SPEAKING OUT. (cover story)

This article profiles five teenagers who discuss their experiences as adolescents. Chris Hayden was 15 when he told his parents he was gay. "Telling your parents that you're gay is a hard thing for anyone. Coming out has brought me closer to my parents. I think it helped them understand why I was being all dark and teenage-like. It's been a lot easier to talk with my dad since I came out." Connie Guo is an A student in Grade 12. She's an only child who lives with her mother. "I'm trying to find a middle between what I want to do and what my parents want me to do. We used to fight a lot when I was younger, going through my rebellious early teens. Thirteen is the most horrible age ever." Ben Pinsonneault is a bright, polite 15-year-old in Calgary. "I guarantee you no one knows how to deal with teenagers in general. They're all individual. Maybe if someone talked to a kid for a few days, they could tell the parent how to deal with them." Christine McCoy's first hangover has lasted a lot longer than the bouts of vomiting. "Parents should aim for moderation -- a little bit of freedom, a little bit of control." Michelle Chaytor a 19-year-old in St. John's, used marijuana heavily between ages 16 and 18. "There was nothing my parents could do -- it had to come from me. But I couldn't go one day without having it. I realized everything was going downhill for me and it wasn't going to get better -- and I didn't want to be like that."