Below is part of an email I just sent to a friend asking some questions about youth and what makes them tick.

Here are some posts of mine that quickly come to mind reflecting on something of youth culture:

• Tim's Take on Terrigal Teenagers
• What the Central Coast needs
• Erina Fair & Central Coast Culture
• Engaging with culture
• Gen Y SMS
• The Gospel and Teenage Culture (this links to a talk)
• Teenagers and Sex - smh (there's a 15 year old dude who summarises the 3 big issues for teenagers: relationships, alcohol and technology - I tend to agree with him... They are very good observations.)
  

I'm sure there's more posts that are relevant... But that's a good start.

I think that it would be profitable to spend some time just observing your local youth culture. You can do this by simply watching them at the shopping centres, skateparks or where ever they are hanging out. It's also profitable to ask them what makes them tick, what they care about, who they are etc...

Saddleback do the whole 'Saddleback Sam' thing - basically they draw (and describe) a picture of the typical person in their culture and context. We've done this before and it's very helpful! In the end the observations you make will be generalisations - but nonetheless a helpful activity in understanding the culture you're reaching.

Here's a couple of websites that might be helpful:

• http://www.ypulse.com/ - "Ypulse is an independent blog for teen/youth media and marketing professionals providing news, commentary and resources on commercial teen media for teens (teen magazines, websites), entertainment for teens (movies, games, television, music), technology used by teens (cell phones, instant messaging, SMS), the news media's desire to attract teens (newspapers, cable news), marketing and advertising (targeting the teen market) and civic youth media (highlighting organizations' efforts at promoting youth voices in media)."
• http://www.youthfacts.com.au/ - "This site provides facts and statistics about Australia's youth - how many there are, what they do and what they're like. The site is for anyone needing quick access to data about young people."

I just found a whole bunch of my youth posts that I compiled into the one place.

If you've read this far - please leave a comment with your favourite Australian animal.

Guessing comp - name the famous person in the above pic... warm fuzzy to the first correct answer.