Hi, I’m Christina the TeenCentral.Net teen spokesperson. I’ve been using TeenCentral.Net for over a year and this is my story:

I’ve always felt that as a kid, no one ever heard me. I’ve always had so many suppressed feelings growing up and I’ve been through a lot of hard times. I’m 16 and active in my high school. I’m very happy today but it has taken a lot to get me to where I am, and I believe that TeenCentral.Net has done their part it making that happen.

My mother and my father were divorced when I was three, and went through a 5 year custody battle, with me in between. My mother has several addictions as well as bi-polar manic disorder. Through this battle I went through a lot of things that I was just too young to understand; sex, drugs, and adulthood were pushed on me. I had to make decisions that I didn’t even fully understand. My mother was finally given a choice: get help or lose me. She got help for a little while but finally one day during our therapy sessions she said "the heck with this… I’m out”. That was six years ago and I haven’t heard from her since. She has lost any rights to contact me and can’t come within 500 feet of me or my school. It’s sad, but when I lost contact with her I lost contact with the rest of that side of my family too; a side that actually loved and cared about me. They were taken completely away because of that and at the time I didn’t understand, but now I do and it hurts.

My dad (who is an amazing person) fell in love with another woman and I soon became emotionally attached to her as my mother. They were together for 5 years and were supposed to get married. Well about 6 months before the wedding, she decided not to go through with it, and it was one of the most painful things in my life because I was older and knew that someone was leaving me. It was like losing a mother all over again. Well, she didn’t completely leave my life, she came back around six months later and said that she did want to be a part of my life; she just wasn’t ready to be with my father. This woman has and still is an active member in both of our lives and even though she has created another life for herself, I still consider her to be like a mother.

It seemed for a while that everyone that ever loved me left me. I felt alone, growing up constantly being left. My father couldn’t really be there for me because he was having his own pain that I couldn’t help him with. I started being my own therapist, telling myself ideals that all I will ever have or need is myself and I can’t trust or rely on anyone else to make me happy. It worked for a while but I came to a crossroads recently in my life where I wanted to know that other half of my family. I contacted my mother’s sister through myspace and we started talking and she informed me that no one on my mother’s side of my family actually talked to my mother. I also found out I had a little half brother that I never met and sister I hadn’t seen in 8 years. It was hard but it also felt great to be talking to them again. I finally went to visit and now we talk very often. My dad and I used to get into fights about me seeing them because he still didn’t trust them because of the divorce and such. But I thought to myself, I need this and I need to do this.

And that’s where TeenCentral.Net has helped me. I’ve always had a very touchy emotional system, I always felt that everyone was out to harm me in some way; I had problems with drugs, boys and just finding myself. I always go to TeenCentral.Net when I just need to get some reassurance, that I am a good person and I am making some right decisions. I go not only for myself but to hear other peoples stories because you often find out when reading that a lot of us teens are alike and sometimes we all need each other to remind ourselves of that. I love reading other people’s posts and giving advice because it truly is tough out there to talk to an adult and it takes a lot of courage. It’s hard talking to your friends and family. Sometimes, you just need someone who understands what you’re going through. I can’t relate to everything but I can relate to how it feels to be alone and not know what you’re going to do. Most of all, I know how it feels to need a helping hand… to know that someone cares. TeenCentral.Net is a website that more and more teens should know about because it truly can make a difference; it has saved my life just through letting me talk. And even though sometimes I don’t think I got exactly what I was looking to hear, I know someone read what I wrote and listened and that means more than anything else.

I am representing TeenCentral.Net because I believe in everything it stands for: talking, asking, listening and believing in yourself as a teen and as a person. I needed TeenCentral.Net when I didn’t know where else to turn. I was about to contact family that I thought for the longest time had turned their back on me. TeenCentral.Net gave me the advice to go through with it, to be cautious and see what might happen. I did and now I’m active in my aunt and my grandmother’s lives. I’ve gotten back a family I thought never loved me. That means more to me than you could ever know, and I want other teens to know that help is just a click away… literally. If you’re not sure ask, because it can make a world of a difference. It did for me, and I love TeenCentral.Net for that.

Note: Check back soon for photos and video from Christina's visit to Giant's Training Camp for an exclusive interview with David Tyree.