It's time to clear up a certain myth about teens that seems to be cropping up a lot lately. The myth is that all teens go on to be college students, and then college graduates. It's a common assumption among marketers and advertisers that teens aspire to attend college, and if you want to reach 18 and 19 year olds, you'll find them on college campuses. Even a recent article in The New York Times suggests that a college degree is the new high school diploma, noting "so many people are going to college now."

Super Bowl commercials often set the stage for marketing trends in the upcoming year. Reaching a massive audience, these highly coveted spots are ideal for introducing a new product or service. While celebrity endorsements, crowdsourcing and social media interaction are nothing new in the marketing industry, the Super Bowl has demonstrated how commercials using these tactics can be used as a catalyst for targeting a teenage audience - and why the opportunity is tremendous for brands looking to appeal to a younger demographic.

Upon getting to author my first article for Engage:Teens, I asked my 14-year-old son, "What is something about teens you would like people to understand?" His response: "We're lazy, and that's okay."

Crushes are a powerful thing. Teens might find themselves totally smitten with that cute guy or girl sitting two desks away in math class. Or maybe just the hot new band everyone was talking about at lunch. But as Valentine's Day approaches, we've been thinking about a very specific form of young love: brand crushes.

One Direction, a little band you might have heard of, just released its latest video for the single "Kiss You," and it contains a few lessons for marketers trying to reach a teen audience, from how to dominate social media to feeding the need for nostalgia to building an emotional bond with fans. If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out here.

Nielsen recently released overall numbers for 2012. While some statistics were expected, others were surprising. Among the most baffling is the fact that only 6% of teenagers said that Twitter is their main social media source.

Adults aren't the only ones who set goals and resolutions for the New Year. But when we asked teens to name three things they hope to do in 2013, we were surprised by the most popular response: Do well in school. In fact, 70% of teens we surveyed (roughly 30 in all) named academic achievement as a top goal without even a hint of irony.