Check out these recent articles from around the web:

Why American Teens Are So Sad by Derek Thompson: “The Internet exposes teenagers not only to supportive friendships but also to bullying, threats, despairing conversations about mental health, and a slurry of unsolvable global problems—a carnival of negativity. Social media places in every teen’s pocket a quantified battle royal for scarce popularity that can displace hours of sleep and makes many teens, especially girls, feel worse about their body and life. Amplify these existing trends with a global pandemic and an unprecedented period of social isolation, and suddenly, the remarkable rise of teenage sadness doesn’t feel all that mysterious, does it?”

Pope Francis says the synod must hear ‘excluded’ voices. These five dioceses are trying. by Brian Fraga: “Diocesan officials, chaplains, social workers, lay ministers, parish leaders and others are listening to people with intellectual and physical disabilities. They are reaching out to those in prisons, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and mobile home communities. Pastors have organized parish listening sessions for LGBTQ parishioners and seasonal farmworkers near the U.S. southern border.”

Amazon Workers on Staten Island Vote to Unionize in Landmark Win for Labor by NY Times: “Workers at the facility voted by a wide margin to form a union, according to results released on Friday, in one of the biggest victories for organized labor in a generation.”

At long last, the U.S. recognizes what the Rohingya already knew by Wai Wai Nu: “On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially declared that the U.S. government defines the crimes perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people as a genocide.”

Parents Who Stay Home Should Get Public Child Care Support Too by Matt Bruenig: “As other states take up the child care question in the years ahead, they should opt for a more expansive policy that provides public support to all children, not just those enrolled in formal child care centers.”

The child tax credit was a lifeline. Now some families are falling back into poverty by Sarah McCammon, Lauren Hodges, Sarah Handel: “The payments from the child tax credit were closing the gaps on child hunger and poverty across America. And in the months since they ended, there’s evidence that the families who needed the money the most have already slipped back into financial trouble.”

How I’m Preparing for My Second Season of New Motherhood by Ellen Koneck: “I know now that that interiority and creativity returns. And in my experience, when it returns, it’s better and deeper and richer for having spent so much creative energy on creating and sustaining life rather than working in abstractions.”