Adolescence brings hormonal and bodily changes with confusing and life altering concepts of identity, sexuality and the questioning of life yet to come. Growing up can be distinctly complicated when Latino. In a new collection of student essays, "Growing Up Latino, Teens Write About Hispanic-American Identity" by Youth Communication, which compiles a series of Latino teen essays that are both proactive and insightful. All together this collection of essays explore what it means to be a teenager and a Latino.

Taken from New Youth Connections newspaper, from the last 18 years of publication, edited by Keith Hefner and Hope Vanderberg, the collection brings a myriad of points of view from the young Hispanic experience.

In Sayda Morales's essay "Penguin in the Sahara," the author writes of going to prep school from the South Bronx and how she is perceived by her affluent and White classmates. She takes it upon herself to educate those around her about being Latina as well as developing a sense of self-awareness.

Morales writes, "There's more to Latin America than Mexico. I've made it my goal to educate my classmates about Latin American culture, about how there's a difference between being Honduran and Cuban and Panamanian. And that you can listen to rap or play golf or sing opera, and still be Hispanic."

There are essays that discuss how the author fits in, issues of race and self-categorization that go along with identity building. Take for example, Anghela Calvo who writes of missing her family in Boliva and New York. In "Torn Between Two Countries," Calvo felt confused and sad about where and how she fit in.

In another essay, filled with youthful determination to change the world, David Miranda writes that no one has taken social action like The Young Lords did in the 1970s. Miranda tells other young people to stop complaining and do something to change the world.

"In What I Learned from Roberto Clemente," by Luis Reyes, the author writes, "Learning about Roberto Clemente made me believe that if I work hard now, I can be somebody. Knowing about Clemente made me see that Latino children could be as successful as any white, Chinese or black person on this planet."

"Growing Up Latino" is chock full of inspiring and insightful confessions like Reyes's. Besides present conditions in their lives, students look to family, grandparents, Mayan ruins, food and traditions to define their value and worth in their here and now American society. The struggles presented in this book represent the searching, questioning and understanding adult Latinos still grapple with today.

That's the thing about these young Latino explorations and recollections; they're all filled with the desire to change themselves and the world around them. Many of these young authors see themselves hanging between two cultures and at times not knowing how they fit into their own Hispanic culture. They search for their unique qualities as individuals and as Hispanics in the greater American pluralist society.

For nearly 30 years, Youth Communication and New Youth Connections newspaper has educated young high school students on the craft of journalism. NYC has taught research, writing, editing, photography and graphic art skills to high school teenagers who create and write their own monthly newspaper. (In full disclosure, this reviewer was a student at NYC years ago.) Even more than that, NYC allows students to write and discover who they are and what's important to them.

"Growing Up Latino" represents a harvest of Latino cogitations on the importance of self-awareness. The collection can also serve as a valuable educational resource for teachers and students. For anyone who reads "Growing Up Latino," they will see their own growing pains. It's a high school yearbook full of self-remembrance and self-reflection, a time long gone with memories as clear as yesterday.