percodan and Percocet), hydrocodone (found in Vicodin, Lortab, Lorcet) and fentanyl (found in Duragesic) are some of the most widely known opioids. The ease of access to some opioids has contributed greatly to their wide use and abuse.

The NIH identifies 4 common ways that opioids are abused:

Taking someone else’s prescription, even if it is for a legitimate medical purpose like relieving pain.
Taking an opioid medication in a way other than prescribed—for instance, taking more than your prescribed dose or taking it more often, or crushing pills into powder to snort or inject the drug.
Taking the opioid prescription to get high.
Mixing them with alcohol or certain other drugs.

Ready to see how much you know? You may be surprised (I know I was) when I took the National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge. It’s a 12-question quiz about current drugs and their impact on society. You’ll be amazed at how much you learn; I found that the quiz itself was a great way to spur a good conversation with teens. See how you did. This year, I didn’t do so well, but I learned a lot.

NIDA’s focus is to give you the best information to help you teach and support your teens. With all of the glamorization and misinformation about drugs, this is a welcome source of clear and reliable information on drug and alcohol facts. It’s organized in a way that you can even comb through it with your teen and come away very knowledgeable about any drug you want to learn about.

How To Handle Changes in Your Teen

As your kids’ behavior changes, some changes are normal. Other changes may be an indication of deeper problems. If you’re unsure about the changes you see in your kids, you should use the “Family Checkup” resource found on the NIDA website. This page provides parents with research-based skills to help keep their children drug-free. Most importantly, they have a 5-question checkup to help you evaluate yourself and what areas to focus on to keep your teens away from drugs.

What Can You Do If Your Teen Has Problems With Drugs

NIDA’s website had specific resources for those seeking help with drug problems. The information is for teens and adults. You can learn more at

Perhaps The Easiest Way Yet to Talk to Your Teens About Drug Use

CandyMan — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 21:39:55 +0000

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of National Institute on Drug Abuse for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you want a fun and effective way to talk about drugs with your teens, then the road has been paved for you. In just 12 clicks, you can have an engaging, thought-provoking discussion that is more like a trivia game challenge than a sit down discussion.

Have you heard about the “National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge”? No? Well, this is your silver bullet to get started. I took the 12-question quiz with my son, and we had a really good conversation that gave me a great peek into his surroundings. I got a 67 on the quiz. Now, in my own defense, there were 4 questions I missed, but I had most of the information correct on each question, so I still think I passed and did well.

Take the National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge

The National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge is a resource of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is part of NIH (we live right down the road from NIH, so this is a local landmark). NIDA is holding its annual National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week^SM (NDAFW) from January 23-29, 2017. This event connects teens with scientists, so the dialogue and opportunity to ask real questions and get real answers far exceeds any other opportunities that address drug use.

How Can This Help Me and My Teens?

You may think that drugs will not impact your teens if you’re involved with their activities. But, there are two really good reasons to have a talk with your teens about drugs now.

First, even if you teach them good principles, you probably haven’t had a legitimate talk with them about the dangers and current trends.

Second, and equally important, teens are bombarded with false information about drug and alcohol use on TV, in the movies, on the internet and other places. So, your son or daughter may be the only person in their circle who has legitimate information. They may be the only person sitting at the lunch table who can chime in when one kid says something false, misleading and unknowingly dangerous about drug use. Not to mention, they will be that much better off by knowing the facts for themselves.

Talking to your teens about drugs and drug use is almost cliché at this point. But, what have you actually talked about openly?

Do you know how many kids age 12-17 actually used alcohol during the last month? Or, do you know the dangers of e-cigs and what we actually know about them? I don’t smoke, so e-cigs are a bit of a mystery to me, but rest assured, there are lots of myths about e-cigs.

Did you know that many prescription pain killers can cause your heart to beat dangerously faster?

How about this one: Do you know what “bath salts” are and how they are made? I’m not talking about taking a nice soak in a warm tub, I mean drugs that are made with compounds you can buy all over the place. Check out this link for more drug and alcohol facts.

If you’re not sure what you should be doing, here’s the “Family Checkup” which is a suggested checklist of questions to ask yourself. It has a number of good sample videos and ideas for dealing with drug related questions and situations you may find yourself in.

If your teen is using drugs and you need help, click here for videos and solid suggestions. One of the things I like about this link is that it explains why it may be hard for someone to quit using drugs.

NIDA’s website has numerous materials you can use or share with others about drug addiction and abuse. I found them to be very approachable and useful for simple discussions.

The bottom line is that National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week^SM can open doors and provide an easy way to regularly talk with your teen and check in with their friends as well. Try the quiz and see if you can beat my score. No cheating!

Tips To Help Your Teen Start the School Year with Confidence

Lolli — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 18:54:52 +0000

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board and my daughter, Necco, is currently receiving her Invisalign Teen treatment for free. All thoughts are my own.

Check the Invisalign Smile Assessment.

I can’t believe that a new school year will be starting next month….and more importantly, that my daughter, Necco, will be a senior! In just over a week from now, she is scheduled to finish up her Invisalign treatment….just in time for the start of her senior year! It has been quite the journey, and it’s drastic to see the difference in Necco over the last 15 months – not just in her looks, but in her confidence.

Since my kids are older now and each have several first days of school under their belts, the first day of school presents a different challenge. Our back to school prep is more focused on being emotionally prepared versus having a backpack full of new school supplies. The newly revised Unbrace Teen Confidence page and guide are a great resource for tweens, teens, and their parents to get ready for the new school year with confidence.

Here are a few tips from my family to help older kids get ready for the new school year.

Keep the lines of communication open – Set the stage for the new school year with an open line of communication between parent and teen. Talk about feelings and expectations ahead of time and address any concerns instead of letting them fester.

Address social media habits and perceptions – Social media can be a huge factor in teen confidence (or lack of it) since teens are so quick to give and receive judgement based on a social media post. Don’t forget that it’s ok to set guidelines and restrictions and monitor use on your teen’s devices. Bullying is never ok, and it’s important to keep an eye on your teen’s accounts to make sure there is no bullying or destructive behavior being given or received.

Be an example of calm and confidence – I remember when my kids were little, I noticed that my little ones would be on their crabbiest, moodiest behavior when I was feeling the worst (tired, impatient, critical, etc). Guess what? Teens are just the same. They feed off our moods. A calm, confident attitude from mom and dad will help them have a good, positive attitude as they start the school year.

Be prepared – Have clothes and school supplies ready well before the morning of the first day of school. If they’re attending a new school this year, have them check out the school during the summer, if possible. The more they know about what to expect, the easier it is to be confident.

Smile more – Smiling is such a simple exercise, but it makes a world of difference, both for the giver and for the receiver of the smile. As a shy teen myself many moons ago, I didn’t like the idea of talking to people I didn’t know yet, but I was always willing to smile. It takes such a small amount of effort but it goes a long way.

Be the friend you would like to have – I tell my kids that it’s they ever question what they should do or how they should act, that they should simply do what they would like for someone else to do if they were on the other side. Confidence comes when teens know they’re making good choices and helping others.

Check out what these middle school tweens had to say about self confidence, how their smile effects themselves and others, and how social media effects how they feel about themselves and others.

Be sure to check out the newly revised Unbrace Teen Confidence page and new guide for tweens, teens, and parents.

Read my other Invisalign posts to see what our journey has been like…and to see how much Necco’s smile has improved! Be sure to check out the It Starts with a Smile Pinterest board, too!

Questions? Ask away! I’ll be sharing more information in the coming months about Necco’s journey with Invisalign and my time on the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. Please feel free to ask me any questions – here, privately, on Facebook, wherever!

Check the Invisalign Smile Assessment and the Doctor Locator to find an Invisalign provider near you.

What Does The Perfect School Look Like? #RethinkHighSchool

Lolli — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:46:17 +0000

This post is sponsored by XQ: The Super School Project. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m a mother of five teens and tweens (a college sophomore, a high school junior, a high school freshman, plus 7th and 5th graders), and so it’s no surprise that I think about the education system a lot.

When I was young, I went to an extraordinary elementary school. We had a robust program for gifted and talented kids, and I was stretched more than I thought possible – in a good way. Although we live on the other side of the country now, my kids have also had an exceptional early school experience. Their schooling has been completely different than my own early years, but they have been blessed with an amazing school community and a positive learning environment.

I wish I could say the same for their middle and high school years. They’ve had dozens of exceptional teachers over the years, but I’ve noticed that there is something severely lacking in our secondary education system.

Let’s look at it this way. The high school system in the US was established 200 years ago. It was a completely different world back then. The needs of families and students back then look nothing like the needs of families and students today. How can we expect a system that was built to support teens in the 1800s to prepare our kids for life after public school in the 21st Century? The original goal of the public school system in the US was to provide free education to all of our children to prepare them to enter the work force when they were old enough. The problem is that the work force today looks nothing like it did back then, and yet the education model has not changed much at all.

Enter XQ: The Super School Project – a national movement to reimagine high school. As parents and students in today’s school system, we see a gap, and the time is NOW to make some changes.

If you could change the school system – for your own current teens or for your little ones who will be heading to high school in the future – what would you change? It’s hard to decide what we really need when we’ve only known one way.

I consider my youngest son. He is brilliant. He is a good student, but school simply isn’t enough. He comes home from school and he builds and he creates messes and he invents and he watches videos to learn everything from how to camp in sub-zero weather to how to start an aquaponics system.

Check out this short Instagram video of what he made this past weekend.

His kind of “smarts” cannot be contained in a textbook or even in a traditional classroom. I cringe to think that our public school system could, one day, stifle his creativity and his love of learning.

What kind of school environment would help him to thrive?

The perfect school that I imagine for my children is a school would allow them to create, get messy, and learn through doing. Instead of desks lined up in a row, facing a chalkboard, classrooms would have round tables to encourage collaboration and discussion. There would be couches lining the walls to encourage a more comfortable, enjoyable approach to learning. Frankly, the perfect classroom would often not be a classroom at all, but learning would take place wherever the opportunity arose.
The perfect school for my kids would bring in people who were passionate about topics and careers and skills so they could share their knowledge and passion with the students. Instead of learning out of a text book, they would learn by doing, from first-hand experience – even if that meant getting their hands dirty every once in a while. The perfect classroom would be filled with mistake-making and it would be perfectly acceptable. Their “tests” would not be about filling in the right bubble on the answer sheet, but about being able to create, recreate, explain, and show.
The perfect school that I envision for my kids would allow them to try many things so that they could decide what they loved and where their talents were. Instead of focusing on one subject per class period, all learning would be interconnected and integrated. Kids would be able to spend more time delving deeper into their areas of interest, moving ahead in those “subjects” at a faster pace, but without totally ignoring other subjects. I think that learning a little bit about a lot of things is valuable, but learning a lot about a few things is even more powerful.
I envision the perfect school to have a more relaxed environment with a greater sense of community, where everyone – teachers and students alike – were focused on building each other up. Lunches would be shared in a more home-like environment, serving foods that were healthy, not quick and easy. The classroom discussions would continue during the lunch hour, as students and teachers lounged around together, eating and sharing ideas and asking questions.

I feel like my kids are hungry for a better learning environment, and that a change in the way they’re being taught would make a world of difference in how well-prepared they are when they leave home.

What does the perfect school look like to you?

Find out more about XQ: The Super School Project.

XQ: The Super School Project is an open call to reimagine and design the next American high school. In towns and cities far and wide, teams will unite and take on this important work of our time: Rethinking and building schools that deeply prepare our students for the rigorous challenges of college, jobs, and life.

Teen Girls and Calcium (And Why Calcium Is So Important) #BeActiv

Lolli — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 14:00:43 +0000

This is a product-provided, sponsored conversation that contains affiliate links. I received Viactiv products for my own personal use. All opinions, text and experiences are my own.

As a mother of three teenage daughters, I can attest to the fact that there are about a million and one things to worry about. Am I teaching them to be strong women? I’m I preparing them for life on their own? Whether or not they’re getting enough calcium for their growing bodies should not be one of those things moms need to worry about, but the fact is, 86% of teenage girls are not getting enough calcium in their daily diets. (Source: 2010 study published in The Journal of Nutrition)

The scary thing is, 95% of peak bone mass is present by age 20, so it’s critical that teen girls are banking calcium now before they start slowly losing it later in life. Yes, calcium is important at every age, but it is even more important while their bones are still developing. Why is it so important? If your body is not getting enough calcium it will take it from the bones, decreasing bone mineral density which can eventually lead to osteopenia and osteoporosis.

You can see how much calcium is recommended daily by age on this handy chart chart at viactiv.com/why-calcuim

In a recent federal study, it was found that only 15% of high school students drink milk. The number is even lower for girls in high school, with only 9% reporting that they drank milk regularly.

Did you know? The recommended amount of calcium for a girl 9-18 years old is 1300 milligrams (mg). To compare, it is 1000 mg for women 19-50 years of age.

I’ve been fairly lucky, since all of my kids love milk and yogurt and cheese…but I’ve noticed as the kids have gotten older that I don’t have as much control over what they eat. Yes, I cook dinner and I shop for the food that they pack in their school lunches every day. But since I’m no longer hand-feeding them it’s tough to keep track of whether or not they’re getting all of their nutrition needs met. My job has shifted to teaching them good, healthy eating habits and why things like calcium are important in their diet so that they can make the right choices as they continue to grow.

Did you know? Many multivitamins provide only 20-30% of the recommended amount of daily calcium. While a multivitamin is great (and encouraged) it may not be enough.

Another important thing to teach girls is to avoid calcium zappers, such as sodas and salty snacks like pretzels and chips. Even healthy foods like peanut butter, corn, sunflower seeds, and garlic can make it harder for the body to absorb calcium due to their lack of vitamin D.

Did you know? Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium and vitamin K helps aid in the formation of bone proteins. Vitamins D and K, found in VIACTIV® Calcium Soft Chews, work synergistically to increase bone mineral density and modulate bone metabolism while positively affecting calcium balance.

Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews provide teens with almost 80% of their daily value of calcium (500 mg each/1000 mg total), plus vitamins D and K. And because they come in flavors that teens (and their moms…) love – chocolate and caramel – and because they are individually wrapped, they are perfect for adding into a lunch box. And they’re WAY more fun to eat than a big pill you have to swallow (which just means that my girls and I will be more likely to be motivated to take them daily).

Viactiv is part of the three keys to healthy bones:

Obtaining an adequate daily dose of calcium from your diet
Regular bone strengthening exercises (Remember to #BeActiv)
Calcium supplements when diet is not enough

Learn more about teen calcium needs at viactiv.com/teens.

Viactiv is available at major retailers nationwide including CVS, Rite Aid, Target, Walgreens and Walmart, as well as supermarkets nationwide. Save $2 on your next Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews.

Connect With Viactiv

Viactiv Calcium Soft Chews are available in milk chocolate and caramel flavors at major retailers including CVS, Rite Aid, Target, Walgreens and Walmart, as well as supermarkets nationwide. Save $2 on your next in-store purchase with the Viactiv printable coupon.

Learn more about Viactiv at www.Viactiv.com and enter their current prize promotions on Viactiv’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/Viactiv and new Instagram channel https://instagram.com/viactiv/.

This is a product-provided, sponsored conversation on behalf of Viactiv that contains affiliate links. I received Viactiv products for my own personal use. All opinions, text and experiences are my own.

7 Ways to Build a Strong Mother-Daughter Bond With Your Teen #PlaytexSportSquad

Lolli — Thu, 14 May 2015 15:12:43 +0000

I’m sharing how my teenage daughters and I stay active thanks to Playtex® Sport® and a few of the things we do to foster a strong mother-daughter bond as part of a sponsored post for Socialstars #PlaytexSportSquad.

Sometimes it astounds me that I’m the mother of three teenage daughters. What a responsibility! I remember the time that they were all little so clearly – like it was yesterday. And yet, here I am…with one who just finished her first year of college, another one winning awards singing in an all-girls quartet at her high school, and another running for student body office at her middle school.

The days of being a mother to little girls may be long gone, but I wouldn’t trade what I’ve got now as a mother to teens for anything. As much as I have always loved little kids – and as much as teenagers have always scared me – having a house full of teens has been a fun and rewarding adventure.

While I don’t claim to be even close to anyone’s definition of a perfect mom, I know that I’ve done at least a few things right, and I’m proud of the relationships that I’ve developed with my maturing daughters.

How to Build a Strong Mother-Daughter Bond With Your Teen

Here are a few things that we have done to foster a strong mother-daughter bond:

Schedule Mom-Daughter Time

Whether it’s planning to see a movie together in the theater, snuggling up in bed to watch Netflix together, sneaking away for a lunch date, or shopping for groceries together, making sure that we each carve out a little time in our busy schedules to fit in some one-on-one time is critical. It doesn’t matter so much what we do, as long as we make sure that it’s happening regularly.

Learn Something Together

It’s always more fun to discover new talents and hobbies with another person. Why not learn something as a mother-daughter team? Whether it’s taking a class together in the community, learning something together at home from YouTube or a book, or sharing a personal skill with each other, the time you spend learning something together is priceless.

Find a Common Interest

One of the most exciting things about being the mother of teenagers is seeing their “adult” personalities develop. As my girls have gotten older, they have found their own little niche of interests and talents – the things they feel most passionate about. I’ve enjoyed learning about each of my girls’ interests, and I’ve also found a few new passions and interests of my own through them. I will often look into the things they love (whether it’s a new TV show or music that they’re listening to or a new hobby that they’re interested in) and discover that I really like it, too.

Read Books Together

When I asked 2 of my daughters what some of their favorite mother-daughter bonding activities were, my youngest daughter said, “Reading together!” Don’t think that just because your kids are no longer reading picture books that they don’t want to snuggle up under a blanket and share a book with you. My kids love reading out loud and we’ll often switch off reading chapters – one of us will read while the other braids hair. Honestly, the hair-braiding/reading swap is one of my favorite activities ever as a mom.

Find a Physical Activity You Both Enjoy

I’ve spent many hours driving kids to sports practices and sitting through games on the weekends, but I’ve found that carving out time to be active together has been an extremely rewarding experience for me and my girls. Two of the activities we have enjoyed through the years have been long Sunday afternoon walks together (great for having long, deep talks!) and playing Just Dance together on the WiiU (great for loosening up and laughing together).

Text Each Other Regularly

When I was asked recently to share a parenting moment that made me smile, the first thing that came to my mind was testing with my teens. I love the convenience of texts, and I love that my girls will text at any time of the day to tell me news or ask a question. While I wouldn’t trade texting for face-to-face time, I’ve found that making myself accessible via text has opened up a ton of conversations and kept our relationship alive.

Openly Discuss Feminine “Issues”

Speaking of being available for conversations, I have always been of the mindset that there’s never anything that is taboo to talk about between us. If they have a question, a concern, or something they’re excited about, I hope they know that they can always come to me. Since my first daughter started her period about 6 years ago, we’ve had a lot of frank talks – sometimes silly and sometimes serious. Womanhood is something to celebrate. I always want my girls to feel comfortable talking about periods and pads, cramps and moods. It’s all a part of life!

Are You “Fit To Play”?

What is your perfect fit? The “Fit to Play” quiz takes you through a series of questions to determine what your perfect sport fit is. The quiz also suggests a femcare product as your perfect product fit. You can then sign up for free samples within the quiz experience, too. Take the quiz HERE.

Connect with Playtex® Sport®

Website: PlaytexPlayOn.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/playtexsport
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlaytexSportandGentleGlide
G+: https://plus.google.com/104456896289544915621/posts

Teen Confidence And The Social Scene

Lolli — Mon, 11 May 2015 20:41:41 +0000

The tween and teen years can be rough….and at the moment I’m the mother of 3 teens, 1 tween, and another turning 10 next week. I should know. And despite what my own kids might believe right now…I was there myself a *few* years ago and can relate to the struggle to be a confident teen.

So much has changed since I was a teenager. Now it’s all about how many followers you have on Instagram and how many likes you got on your Facebook post and how good you look in the selfie you just posted on twitter. My teenage years had none of that.

I had perms and pegged pants.

As a parent of teens, I’ve had to learn a few new things about what it means to be a teen today. Luckily, do know a thing or two about social media (I’m guessing most parents of teens can’t say they have more experience – and followers – on social media sites than their teens…but I can) and I do know what it’s like to be a teen…even if it has been a while.

I understand the struggle to want to look good, the challenge of discovering the self-confidence needed to navigate the path to adulthood. The smallest stumbling block can feel huge in its impact. And, frankly, something as “small” as the way their smile looks in the mirror makes a big difference in a teen’s confidence.

Unbrace Teen Confidence

Last year, the makers of Invisalign clear aligners polled 3,577 US teenagers ages 13-17 and 2,118 US mothers of teens ages 13-17, plus an oversample of 101 mothers of teens ages 13-17 who wear or have worn Invisalign clear aligners (survey conducted by Kelton, a leading global consumer insights and research firm). The data that they collected was very intriguing:

54% of teens felt their life would be better without social media
40% feel their appearance is being judged more closely on social media than in person
90% of teens feel judged by their peers; 94% of teens believe looks affect popularity
57% of teens think that crooked teeth are embarrassing vs. 23% of Moms. But while 41% of teens feel wearing traditional braces is embarrassing, only 18% of moms agree
92% of Teens say that wearing metal braces would keep them from fitting in with their peers

The Invisalign Mom Advisory Board

A few years ago, my oldest daughter had Invisalign to straighten her teeth. So when we started talking about our second daughter’s need for braces, we immediately thought of Invisalign. Just as we were planning on getting her started on treatment, I was asked to be a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. I am thrilled to officially announce that I am joining 4 other fantastic bloggers: Asha from Parent Hacks, Daily from Daily Curlz, Shelby from OC Mom Blog and Staci from 7 On a Shoestring.

I got to meet my fellow 2015 Invisalign Mom Advisory Board members last month in San Jose (yes, we had a blast together!):

My soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter, Necco (a nickname), will be starting her Invisalign treatment shortly, and we couldn’t be more excited. One of the big concerns that Necco had when contemplating orthodontics was the fact that she is frequently on the stage. As a singer in an award-winning barbershop quartet, Necco is concerned with how she looks in front of the crowd. We are thrilled that she has the confidence to get up on the stage and perform with her fellow quartet members, and we didn’t want anything to take away from that.

I can’t wait for her journey to begin – and to see her new and improved smile in a little while. We know how beautiful she is inside and out…and we want everyone else (herself included) to see that, too.

Curious to see if Invisalign is an option for your child? Take the Smile Assessment and check the Doctor Locator to find an Invisalign provider near you.

Remember those survey findings above? One of the most incredible things about Invisalign aligners is that they can straighten teeth without metal brackets and wires that stand out. Here are a few additional findings from the survey that paint a more hopeful picture for those parents out there hoping to help their teens achieve straighter teeth. Yes, it is possible to gain confidence and straighten teeth at the same time.

Teens wearing Invisalign Teen are 68% less likely to be teased than those wearing metal braces
While in treatment, it is two times more likely for teens using Invisalign Teen clear aligners to experience a boost in self-esteem than teens wearing traditional braces
40% of teens think that wearing traditional braces would have or has had a negative impact on their self-confidence, while just 13% say this about Invisalign treatment

Ask away! I’ll be sharing more information in the coming months about Necco’s journey with Invisalign and my time on the Mom Advisory Board. Please feel free to ask me any questions – here, privately, on Facebook, wherever! I can’t wait for the things that I’ve got planned and for our adventure to get underway.

Here’s to confident, beautiful, talented teens!

Connect with Invisalign:

Invisalign Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/invisalign
Invisalign Twitter: https://twitter.com/Invisalign
Invisalign Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Invisalign/
Invisalign Instagram: https://instagram.com/invisalign/
Invisalign YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/invisalign

Invisalign Teen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/invisalignteen
Invisalign Teen Twitter: https://twitter.com/invisalignteen
Invisalign Teen Instagram: https://instagram.com/invisalignteen
Invisalign Teen YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/invisalignteen
Invisalign Teen Tumblr: https://invisalignteen.tumblr.com/