by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on October 22, 2010
Michael Rich, MD, MPH
Michael Rich, MD, MPH, is Children’s Hospital Boston’s media expert and director of Children’s Center on Media and Child Health. Take a look at his blog archive or follow him on Twitter @CMCH_Boston.
Last week he touted the merits of audio books over TV, this week he helps a mother worried about the suggestive nature of her daughter’s Halloween costume.
Q: My pre-teen daughter is dying to go as a sexy vampire for Halloween (she’s a big Twilight fan) but I just don’t feel comfortable with her running around the neighborhood in a short skirt, tight top, and lots of makeup, costume or not. What can I say to her without making this such a big deal?
-Bella’s Nemesis in Belchertown, MA Full story »
Every generation has its werewolves. Today, of course, there’s the Twilight phenomenon, which has given us Jacob Black and his brotherly pack of lycanthropes. If you’re my age, you grew up watching the incredibly hokey Teen Wolf and Teen Wolf Two movies, plus the slightly less hokey An American Werewolf in London. And if you’re a bit older, you likely went to the local Strand Theater to watch Lon Chaney and Claude Rains in The Wolf Man or Little House on the Prairie star Michael Landon in I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
But, as you’ll see in the news clip below from KENS5 in San Antonio, there’s a group of Texas teens who are taking the obsession with wolfmen one step further, transforming themselves into real-life werewolves – complete with fake tails and teeth.
So what do you think, moms and dads: Is this type of self-expression a good thing, or a sure sign that these kids need to spend less time under the full moon?
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Take a look at her blog archive and follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
What a whirlwind of a year. Since launching this blog in July, we’ve had more than 230,000 visitors, many of whom have left thought-provoking comments on our posts.
We’ve enjoyed bringing you personal stories and expert insight about current pediatric health topics, and we hope you continue reading us in 2010.
What were our readers most interested in this year? Our most widely read stories range from a video series about defeating a milk allergy to a news report about the discredited Baby Einstein videos. Did you miss any of our most popular posts? We revisit them below. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Take a look at her blog archive and follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
Last week the latest Twilight series movie, “New Moon,” smashed all records for opening day box-office sales, earning more than $70 million—$26 million from the midnight showings alone (beating out the Harry Potter midnight showings). Add that to the millions of Twilight series books sold, and there is absolutely no doubt that we are dealing with a true teen phenomenon.
If your child is a Twilight fan and you haven’t read the books yourself, there are some things you should know about them.
First, the books can be quite scary at parts, with a lot of real or threatened violence. And second, while there’s no sex before marriage between Bella and Edward, the relationship is full of sensuality and sexual tension. Hormones are raging big time.
What parents most need to know, though, is that the relationship between Edward and Bella is very obsessive.
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Every generation has its werewolves. Today, of course, there’s the 
Last week the latest Twilight series movie, “New Moon,” smashed all records for opening day box-office sales, earning more than $70 million—$26 million from the midnight showings alone (beating out the Harry Potter midnight showings). Add that to the millions of Twilight series books sold, and there is absolutely no doubt that we are dealing with a true teen phenomenon.
