The January issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health includes a new section entitled, “Perspectives on Adolescence and Young Adulthood.” The vision for Perspectives is to bring readers short essays, poetry and stories of the young people who are at the center of the field. Our hope is that these touching stories of wonder and inquiry will inspire fresh thinking about this period of the life cycle and will encourage our authors and readers to broaden their views of the second and third decades of life.

The editors are pleased to inaugurate this section with a poem written by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine's Immediate Past President, Tamera Coyne-Beasley, M.D., Adolescent Medicine, when she was 18 years old. Dr. Coyne-Beasley read her poem at the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine's Annual Business Meeting in Seattle, Washington, on March 16, 2018.

Read poem here