There's a big presidential election just around the corner (in case you hadn't heard), but you might be surprised to learn that many teens are paying close attention to the race, as well as other elections going on in their cities and states. Even though most of them are too young to cast a vote, teens believe they can still have a say and make a difference in the outcomes of political races that will likely have a significant impact on their futures.

With over 100 million users in just under two years, it's clear that Instagram is a driving force in the current social media scene, and a large part of this success comes from the app's immense popularity amongst teen users. Much like a number of other sites in the past, teens have helped pave the way for Instagram to become one of the most downloaded apps on both iOS and Android.

Design? Style? Trendiness? Not even close. As the mom of a teenager and two 20-somethings, I spend plenty of time around young people, but the answer to this question still surprised me. Teens value quality above almost anything else.

For most adults, our teenage years were marked by various attempts to further distance ourselves from our parents' generation with piercings, tattoos, unfortunate hairstyles, and provocative clothing choices designed to make the stick-in-the-mud adults in our lives cringe.

Marketers can learn a lot about teens by following the pop charts. Sure, they'll know what music is hot and what's not, but they can also pick up a few tips about branding. In music, as in marketing, image is everything. Lately, the coolest image a band or brand can project is that of just being itself.

School's back for the semester. Students ranging from kindergarteners to college coeds spent their last few days of summer vacation exchanging their beach towels for new backpacks and shoes in preparation for their return to academia. With back-to-school shopping representing the second-largest sales opportunity for retailers, combined K-College spending will reach nearly $84 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).) That's a lot of three-subject notebooks!

For decades, teens have cared deeply about how they look. But today's media-rich environment provides style ideas way beyond envying what the most popular kids at school are wearing. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, Yesenia Almonte, beauty director for Seventeen magazine, noted that, "Teens are influenced by celebrities and they look to them for inspiration, not just for special occasions like prom and homecoming, but just for everyday school looks."

For decades, adults have been counseling teenagers that "high school is the best four years of your life." But most high schoolers would argue that adage is hopelessly out of date.

Each year, it seems as if annual shopping seasons come earlier and earlier, whether it's Halloween, Christmas, or back-to-school. Part of this is due to regular retail cycles- which generally run for one or two months prior to peak shopping periods-and then sharply drop off once the holiday or event has passed. Yet, it seems as if this year's back-to-school shopping season crept up much earlier than in past years, with many TV ads airing at the beginning of August (and some even debuting in late July). Meanwhile, digital ads and sales promotions began popping up even earlier, some appearing …

At the end of last week, we found out that the Olympic social media "debacle" may not have been a debacle at all. It may have actually helped the games. According to the ratings released on Friday, total viewership for the Olympics is substantially better than it was four years ago. Through the first five days, viewers were up nearly 30% higher than what NBC had originally expected.