Straight Talk TNT

Dear Straight Talk: I’m a 16-year-old boy and I’m wondering why girls have so many mood swings. Some days they wake up happy, other days they wake up angry at the world. I’ve asked girls about this and they don’t know the reason. They say, “It’s just my day, it’s just how I woke up.” For me, the main feelings I get in a day are boredom (from some of my classes) and hunger. Whether I feel angry or sad or happy depends on what happens throughout the day. But the girls say the mood they wake up in determines their entire day.—What’s up with that?

Dear What’s up: Here’s what the teen staff has to say:

From Amy 17: I think stress is greater for girls than for boys because girls are more worried about how they look. There is more on our plate that way. For instance, if you wake up with a blemish or don’t feel your hair is right it starts your day off wrong. Rainy days seem to stress all the girls because of how it affects our hair.

From Ashley, 15:  Boys get attention for being weird or funny, but society isn’t interested in funny, weird chicks so we invent drama to get attention. Also, girls have a propensity to show their emotions, probably because we are genetically wired to do so, and also because our culture accepts moody girls more than moody guys. When was the last time you saw a guy crying in public?

From Kyle, 13: When girls are acting freaky, in a different mood than their usual one, I ask them if it’s their period. About 70% of the time it is. The rest of the time it seems to be family problems.

From Ashley, 17: I used to have a lot of stress about how I looked, but I got over that and now the biggest influence on my waking mood is whatever I had to deal with the night before—family arguments, relationships, things like that—or the dream I had during the night.