There is no doubt that teenagers tend to get a bad rap. Between the bullying and the weird YouTube videos and the drug use and the sassiness, most parents of children dread the day our precious babies turn 13. But there are some teens who make us realize things aren't really as bad as they might seem.

Maddie is a senior in high school, and in a story that is floating around Facebook this week, it's revealed that she went to the parents of Jon, a junior, and asked them if she could take their son to prom. She chose this way because Jon is autistic. “He’s a junior,” she explained to Jon's mom. “So it’s his prom too. I just think he should have the chance to go.”

Cue the tears. Apparently the two met through a group that pairs teens with special needs with kids like Maddie and she took a special liking to Jon. What a moving story.

Has anyone else noticed that more and more acts of horrific violence are being committed by especially young men? Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is 19 years old. Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooter Adam Lanza was 20 years old. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, better known as the "Columbine killers," were 18. Lee Boyd Malvo, accomplice to the Beltway Sniper, was 17 when he helped to murder 10 people. At 24, Aurora Theater suspect James Eagan Holmes was slightly older at the time of his shooting, but still under 25 years of age -- the point at which the human brain is fully developed (a fact scientists only recently discovered).

Of course we can't blame crimes of this magnitude solely on the teenage brain, but the connection is too obvious to be ignored. What are we missing here? Not just as a society, but as parents?

Politicians are proposing a new way to keep smokes out of the hands of kids. A measure in New York City would make the sale of cigarettes to anyone under 21 a crime -- the toughest law in any major American city. Considering no parent wants to see their kid puffing away, this should be a no-brainer, right?

Wrong! The proposed tobacco law sounds great on the surface, but there's one major problem parents have to face.  

Eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Dobrow was living the typical teen life when unthinkable tragedy struck. The beautiful teen got off work at a Days Inn, went to the gym, and then headed home to bed. A few hours later, she woke up feeling sick with nausea and a headache. Her mom, Kathi, gave her some Advil. But by the next day, she was in excruciating pain and could hardly move. She was rushed to the hospital. But by then, it was almost too late. A bacterial infection called meningococcemia, which is similar to meningitis, had ripped through Kaitlyn's blood stream. And her life, and that of her family, would never be the same.

At 7 and 5 years old, my sons are notoriously picky eaters. There are times when it seems like between the two of them, they basically live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bowls of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Their many food refusals can be a source of deep frustration for me (who the hell is afraid of trying an orange?), but now that I've read about this British teenager's addiction to packaged ramen noodles, I'm realizing that things in our household aren't quite so bad.

Georgi Readman is an 18-year-old girl from Shanklin, Isle of Wight, and she doesn't just prefer ramen noodles -- she eats them every single day. While it may sound like a funny quirk, her noodle obsession is actually caused by a serious condition called Selective Eating Disorder, and it's affecting her health in a number of drastic ways.

If you're living with a moody teenager with a penchant for door-slams and one-word answers, this new study may be of interest to you. Psychologists at the University of Bristol wanted to delve deeper into the interpretation of often ambiguous facial expressions; we all see strangers on the street as we go about our day, and consciously or not, we make decisions about their mental-state based on their countenance. Are they happy? Scared? Sad? And what do teens have to do with it?

Well, this isn't something I'd ever thought I'd write, but ... I'm with Tanning Mom! The New Jersey resident said that she's all for the state's new law banning tanning for kids under 17, and so am I. Sorry, tween Snooki wannabes!

I particularly love what Tanning Mom (aka Patricia Krentcil) said when TMZ asked her how the tanning community would respond to the ban:

Is it just me, or does it seem like every other kid these days is diagnosed with ADHD? I’ll admit it … I used to be one of those people that thought it was a made-up “disorder” for bratty kids. Then I married someone with ADHD -- and believe me -- ADHD is real. But how real is it?

In the United States, nearly one in every five high school boys is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Over 10 percent of school-aged children overall have it. ADHD is up 16 percent over the past five years and 41 percent over the past decade.