Stress is part of normal everyday life for teenagers, but little attention has been paid to helping young people understand what stress is about, helping them to manage it, and preventing it from leading to mental health problems. Using questions emailed to their award-winning website, two doctors, experts in teenage health, give straight-talking no-nonsense answers.

Relationships

by Ann McPherson and Aidan Macfarlane

Published 1 December 2004
With over a million copies sold worldwide and translated into 22 languages, the "Health Freak" books have been a global publishing phenomenon, bringing both fun and vital health education to teenagers the world over. "Teenage Health Freak: Relationships" has the popular question-and-answer format of the "Health Freak" series ("Sex", "Drugs", "Bullying"), based on genuine questions emailed by kids to the authors' award-winning health advice website (teenagehealthfreak.org). Frank, down-to-earth answers are given by the authors, both of whom are doctors specializing in teenage health issues. Relationships are difficult to get right, but are central to all our social lives. No relationships - whether with peers, parents or other people - are easy, but everybody needs them. As well as learning from their own experiences, teenagers will be greatly reassured to read about the experiences of others, and to find that they are not alone - that others have the same feelings, concerns and worries, and many have found solutions to the same kind of problems. 'Relationships' form a central part of the UK National Curriculum (in the guidelines for PSHE and Citizenship at KS2 and KS3).

Drugs

by Aidan Macfarlane and Ann McPherson

Published 1 October 2003
With over a million copies sold worldwide and translated into 22 languages, the "Health Freak" books have been a global publishing phenomenon, bringing both fun and vital health education to teenagers the world over. The latest two "Health Freak" books focus on the issues that cause the greatest concern to teenagers - Sex and Drugs. Based on real questions emailed to the award-winning Teenage Health Freak website, these books provide the trustworthy health information and advice that today's teenagers are looking for. It contains real questions drawn from many thousands of emails sent to the award-winning website. The website has received over 7 million hits since its launch in 2000.

Sex

by Aidan Macfarlane and Ann McPherson

Published 1 October 2003
With over a million copies sold worldwide and translated into 22 languages, the "Health Freak" books have been a global publishing phenomenon, bringing both fun and vital health education to teenagers the world over. The latest two "Health Freak" books focus on the issues that cause the greatest concern to teenagers - Sex and Drugs. Based on real questions emailed to the award-winning Teenage Health Freak website, these books provide the trustworthy health information and advice that today's teenagers are looking for. It contains real questions drawn from many thousands of emails sent to the award-winning website. The website has received over 7 million hits since its launch in 2000.

Bullying

by Ann McPherson and Aidan Macfarlane

Published 1 August 2004
With over a million copies sold worldwide and translated into 22 languages, the "Health Freak" books have been a global publishing phenomenon, bringing both fun and vital health education to teenagers the world over. "Health Freak: Bullying" has the popular question-and-answer format of the "Health Freak" series ("Sex", "Drugs"), based on genuine questions emailed by kids to the authors' award-winning health advice website (teenagehealthfreak.org). Frank, down-to-earth answers are given by the authors, both of whom are doctors specializing in teenage health issues. Bullying is a perennial and highly damaging problem affecting many thousands of children - boys and girls of all ages. It is a matter of desperate concern for those affected and for their parents and teachers, and is among the issues most frequently raised by kids in their emails to the authors' website. Bullying is currently much in the media spotlight and the target in the UK of a major government-sponsored initiative. It is also prominent within the UK National Curriculum (in the guidelines for PSHE at KS2 and KS3). Aidan Macfarlane ran the Child and Adolescent Health services for the Oxfordshire Health Authority.
He is now an international freelance consultant in child and adolescent health. Ann Mcpherson is a general practitioner with extensive experience of young people and their problems, and a lecturer in the Department of Primary Health Care at the University of Oxford. "Teenage Health Freak" titles include: "The Diary of a Teenage Health Freak"; "The Diary of the Other Health Freak"; "RU a Teenage Health Freak?"; "Health Freak: Sex"; and "Health Freak: Drugs". The authors' other books include: "Mum I Feel Funny" (which won the Times Education Supplement Information Book Award), "Me and My Mates", "The Virgin Now Boarding", and "Fresher Pressure". Most recently, they published a book for parents about the teenage years called "Teenagers: The Agony, The Ecstasy, The Answers".