Boston Teens Gain Write Experience

By: Brian Orloff Some newspapers court young readers and writers with a single teen-oriented page, but The Boston Globe has devised T.i.P. (Boston Teens in Print), a teen-produced tab read by high school students throughout the city.

Launched last May, T.i.P. was created in partnership with WriteBoston, a high school writing-improvement program, and The Boston Globe Foundation. More than a dozen Boston high school students work with adult editors to write, report, and design the quarterly publication.

WriteBoston staffers help students hone their reporting skills. Students also have leadership roles as peer editors and they generate a majority of T.i.P.'s story ideas. Laurys Abreu, 15, a sophomore, received a lesson in how to carefully treat sensitive topics after writing about teenage pregnancy for a recent issue. "The teen mom came to me and started crying because she didn't like [the story]," Abreu said.

But Abreu says T.i.P. has boosted her confidence as a writer. "I know how to walk down the street proud to say I'm a teen reporter."