Youth

Elaine Farrell deals with insurance forms and rules every day at the dental office where she works. But she recently found out that she's as much a novice as anyone else when it comes to general health insurance. Her oldest daughter, Kristen, turned 23 this week and was booted off her parents' medical plan. The insurance company had mailed a notice about the impending change in status only a month earlier, sending Mom into panic mode.

The Internet has transformed how bands interact with their fans. But that can lead to troublesome consequences. A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges that Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records and other music industry organizations helped coerce a 16-year-old girl into making pornographic rock videos when a band advertised for extras on MySpace, News Corp.'s teen-oriented social networking site.

Shibuya girls come in multiple, ever-changing varieties. The ko-gyaru, usually of high school age, has a savage orange tan, favors miniskirts and razor-sharp stilettos, decorates her mobile phone with jangly ornaments and will probably have plastered her manicured fingernails with glossy pink polish and rhinestones. Other young tribes come to Shibuya -- Tokyo's high-tech teenage fashion mecca -- dressed as schoolgirls, in starched blue-and-white uniforms.

The American Optometric Assn. recently issued an alert to its members after getting reports that some junior and senior high school students, mostly in the Midwest, are tinting their contact lenses with food coloring. The practice, which produces bright colors not generally available for contact lenses, can be dangerous and should be discouraged, association officials warn.

Toward the end of "Darius Goes West," the young man who is the subject of the documentary states matter-of-factly, "People want to be me." Unless you are Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt or blind drunk, few of us could make this claim, but Darius is proved right by the cheering crowds waving at the wheelchair-bound teenager in this unexpected documentary.

Everyone knows who Hannah Montana is. But perhaps only kids know she's been unseated as TV's reigning tween queen by one Carly Shay. When no one was looking, Carly, the plucky 15-year-old star of the Nickelodeon comedy "iCarly," overtook Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" -- and this year, "American Idol" -- in the ratings race for young audiences. Miranda Cosgrove, who plays Carly, is still a name that draws quizzical looks while Miley Cyrus sells out Cineplexes and concert stadiums.

The teen obsession with yakking, text messaging and ring-tone swapping on cellphones might mean more than a whopping phone bill. For the most crazed, it's a sign of unhappiness and anxiety, according to a new medical study. A survey of 575 South Korean high school students found that the top third of users -- students who used their phones more than 90 times a day -- frequently did so because they were unhappy or bored.

Amber Medina has been looking for a job for five months, ever since her father, a metal-worker, was laid off and her mom began struggling to support the family of seven on her $15-per-hour job. But the 17-year-old has yet to find anything permanent, despite sending out resumes and visiting dozens of potential employers, including the clothing stores Old Navy and PacSun. "I'm looking for any job to help my parents," she said.

THE Sausage Casing Girls are everywhere this summer, their muffin tops hanging over their hip-skimming jeans, clothes shrink-wrapped around fleshy bodies that look as if they've been stuffed -- like forcemeat -- into teensy tops and skintight pants. Visit the local mall, any beach boardwalk or the sidewalk in front of your neighborhood high school and you will see why healthcare professionals are so alarmed about expanding waistlines.

Officials of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County said Wednesday that the Huntington Beach Youth Shelter is one of their priority charitable projects for 1991. The BIA's HomeAid program, which helps build shelters for the homeless, is providing the work and material for renovating a picturesque old house in Central Park that will be used for the city's first shelter for homeless teen-agers.