When actor Max Adler grabbed his belt in his hands, I knew Glee was going there. They were going to take teen suicide and put it in prime time. My stomach clenched and my heart sank. It was a risk. But it's about time someone took it.

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in America. But in teenagers and young adults, it skyrockets to the third leading cause of death. Third. Among our nation's next great hope.

And as long as we keep hiding it, it's going to keep happening.

Let’s review some basic facts: Beyonce is a singular, pop cultural force. Beyonce is stunningly gorgeous. But Beyonce is not without her fair share of race-related scandals.

First she was accused of giving the OK for her pictures to be lightened, making her caramel complexion appear two shades paler than it actually is in real life. That controversy has cropped up on magazine covers she’s been featured on, which can only happen but so often before you have to raise an eyebrow and wonder how many times someone’s skin color can — oops! — accidentally be Photoshopped down a shade or two. And it’s not even like the child is dark in the first place, which really pushes the age-old, but still unspoken belief: “the lighter, the better.”

At the root of her latest dust-up: L'Oreal True Match ads she’s doing that list her as “African American, French, and Native American.” OK Bey. Sigh.

Seems like every other day we hear the results of some new study about teens and drinking. They're drinking more! They're drinking less! They're drinking at home! They're drinking at school! They're drinking top shelf vodka! They're pounding shots of mouthwash!

As a mom, at a certain point I kind of started tuning it all out, for sanity's sake. How are we supposed to sift through all these contradictions to find the truth? But the latest research definitely got my attention: Apparently exposure to alcohol consumption in movies is a bigger risk for teen drinking than having parents who drink regularly or having an easily accessible liquor cabinet at home.

Seriously?! How can this possibly be?

A few weeks ago, I surprised my bestie with a belated birthday gift and took her to see a homegirl-in-our-heads, Chrisette Michele. Elle Varner was one of the opening acts. She was cute as pink punch and loaded with personality, which made me like every song she did. When she got to “So Fly,” though, I felt like this girl had reached into my crippled little psyche and turned my private me-thoughts into a public song.

I love being a woman. Love, love, love. But my least favorite thing about it, which has nothing to do with us and everything to do with social convention, is that we're sectioned off into parts and pieces like a herd of ill-fated cows. It starts when we’re still kids, young and unknowing, and doesn’t let up until we’re wheeled into somebody’s retirement complex.

I remember when I was a teenager and I believed my mother didn't understand a thing about me. It seemed like she was so much older than me (decades upon decades, at least), and I was forever frustrated by how we were such entirely different people. Her younger years were nothing like my own, I was convinced of it. She had no idea what I was going through.

Now, of course, I realize what a confused, angry, mixed-up, total pain in the ass I was back then. I also realize my mother was the same age when she had me as I was when I had my first child. I suppose it's possible that I'll reach a similar impasse with my own children someday, and if that happens, I hope it will help for them to know how utterly imperfect I was. How I will always remember what a difficult time it was to be a teen, and how—hopefully—they don't need to feel as though we are so very different.

To my teenage children:

Another day, another warning about what horrible things could happen to our kids if they use Facebook. And before you roll your eyes and say, "Not my kid," you should know the teen girls from Massachusettes who had their Facebook photos stolen by a porn site were actually doing things "right." At least, they weren't taking naughty pictures and putting them up on the Internet.

The hijacked photos that prompted an FBI investigation and eventual take down of a portion of the site showed the girls fully clothed. Yes, you read that right. The kids targeted by creeps were truly innocent.

Still thinking "not a problem with my kid?" Because this one scares the pants off of me.

Guess what -- good news! Los Angeles may soon do something about its daytime curfew and truancy laws, which can result in kids getting handcuffed by police, searched, and fined hundreds of dollars just for arriving at school a few minutes late. Who-hoo! ... I'm sorry, what? Kids are getting handcuffed and searched and fined hundreds of dollars -- money their families need to make rent and pay for food -- just because they're a few ticks behind schedule?

What country are we living in again?

Apparently the "Stand in a High Traffic Zone Wearing a Sign That Says What You Did Wrong" punishment is turning into a parenting trend. This week, it was 13-year-old Natia Wade's turn to be mortified in public: The Memphis teen was forced by her mother and aunt to stand in the middle of a busy intersection bearing a sign that read "I steal from my family."

(Good to know, I guess, but if the only people she steals from are her family members I'm not sure why the rest of us are supposed to be alarmed.)

Anyway, some parents think this disciplinary tactic is the best thing since sliced bread; others see it as a humiliating way to screw up your kid for life. As for me, I don't think I could ever do this to one of my kids. But I still think we're going to be seeing a lot more miserable-looking adolescents standing on street corners wearing Signs of Shame.