Teen Reporter Handbook

Since 1996, the Teenage Diaries series has been providing tape recorders to young people around the country so they can report on their lives for National Public Radio. The teen diarists conduct interviews, keep an audio journal and record the sounds of daily life—usually recording more than 30 hours of raw tape over the course of a year. Each diarist has final authority over what ends up in the story. All of the material is then edited into the 15-30 minute documentaries that air on NPR’s All Things Considered.

“Whoever said Children should be seen, not heard, got it backward…The result is an engaging and nuanced portrait of adolescence.”

—Newsweek review of Teenage Diaries

Teenage Diaries is funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For their inspiration and help on this Teen Reporter Handbook,
thanks to: Jay Allison, Ira Glass, David Isay, Wendy Dorr, Ben Shapiro, Erlin Ibreck, Andrew Martin, Nancy Novick, Phyllis Richman, Sue Johnson, Marianne McCune, Rick Madden, John Hockenberry, Lynda Barry, Ellin O’Leary, Catherine Stifter, Robin White, Deborah George, Ellen Weiss, Susan Stamberg, and all the teen diarists I’ve worked with, especially Josh Cutler.