About Us – Meet the TeenWire.org Team

Mat Woods – Lead Writer

Mat, NOT Matt, is an experienced writer who helped raise his younger siblings through their teenage years and always takes an active role in his community. Mat is a prolific writer here at TeenWire.org, and he enjoys knowing that his thoughts and advice have helped thousands of families.

Mat is uncomfortable writing in third person, so I’m going to switch over to first person now. Hi, I’m Mat Woods, and in addition to being the head writer at TeenWire.org, I also handle most of the tech side of things. We’re a small group, so we all wear many hats here. I like this type of environment, it allows us to stay focused on what we do best, to meet attainable goals in terms of the audience we’re able to reach, and it’s just a lot cozier.

Sara Dylan – Writer and Researcher

Sara is passionate about coming up with new topics for herself and Mat to write about. Sara doesn’t write quite as often as Mat, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t incredibly busy!

When Sara isn’t sitting by the window with a cup of coffee and her laptop, furiously clacking away at the keyboard, she can be found helping Maple with research and planning, playing with her two cats, or getting annoyed at something she read on Twitter.

Don’t get the wrong idea, Sara is a total sweetheart and her sarcastic, angsty disposition just makes her an even better fit to get through to teens! (Note from Sara: I hate you, Mat.)

Maple Waites – Editor, Proofreader and Researcher

Maple is the newest member of Team TeenWire.org, and she helps with just about everything. Maple’s main forte is to research the topics that Sara comes up with to ensure that we’re including all of the most important information before we hit publish.

Sara will brainstorm ideas, send them over to Maple, and Maple will organize them into articles. Then, Maple will work her research magic and send the topics back to Sara and Mat, who will write the articles that you find on this site. But Maple’s not done yet! Once Mat and Sara have turned Maple’s fantastic outlines into in-depth pieces, Maple will circle back and proofread + edit those articles before they go live on TeenWire.org.

In 2023, Maple is undertaking the monumental task of going through our archive of hundreds of articles and updating them, refreshing them, and making sure everything is still up to date and on-point. Every article on this site essentially starts and ends with Maple, with Sara and myself filling in the blanks. She’d say something humble right about now, but Maple is truly a gem and we’re so lucky to have her on the team!

We’re proud to be featured in numerous leading publications, including:

PBS
New York State
Healthy Women
TheBody

Mission Statement

TeenWire.org was created to help parents and their teenagers be on the same page as they…

  • Navigate life’s challenges
  • Understand themselves
  • Live a fulfilling life
  • Discover new interests and hobbies
  • Succeed in school
  • Prepare for College, University, or a career

Our articles are written to be easily understood, which sometimes involves breaking down more complex topics to a simpler form. We also aim to make our articles easy to skim, so that you can find exactly what you’re looking for.

Many of our articles are written for the type of parents who take time to think about how they’re treating their teens, what their teens need from them, and how to approach challenges in a healthy way. In other words, we produce extensive content for loving, caring parents who are doing the best they can.

Also, we have a sizeable amount of content that’s written to help teenagers deal with various challenges, to offer advice, and to help make sense of things that can otherwise be overwhelming or confusing.

Our approach is that parents here want the best for their teenagers, and teens ultimately want what’s best for them. The issue is that those things aren’t always in an obvious alignment. We’re at the intersection between caring parents and curious teenagers.

Feedback From Our Readers

Every now and then, we’re fortunate enough to receive some fantastic feedback from people who read our articles. We listen to all feedback, we’re always trying to improve. Critical feedback can be very helpful, and we welcome your thoughts.

Hi… I don’t usually write e-mails to websites… but I just wanted to say that your article about New Years resolutions for teenagers helped reduce a lot of the anxiety I had… I took a few of your ideas and followed your advice about doing a little bit every day and I started seeing very positive changes in myself. Thank you.

Jackie W.

(Note: You can find the aforementioned article here: New Years Resolutions for Teens.)