Welcome to the North Pole Adventure

    The North Pole Adventure is a one-of-a-kind interactive Christmas attraction for the entire family. Unlike other Christmas attractions, it is open from November 25 until Christmas Eve. It is not a guided tour. While elves (小精灵) are throughout the adventure to interact with your children, your kids can spend as much time in each area as they wish. The adventure features a replica(复制品) of the North Pole including everything you imagine at Santa's North Pole.

Santa's House

    Kids will experience what it's like at the North Pole and see first-hand what it takes for Santa and his elves to get ready for Christmas each year. The memories your children will take away from Santa's House will be ones they will remember for a life time.

Post Office

    All kids will be assisted by Santa's elves in writing a letter to Santa and then depositing it in Santa's magical mailbox. A few days before Christmas, they will receive letters at their own homes from Santa.

Elf University

    Elf University is the place where elves go to school. It's also the place where kids enjoy making Christmas presents, coloring Christmas pictures, and even filling out applications to become elves one day.

Admission：

    Buy your tickets online to avoid waiting in line. If the tickets sell out when you buy them online, there will still be tickets available at the ticket office.

    A new high tech mirror, designed specifically for cancer patients, will only become reflective when a user smiles into it. The plug-in device, which exactly looks like a tablet, comes equipped with a mirror, a built-in camera, and a smart material triggered(触发)by some software. Facial recognition technology captures the face and instructs the surface of the mirror to change when a smile is detected. It can hang on a wall or sit on a table, much like a conventional mirror. Unlike a regular mirror, however, the price is currently standing at a surprising $2000—$3000.

    After witnessing a close family member struggle through cancer treatments, Turkish industrial designer Berk Ilhan decided to focus his work primarily on products that would cultivate joy and benefit cancer patients directly.

    “She told me in the first days after her diagnosis, it was difficult for her to look in the mirror and acknowledge she had cancer.” he said.“ Our facial expressions affect how we feel. If we flex(绷紧)our facial muscles to smile, our brains think that something good happened and as a result, we feel happiness.”

    After earning his master's degree at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Ilhan spent several weeks visiting cancer hospitals in Turkey, speaking to both patients and doctors. He spent two years designing and developing the mirror. The idea behind it is that smiling, even when forced, can make us feel better, according to research known as the facial feedback hypothesis. Laughter is linked to improved immune system function, and some researchers claim it can even increase our lifespans.

Ilhan is currently producing the mirror in limited quantities at the previously mentioned price. The product, however, will soon be launching a campaign in which Ilhan hopes to raise enough funds to bring the price down to $500.He also intends to donate the mirror to hospitals when it is financially possible to do so.

Teen Ink Contests

    Educator of the Year Contest

    Do you know an outstanding school teacher, coach, librarian, or principal? Recommend that special teacher and give him/her the chance to be recognized in a national magazine!

    Convince us your educator is special. Tell us about his or her style of teaching, involvement in school activities, and community service. Give examples with specific details. Keep your essay between 200 and 1,000 words.

    Prizes:

    Cash awards will be given to educators from across the country honored as Teen Ink Educators of the Year. Winning essays are published in Teen Ink magazine.

    Deadlines:

    The deadline for submitting Educator of the Year essays is April 30. Entries are accepted and considered for publication in Teen Ink magazine throughout the year.

    Cover Art Contest

    Want your photo or artwork to appear on the cover of a national magazine? Submit your images now!

    Teen Ink will only consider photos and artwork by teens. The subjects should primarily be other teens. The best images for the cover are clear, in color, and close up.

    Submit entries through our website. All photographs and artwork submitted to Teen Ink are automatically considered for the cover art contest.

    Prizes:

    Every month one image is selected to appear on the cover of Teen Ink magazine. Winners receive a copy of the magazine featuring their image.

    Deadlines:

    There are no deadlines; images are accepted and published throughout the year. Keep in mind 迁 your submission has a seasonal or holiday theme, it's best to send it early.

    Nonfiction Contest

    Make us laugh, move us to tears... write a memorable nonfiction piece and you may be one of our two monthly winners.

    Teen Ink will only consider original writing by teens. Entries of all kinds are accepted serious, funny, long or short. We like to read them all!

    Prizes:

    Winning articles are published in Teen Ink magazine, and contest winners receive a copy of the magazine featuring their work.

    Deadlines:

    There are no deadlines; entries are accepted throughout the year. Winning nonfiction pieces are published in Teen Ink magazine and online each month.

    Fourth-grader Alice Tapper was on a school field trip when she noticed that most of the girls quietly stayed at the back of the group, while the boys gathered at the front and raised their hands to answer questions. The 11-year-old then realized how often she and her female classmates didn't speak up in class for fears of getting an answer wrong and being embarrassed.

    She decided to change this and launched a campaign to encourage girls to have faith in themselves, even take risks and be leaders —— and support other girls in doing the same. With assistance from her Girl Scout troop (女童子军), she created a new Raise Your Hand program, and soon girls around the country were taking a pledge(承诺) to raise their hands in class.

    In my work as an administration coach I see many women (and some men) with habits that are holding them back. Women at work tend to hang back in meetings for fear they may not have the right answer. They will spend countless hours (and sometimes days) replaying the tapes in their head, while males in similar situations simply move on, until they are perfect when instead they should be establishing relationships. The truth is that after a year no one remembers your nice report. Forget perfect. It doesn't exist. Say what's on your mind and let things go.

    Similarly, women tend to talk more softly than men, which can be problematic, especially the higher up in the organization you go. To have an influence on business, it's not enough to have a seat at the table. You have to have a voice and people have to hear from you. Don't wait for an invitation. Raise your hand, say what you have to say, and when you see an opportunity, go for it!

    Drive through any suburb in the U.S. today, and it's hard to miss the bins that have become companions to America's trash cans. Recycling has become commonplace, as people recognize the need to care for the environment. Yet most people's recycling consciousness extends only as far as paper, bottles, and cans. People seldom find themselves facing the growing problem of e-waste.

    E-waste rapidly increases as the techno-fashionable frequently upgrade to the most advanced device and the majority of them end up in landfills (垃圾填埋地). Some people who track such waste say that users throw away nearly 2 million tons of TVs, VCRs, computers, cell phones, and other electronics every day. Unless we can find a safe replacement, this e-waste may get into the ground and poison the water with dangerous toxins (毒素), such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Burning the waste also dangerously contaminates the air.

    However, e-waste often contains reusable silver, gold, and other electrical materials. Recycling these materials reduces environmental problems by reducing both landfill waste and the need to look for such metals, which can destroy ecosystems.

    A growing number of states have adopted laws to ban dumping (倾倒) e-waste. Still, less than a quarter of this waste will reach lawful recycling programs. Some companies advertising safe disposal (处置) in fact merely ship the waste to some developing countries, where it still ends up in landfills. These organizations prevent progress by unsafely disposing of waste in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind location.

    However, the small but growing number of cities and corporations that do handle e-waste responsibly represents progress toward making the world a cleaner, better place for us all.

    Dearborn Heights, Michigan—2.7 million children under 18 have a parent in prison, and women put in local prisons are the fastest growing population. Shawna Reynolds has seen some of those women up close while working in the corrections system(劳教所) for 17 years, and she was encouraged to try something different.

    After seven years of education and collecting as much money as she could, Shawna created About Face Course Correction—a one-year rehabilitation program(康复项目) that offers a more personal way to help non-violent women prisoners. The program includes classes for women to finish their education, find a job and So on. "You can't expect people who have been in prison to stay in prison," Shawna says. "YOU want them to be helpful people but if you are not going to help them, it's not going to happen."

    The women live free for a year in a house in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Women like 20-year-old Jennifer Douglas, who dropped out of school, took drugs(吸毒), and has spent years in and out of prison. She says, "I was doing things I would never have thought I would do in my whole life. Because of About Face, Jennifer's life is changing. " "Everyone is starting to trust me again and proud of me and what I'm doing," she says. "It's helped me a lot. It has kept me on the right track."

    There are many other women like Jennifer. Every woman's story is different, but each woman is important. And Shawna is determined to break the cycle and help them turn their lives around. She is using her own money and donations to pay for the house and this program. If you would like to donate, please visit their Go Fund Me account here.