Even if I don’t have time to do something (right now — this is changing in Feb!), it’s ridiculously easy to still make a difference. Check out these two smiling faces below:

They belong to Daniel Russo, production designer at “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” and Yoachily Urena, a student and aspiring artist at The Bronx Academy of Letters. Earlier this week, I worked out a day with Danny to have Yoachily shadow him on the job so she could gain a better understanding of what it means to create graphics for a live news and commentary show.

Yoachily had a great time getting to know the graphics team members, watching Danny create the elements needed for the show and learning about the tools he uses. They exchanged information and now she has an experienced designer in her budding network of future colleagues (and possibly co-workers, who knows?). Yes, it was that easy.

Granted, there are some things you should keep in mind before introducing a teen to your co-worker. I’ve outlined some notes below and hopefully they will inspire you to take a few minutes to set up something like this at your job.

Finding A Teen
Super easy. If you don’t have any local friends with teens or a teen relative, ask me and I’ll help you sort it out.

Picking A Co-Worker
Imagine that you are a teen and then imagine shadowing that potential co-worker for the day. If it looks like a stressful, awkward nightmare, find someone else. It’s best to go with someone who has a generally positive attitude and who has had experience volunteering with young people. Use your best judgement.

Be Safe
- Make sure HR is OK with it. Find out what the policy is. In my case, other coworkers had brought in their kids so I knew it was fine.
- Make sure that the teen’s parents are aware and have consented and have contact info (work address, your and the co-worker’s contact info, etc.).
- Make sure that the teen has a safe way of getting home.
- Make sure you check in with the parents before and after the shadow session.

Be Practical
- Help the teen make the most out of this experience. Remind them to see if they can get extra credit from his/her school and help them meet the requirements.
- Help your co-worker get the most out of this experience too! Get a bio from the teen to share with him/her in advance, forward work samples if appropriate, etc.
- Be sure to send relevant links about your co-worker to the teen in advance so that they can review work samples, understand his/her role a bit more, etc.

Be Cool
- When approaching a potential co-worker about this opportunity, make sure you do it at a time when they aren’t stressed out and will probably say no. Pick a time when they look somewhat relaxed and open to this sort of suggestion.
- Once you’ve assisted with coordinating the shadow session, step away and let your co-worker and teen bond. Don’t micro-manage their experience but do leave yourself available for any questions or assistance the teen may have.
- Try to lock down all of the details as much as possible before the date so that there is minimal stress for your co-worker. It should be an exciting experience they can look forward to, not something they feel is a burden or an inconvenience.

Be Clear And Direct
You might be thinking, “well how am I going to even bring this up to my co-worker?” It’s really easy. Just approach them and tell them there is a teen who would love the chance to shadow them at work on TBD date. Briefly explain what that would entail and what the benefits would be (one-day mentorship, able to inspire a teen, etc.). Do your due diligence and find out if HR policy rewards this sort of thing and share that info with your co-worker.

If your co-worker is interested, thank them and let them know you’ll follow up with all confirmed details asap. Have them email you their available dates and the related links to share with the teen. Use that to lock a date with the teen and then send a confirmation email to both parties.

The Handoff
Make sure that you take some time when the teen arrives to privately speak with them about what they can expect and give them some tips on how to get the most out of this experience with your co-worker. That will take less than five minutes and it will help ease any jitters the teen might have about not knowing what’s going to happen.

Walk the teen to meet your co-worker, do introductions and then leave them to do their thing. Make sure you check in with both your co-worker and the teen afterward to see how it went. If they didn’t exchange info, suggest that they do.

If it went really well (I’m sure it will!), consider working with your co-worker to find someone else in the office who can have a teen shadow them for a day.

Some Excuses You Might Hear — And Responses For Them

“I don’t have time to have a teen shadow me all day, he/she will get in the way.”

The teen doesn’t need to shadow your co-worker the entire day. It may even be more practical for the teen to visit for only a few hours during a specific part of your co-worker’s day. Find out what that could be and work out the times.

“I’m not comfortable with kids.”

Understandable, but a comment based in fear/nerves. Assure your co-worker that this teen is there to learn, not to judge your colleague. Emphasize the positive qualities of the interaction.

“I wouldn’t know what to show them.”

Have them imagine a skill or skills related to their job they wish they knew earlier in their career, and then determine the best way to share this info with the teen during the shadowing session.

What’s In It For You
- Making a difference in a teen’s life
- Bonding a bit more with your co-worker

On the PR/biz side, this is also great fodder (as long as parents have consented) for your company blog/newsletter/team meeting update.

My question is, do her young female fans know it too?

Do they understand that her persona is a construct designed to provoke, manipulate and tantalize? Do her sixteen year old female fans get that she is intentionally toying with gender rules, mocking the sexual contradictions that impact all women at work, home and in the streets?

Nicki Minaj is aware of what she is doing and (at least a few years ago) was concerned that perhaps her choices were negatively impacting young people:

“I have to curb the way I talk because I realize now people that don’t know me, they don’t know when I’m joking. They think I’m dead serious so part of me feels a sense of responsibility because I have a lot of young female fans that are 16-year-old girls and so now I have to show them I’m joking when I say certain things and that they have to be able to differentiate between when I’m joking and when I’m dead ass serious.” - Nikki Minaj, XXL interview, 2008

It’s all about context. I can listen to Nicki Minaj and laugh because I am in on the joke. Unfortunately, there are many young girls listening to Nicki Minaj and other sexually provocative artists who have not yet learned the ability to put things into context. They have boyfriends who beat them (as young as middle school) and make sexually explicit videos for them anyway. They hide secret MySpace pages from their parents that feature disturbing photos. They endanger themselves in the spirit of invoking the excitement they felt when listening to songs about violence, sex, money and power.

Young people are consuming massive amounts of media every day that directly impact their choices, altering their lives. It angers me that in 2010 young people are not being taught how to interpret media in the classroom — I’m not talking about progressive schools. There are no laws in the USA that require public school teachers to instruct students on how to analyze media. This discussion could easily be incorporated into existing curriculum but it rarely happens.

Something has to change.

As a recent press preview of ‘Digital Nation’ pointed out (airs February 2, at 9pm ET on PBS – DVR / TIVO It!), several countries including South Korea are ahead of us in media literacy. Their schools teach children how to use the internet beginning in the first and second grade. Most importantly, they are taught “netiquette” and to evaluate the content that they consume.

It is frightening that this is still lacking in American public schools.

Nicki Minaj is not the enemy. She should be able to sing about anything that she wants. The issue is that twenty years ago, an impressionable young fan would only have access to an artist and his or her questionable example by listening to their music on a CD, cassette or radio, going to a show or media sponsored event. They might even visit a very limited web site.

Now, a young person has access to his/her favorite artist 247. They can literally carry their messages with them wherever they go, via a myriad of mobile devices.
That much information — without context — is dangerous to a young mind.

Do your part. Empower the young people in your life to analyze media and to cultivate healthy self-esteem. Don’t let Nicki Minaj teach your child about sex, relationships and identity. Nikki Minaj shouldn’t raise your kid. That’s your job.

Check out The LAMP NYC to find out more about media literacy.

I’ve been working with The LAMP (Learning About Multimedia Project) for the past few months in preparation for their first summer camp, which kicked off this week.

My BFF Julia Barnes forwarded me info about The LAMP back in early spring. I was excited about their mission to spread media literacy to kids and their parents, so I reached out to DC and Katherine about helping out. Lucky for me, their latest initiative was a summer camp program and so I dove into contributing ideas for projects and discussions.

When I arrived early Monday morning at PS10 in Park Slope, I wasn’t sure what to expect but we ended up with a large (and awesome) group of young people. We’ve been having fun learning about media literacy and gender issues.

Yesterday I spoke to the group about my work at MTV News and shared info about how students can prepare themselves for a career in media, for all screens. This was my first time speaking to a group of young people about my job and it felt good to share information that I wish someone would have shared with me when I was a teen.

I handed out my moo.com-designed business cards to all the campers who wanted one. I think it’s important for kids to have access to mentors and to adults who are willing to listen to them and encourage their creativity. My simple solution was to just give them info about my website, how to contact me and to let them know they can ask me anything they want.

Tomorrow is the last day of the camp and we’ll be editing the videos that our groups have been working on. I haven’t been up so early in the morning in years and it’s been a challenge to find the energy to keep up with the kids and maintain a full time job, but everything is working out so far.

My little sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters is going away to college in the fall. We have been meeting to have lunch, go to the movies and to just talk about life since 2006. I’ve learned so much from participating in the BBBS mentor program and my relationship with my little means a lot to me.

Now that I’ll have a little bit of extra free time, I think I am going to contribute to more projects with The LAMP in the future, beyond the summer camp.

The reasons why I volunteer and use my precious free time to help out with pro-social projects are actually very selfish ones:

It makes me feel good and helps me to put life into perspective. There are also many unforeseeable benefits to volunteering that it almost feels like I am the one who makes out like a bandit.

It seems like I get back so much more than I am giving, which inspires me to give more.

I don’t see myself one of those people who is always taking up a cause, but I guess if I had a “cause” it would be youth activism through media literacy – supporting young people in achieving their goals.

I still have free time left to do things with friends so it’s not that serious. When something is important to you, there is always a way to find time to do it.

That’s it!