What can we talk about?

You don’t have to be in a crisis to call. We talk to teens who are going through good times and not-so-good times, or just needing to get things off their chest. You can even call if you are feeling bored! Everyone deserves to be heard.

​Below are some of the topics we can talk about. If you click on the picture, it will take you to another page where you will find some helpful resources and information.

​Will you tell anyone what I say?

​We will never tell anyone about the things you share with us unless:
  • you are at risk of hurting yourself.
  • you (or someone else who is younger than 18) have been abused, neglected or exploited.
  • ​you (or someone else who is younger than 18) are at risk of being abused, neglected or exploited.
  • someone else is at risk of being hurt.
If any of these situations are happening, we take all actions needed to get you the help you need.

Also, we don't collect or harvest the personal information from visitors to our website or from the people who contact us. We only use this information to respond to your questions and concerns. Because we value people’s right to privacy, we also don't look at the profiles of our friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What's it like to call TeenTalk?

Well basically, it's amazing. Though if that's not enough, here's a typical time on the talk line:
 
You grab your phone and dial 360.397.2428. Within a few rings, one lucky individual will answer your call. The conversation will start like: 'TeenTalk, this is James,' or whoever is on shift.
 
​From there, most likely that lucky individual will ask how you're doing, or how your day has been. Though by this moment, you are in control of the call. Whatever you wish to talk about, you may talk about: school, people, work, hobbies, life in general. Feeling down and wanting someone to just listen to you? We got you covered. Feeling up? We want to know about that too! Want some coping skills? We got a list. Need some answers to those hard-to-answer questions of life like, 'Oh no! I don’t feel safe. What do I do?' or maybe, 'Hey, I'm homeless. Where can I live?' TeenTalk has a whole book of possible answers (literally a whole book) and will even invest time into researching better options and do the very best job to help.
 
Don't want to call due to embarrassment? Well, we are judgment-free, and you might be surprised to hear some of us have been there before. It can be a rough, rough world to grow up in. Consider calling someone who is growing up too, and talk about anything you wish.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Why should I call TeenTalk?

I already have a therapist.
Seeing a therapist is a great tool for help and, in some cases, is something we might recommend in the form of resources that can lead you towards that. Therapeutic techniques have been proven to help people and it is absolutely normal and could be the solution to many people's problems. However, in many ways we can provide a different feel and a different style of help than a therapist. For example, we are fellow teens who understand and may also be going through similar, if not the same, things. We give you a chance to vent and share while we listen, which a lot of times can be better and more helpful to people. Therapists can be looked at as one sided, as someone may feel that they are always sharing their problems and having somebody try and help them out. As this can be a good method for some people that just need to get things off of their chest and express emotion, it may not be for all people. With TeenTalk, it is completely two-sided with those on the line sharing similar events and experiences, and how they solved them if they can relate. This builds a closer bond and connection. This style of communication adds a comfortability aspect with a person similar in age, that may not be met with an adult. Also, TeenTalk is easier to reach. With no appointments necessary, TeenTalk can be sought after by phone, email, or even our social media pages. Replies are quick and efficient and will provide quality answers and help if needed. ​
I don't want to bother you.
TeenTalk is such a great resource and we try to spread the word about it because we really want people to use it! All of the teens you may talk to on the line are volunteers. They choose to come in every week and are thankful for the opportunity to talk to many different people about many different things. You are not bothering us by calling or messaging: you are making our days a lot better!
I don't want to talk about my problems
If you don’t want to talk to us about your problems, you don’t have to. You can talk to us about anything from serious stuff to non-serious stuff. We have a wide variety of TeenTalkers to talk to about any number of topics that don’t have to lead to any sort of resolution. Some examples would be that we have had conversations about our favorite music artists, what phone we have, or a cool quote that we liked and wanted to share. You can talk to us about literally anything. If at any point you do want to talk about something serious though you can freely change the topic to whatever you want. We are here to support you, whatever that looks like and however you want (within reason and keeping anonymity).
I'm not sure we'd vibe.
Finding someone you connect with or feel comfortable with can be difficult. Talking isn’t easy, especially if you’re talking to someone you don’t really vibe with. Here at TeenTalk, we have a wide diversity of people and personalities. Your first call might not always be the right one but, we hope you’ll continue to search for the right one. All of us volunteer 3 hours a week and there are multiple people on every shift, leaving you with plenty of TeenTalkers to talk with. Check out our shift hours and brief bios.
I'm not depressed.
You don’t have to be depressed to contact TeenTalk. In fact, you don’t even need to be having any issues, whether big or small, to call us. We’re here to talk about whatever is on your mind, whether you have something cool happening on the weekend or you just need to let someone know about an event that occurred. Just because you don’t have any issues or mental illness, doesn’t mean your conversation with us is invalidated. We’re here to listen to anything that is on your mind and support you with whatever positive event or inconvenience that occurred.
I'm scared to talk to a stranger.
Talking to people you don’t know can be hard. Whether it be on the phone, texting, or in person. We don’t know how a person will react or if sometimes they might even judge us. Here at TeenTalk, we don’t know who you are and that doesn’t matter to us. We just want to talk with you. We won't judge you for your choices or things you’ve done. We are here to give you support and build you up as a person. Not to tear you down. By talking to someone you don’t know, it gives you the ability to open up even more than you might with someone you do know. We may be able to give you advice/guidance that could be more helpful and meaningful. We also only know what you tell us so we can give you an unbiased answer. Good things come from stepping out of your comfort zone. 
Other people have it worse than me.
Nearly everyone who is experiencing something difficult says something like, “Other people have it worse than me.” It can be hard to recognize your own pain when comparing it to someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there or that it doesn’t matter. Everything that happens in our lives affects us in some way, no matter how small it seems. It’s important to talk through all those small things with someone. The volunteers at TeenTalk like to talk about anything and everything. We want to give everyone support because everyone deserves it, no matter what they’ve been through. 
You're probably adults or bots.
We assure you that everyone working here at TeenTalk is a teenager. Our goal is to provide peer-to-peer support so you can vent and try to gain an understanding with others that can relate to those issues better. Sometimes adults have a hard time understanding what teens are dealing with so the best option was to allow teens to discuss their situations with other teens. On top of this, sometimes people may receive friend requests from an account called “Peppy Penerson” and assume this is a bot, but we don’t have bots running any social media accounts. The Peppy Penerson account represents all of TeenTalk for those that need it while still maintaining anonymity. We make sure to respond to each message we get so that everyone can have a real conversation with a peer and not a bot that can’t relate. So please contact us if you need someone to talk to because we are honestly here to listen and provide support. 
I'm afraid you'll tell people what we talk about.
At TeenTalk, we are strictly confidential with your information and ours. Our calls are never recorded and no caller is reported unless a caller or another youth is hurt, in possible danger from themselves or someone else, or is in an unsafe environment (feeling unsafe at home, outside, in school, etc.). Other than that, staying anonymous is extremely important for the safety of our callers and TeenTalkers. We do log our calls which only consist of general topics we talked about and any feedback on our volunteers that callers gave to keep track of what our volunteers are doing but, these logs stay completely anonymous and are never tracked or traced back to our callers.
I don't think you'd understand what I'm going through.
A lot of people think that they’re the only ones going through their own particular problems, but the opposite couldn’t be truer! With over twenty (and counting) volunteers helping TeenTalk operate, we offer a wide variety of diverse viewpoints. Our volunteers come from all walks of life, and even if we haven’t experienced your specific troubles, we do research and attend training days to show us how to help in the best possible way. Whenever you call TeenTalk, you can be assured that you’re talking to a highly empathetic individual who wants to help you be your best self!
My parents want me to talk to you and it made me think it would be weird to call.
Sometimes parents can make things seem really uninteresting or forced and it makes it hard to organically seek out help. It shows that your parents have acknowledged that you are growing up and don’t need their help but also want to make sure you’re getting the support you need. We get that. We too have those things that we don’t want to do because our parents influenced us to do them. The biggest thing is that on our website, you can look at all of our biographies and make the choice as to whether we are the type of people you want to call. Like that is your choice. And if you don’t really match up with the first person you call, you can ask for someone else and we are totally chill with that. We know that not everyone is going to be instant best friends but we are the type of people that are really hard not to be friends with. We are people from the community and probably live nearby, we go to school and we might have similar classes. We may be upperclassman that have advice about getting through high school or the friend that actually keeps your secret instead of spreading it all over school. We are really just people going through the same things and hoping that, by being there for others, we can give back a bit to our friends or our future friends that need someone anonymous to talk to. We try to be the best versions of ourselves for you so that you know that if you call there is no judgement and we are truly here for you. To vent, to cry, to celebrate, to ask questions, to see if we can help with a homework problem, to share news; we are here for you. We aren’t here for your parents and we won’t share anything we discuss with them. We just want to be here for you, whomever forced you to call, we hope we can make you happy that you did. 
My parents have to pre-approve my calls.
Explain to your parents what TeenTalk is. Tell them how people don’t call them only because they are thinking about suicide or are depressed or anything else. You don’t have to have problems to call us. You can just want to talk to someone ... maybe you’re bored. You can also specify that TeenTalk is entirely appropriate and all of our volunteers have learned how to set their boundaries and end a topic of conversation if it is uncomfortable to them. This should help ease it up a bit so your parents won’t be concerned for you if you really just want to call. If your parents are still concerned, tell them that they can even call us and ask us what we are all about and what we do. 
I'm worried you may freak out and call someone.
Part of joining TeenTalk is the required training. We spend a diligent amount of time preparing our volunteers for any call they may receive. We will always try our best to help you, like giving advice on any struggles you may be dealing with. We also are confidential; this means that whatever is talked about during our calls/messages stays completely between you and us. Along with confidentiality, we have anonymity which means we don’t share any personal information such as our location, our name, our age, etc. And you don’t share that with us either. Anonymity is extremely important to us for not only your safety but for your comfort. We do however have mandatory reporting. Mandatory reporting is only needed in extreme circumstances where you or someone you know has been hurt or is at risk of being hurt. The main reason we do this is because we care about you and your safety. The last thing any of us wants is for you or someone else to be in an unsafe situation. You also never need to share more than you are comfortable with. We all enjoy when someone reaches out, even if they don’t want to talk about anything serious. It is quite common for us to have conversations on topics such as movies we like, new shoes you got, your plans for the weekend, and so on.
You want something from me.
Every day the line is open, someone waits for a call. All we think about is how we can help you best. We strive to be there for the people that need us. You might think what we do is purely to get more support for the organization or to get more volunteers. While we would like that, our desire is to be the other person on the line giving the support. We are here to talk about emotions you might be having or even hearing about something nice that happened during your day. We want to share the happiness and sadness, and help you through it. We try our best to talk with you and not at you. It makes a call much more open and we are able to connect in whatever way you need.
My parents monitor my conversations
TeenTalk is a peer-to-peer call line, with trained volunteers that promote healthy responses, affirmations and is monitored by a trained adult. While not all parents will be willing to make an exception, perhaps being able to explain that it is a safe place to have conversations and that we will make sure that the topics are appropriate and positive may influence them to give you space when calling TeenTalk. Your parents are also able to call and talk to our adviser to see if there can be compromises made to ensure that you feel safe talking to us in privacy without breaking the parent’s rules. Sometimes parents worry about the conversations or making sure that you are being safe, but explaining that everyone needs time to work through thoughts and feelings they are having with peers that are a positive influence and role model may make them feel more comfortable about letting you call without being monitored. We always love calls from parents so that we can help them feel more comfortable about the youth and the training that we have received. We always provide callers with options of all sides of a situation and promote self-care, positivity, and healthy coping skills and life decisions. We really want to help you find choices that are right for you and to be there when you’re needing support. Everyone needs someone to talk to and while not every conversation you might want to have with your parents, it is important to talk to people that can give you grounded advice and have information and resources that can help.
I'm afraid you'll judge me.
This is a completely rational fear because of how often people are judged especially in today’s society. However, we are a non-judgmental teen to teen support line. There is never a time where we judge any of our callers no matter the circumstance. We actually all love communicating no matter the topic, we are just glad you are reaching out in the first place. We receive a variety of calls with a variety of different topics and our main goal is to help give you positive peer support rather than focusing our attention on any sort of judgement. You would actually be surprised how many of us have probably been in similar situations and/or know someone who has. As far as we are concerned, we are just two people having a conversation. We just hope you will gain something positive from it.
I'm afraid if I call, I might be talking to someone I know personally.
TeenTalk is an anonymous resource, monitored by a rotating cast of volunteers, so there is a low chance of calling someone you know. All our volunteers are happy to lend a helping hand, so even if you do recognize the voice on the other line, you are welcome to ask if there are any other volunteers available at the time, and we’ll gladly transfer you to their line. If you want to ask for another volunteer, no reasons need to be given, and nobody will ask why unless you choose to share. We value and respect your privacy. None of the information you give us will be shared, unless you or someone else has been hurt or is in danger of being hurt. ​
I don't know who you are and it seems weird to talk to a stranger.
It can be very intimidating calling or messaging for the first time and we recognize that. However, sometimes it is easier to talk to a stranger. One reason it may be easier is because there is no context; when you share something with a stranger there is no context to go along with the information you are giving them. This allows us to give an unbiased response. Another reason it may be easier to talk to a stranger is the lack of repercussions. If you share something private with a stranger you won’t need to worry about what you are saying effecting your personal life. You will also receive a fresh perspective. A stranger doesn’t know you, your reputation or how others may perceive the value of your word. It is nice to talk to someone who doesn’t know your baggage. If you really think about it, at some point, everyone is a stranger so in the grand scheme of things it’s not that weird at all.
I’m afraid my parents will find out I’m talking to you and jump to the wrong conclusions.
What a lot of people don’t know about our call line is that 99% of our calls are not about serious things. We aren’t a crisis line. Our main job is to make you feel supported and to give you someone to talk to that is positive in your life. I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to figure out safe people to talk to or having something I wanted more than one opinion on but maybe only one close friend I felt comfortable sharing it with. We are really just here to be a 4-9 pm friend (except for on Fridays we are 4-7) that you can check in about your week. I would probably let your parents know like, “Hey, so I wanted to try this call line called TeenTalk because I heard they were super positive and I want more support or someone that I can talk to for advice/friendship/to talk about random things/support/cat videos/etc. That my friends aren’t really interested in. I just wanted to let you know I am not having any issues that are serious or anything, I just wanted an extra listening ear.” And that way they know what is up and maybe why you’re started calling a call line. We also have a Facebook page you can message if that feels more comfortable to you. There’s really nothing wrong with wanting to talk to someone. Forum social media is popular for a reason. Sometimes you just want to talk to someone you don’t know because it is just easier and you don’t have to sit through their drama all the time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a friend that was in a crisis and I had to sit through hours of their drama but they had no time for my issues, especially if they are “small” in comparison or if you know how they would feel about something and you know they’d jump to conclusions right away. We all need someone, and it doesn’t have to be because you’re depressed or have an issue.
I want to call but I don't have a private or safe place to call from.
If you’re able to get privacy, but often have interruptions from parents, siblings, etc. and you don’t want them knowing you’re talking to TeenTalk, that’s completely understandable! You can always say you’re on the phone with a friend, ask to take a walk and call while you do that, etc. If you’re in the middle of a serious conversation and get interrupted, it’s totally OK to change subjects as well.  If you have no ability to call or find space, that’s okay too! We have many different outlets of communication like, Facebook, Instagram, email, and many more. You can find a lot of these and reach out to us here.
I don't know what you can offer, other than advice.
Communicating with the volunteers here doesn't necessarily mean the only thing we do is give is advice. We are here for you, and whatever you feel the need to talk about is what we will talk about with you. As volunteers, we want you to feel as comfortable as possible, allowing you to share ideas about a variety of everyday topics as well as the opportunity to vent and speak your mind about anything you may feel the need to. We can offer resources, school or job help, and even entertainment and fun things like movie or food suggestions. The most important thing we offer, however, is our ability to listen and relate to what you might have to say. When you call, our focus is to be there and positively support you. This might include advice, but it is not the only thing volunteers at TeenTalk are limited to.
It isn't worth it.
You never know until you try! TeenTalk was created from the suggestions of teens who wanted a confidential and anonymous way to share about themselves and their lives. All of the volunteers here do their best to be there for the caller or messenger in whatever way that person needs. Some people want to hear stories similar to their own, some want a friend to joke around with, and some just want to be heard. Sure, everyone is different, but TeenTalk has a lot to offer! It can’t hurt to try something out, and most of the time, it actually helps. One thing is for sure: TeenTalk is always happy to hear from you.

Do teens talk to TeenTalk?

Yes they do! In fact, in 2022:
We had
conversations
Our average call lasted
minutes
percent of our
​conversations occurred
​on the phone
percent of our
​conversations occurred
by text message
percent ​of our
​conversations occurred
on social media
 percent ​of our
​conversations occurred
​through email and Ask Peppy
Check out our footer to read some of the kind things teens have said about our volunteers so far this year!