Being a teenager isn’t easy. Everything is changing both physically and emotionally, and you’re thrust into the most intense situations of your lives, facing heartbreak, anxiety, low self-esteem, peer pressure, and so much more. Reading stories about other teens in real-life situations can help you feel validated—and can often illuminate paths forward. Four authors who write for young adults, Kristin Elizabeth Clark (‘Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity’), Kim Culbertson (‘The Wonder of Us’), Sandhya Menon (‘When Dimple Met Rishi’) and Alexandra Sirowy (‘The Creeping’) share how they capture the unique interior worlds—the joys, the pitfalls, the intimate struggles—of young adults.

The Nation has been fighting for racial justice since abolitionists founded the magazine in 1865; its writers have included W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Now join some of The Nation’s finest current contributors for a fierce, free-ranging discussion of how to advance racial justice in today’s America. Panelists include Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; Walter Mosley, the essayist and novelist; Steve Phillips, author of ‘Brown Is the New White’; Joan Walsh, The Nation’s national political correspondent; and moderator Mark Hertsgaard, author and investigative editor for The Nation.