Young Adult Matters

A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy.

After taking a break for the summer before their senior year, Ryan and Jess rekindle their relationship, and find out that Jess is pregnant with twins. When Ryan's mother demands a paternity test, they find out that Ryan is only the father of one baby... The other father is Ryan's best friend Brent, who Ryan discovers date-raped Jess at a party over the summer. With college recruiters and an overbearing father looming over Brent's head, he will stop at nothing to make sure that he clears his name--even if it means getting rid of Jess and her babies!

A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.

After running away from her abusive mother, a streetwise teen seeks refuge with her father, but he rejects her when he learns that she's pregnant.

After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.

As one of the youngest Planned Parenthood clinic directors in the nation, Abby Johnson was involved in upwards of 22,000 abortions and counseled countless women on their reproductive choices. Her passion surrounding a woman's right to choose led her to become a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, fighting to enact legislation for the cause she so deeply believed in. Until the day she saw something that changed everything.

A single mistake puts a 19-year old girl behind bars, where she experiences the terrors and torments of women in prison.

A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

When a housewife finds out she is pregnant, she runs out of town looking for freedom to reevaluate her life decisions.

Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.

Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. Doug escapes to New Orleans on a business trip. Compelled by urgencies he doesn’t understand, he insinuates himself into the life of an underage hooker, becoming her platonic guardian.

In Harlem in 1987, Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father, and at home she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret – she can't read.

In lieu of prison, Lyle, a violent adolescent, is placed in a juvenile mental institution where he encounters a group of equally troubled teens. This motley crew—abused, sexually confused, violent, and yet hanging on by their grit and anger—becomes Lyle's last lifeline as he fights to find meaning in a world that seems to defy understanding.

When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani American teenager Hala struggles to balance desire with her family, cultural, and religious obligations. As she comes into her own, she grapples with a secret that threatens to unravel her family.

Coming of age story about two inner city youths, who are left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities.

A ride-share turns into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after it follows a car fitting the description of an AMBER Alert.

Based on a true story. 15-year-old Kara Robinson was kidnapped, assaulted and held captive for 18 hours. With her survival instincts kicking in, she plots a daring escape from the serial killer and leads police to his apartment.

A bright young teenager from a broken home uses his quick wits and glib tongue to get out of trouble - but they also get him into it.

A Liverpool gang member wins a singing contest is then called up for National Service where he clashes with another soldier.

A new teacher at a highly problematic comprehensive school feels that corporal punishment may just be inflaming the problems, and so begins to campaign against it.

After fleeing from his foster family, 11-years-old Khamsa returns to the gypsy camp where he was born. With his cousin, Tony "The Midget", Khamsa dreams of getting rich with cock fights. Nothing seems to have changed since he left, the card games, the Mediterranean Sea... Until his best friend, Coyote, meets Rachitique, a small-time crook. Very soon they pass from stealing scooters to armed robbery, and Khamsa quickly spirals down into delinquency.

Trouble finds Maeda, a good-for-nothing outcast with dreams of becoming a boxing champ, soon after enrolling at Teiken High School. His cavalier clumsiness has a way of attracting attention from gang leaders, school staff, and the precocious schoolgirl Chiaki. When a dangerous new gang leader threatens to upend order in the school, Maeda puts his training to work — along with every brain cell he can muster — to protect the balance of power.

A day of Hyo-jeong, a first-year student in high school, who repeats a routine endlessly.

Three troubled young girls will do anything to escape their stifling lives - even if it means turning to drugs and prostitution. Set in the generation of smartphones and web 2.0, the technology may have made communication easier than ever, but cautionary tales of misunderstood youths remain as relevant as they were two decades ago.

Two teen girls see their long-time friendship crumble from the pressures of adulthood in their last year of high school.

When Holly’s dark secret is accidentally uncovered by her new emotionally unstable neighbor Tom, they are pulled into a violent confrontation with her father, who will do anything to keep the secret hidden.

A 14-year-old pursues romance with a man while vacationing with her family in Switzerland.

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.

Two college roommates have 24 hours to make the ultimate choice as they finalize arrangements for a black market abortion.

Lorena, a 13-year-old girl, discovers she is pregnant and faces a storm of emotions and decisions. While her mother rejoices at the news, she silently struggles with fear, guilt, and the pressure of an uncertain future. In her search for a way out, she embarks on a solitary path that will test her strength and her limits.

Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.

King is a young man, but he's already a veteran of life on the streets of Los Angeles. The de facto leader of a group of teenage runaways, King acts as a mentor to troubled kids such as gay hustler Little J and junkie Greg. When Heather, a beautiful girl from Chicago, starts hanging out with King and his crew, it changes the dynamic of the gang. However, it seems as though nothing will alter their dangerous lifestyle.

A pious 20-year-old juvenile delinquent is sent to work at a sawmill in a small town; on arrival, he dresses up as a priest and accidentally takes over the local parish. The arrival of this young, charismatic preacher is an opportunity for the local community to begin the healing process after a tragedy that happened a year prior.

With his mother dead and his father busy at work, Howie feels adrift in his New York suburb. He and his friend Gary spend their time burglarizing their neighbors' homes — until they make the mistake of robbing the house of Big John, a macho former Marine who is also an unrepentant pedophile. He propositions Howie, who declines, but the two eventually develop an unlikely and dangerous friendship.

A teenage girl flees abuse at home to join a strong but troubled young woman that’s been living on the streets. She joins a de facto family of other homeless youth struggling to survive on the streets of Los Angeles.

Novalee Nation is a 17-year-old Tennessee transient who has to grow up in a hurry when she's left pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend on a roadside, and takes refuge in the friendly aisles of Wal-Mart. Eventually, some eccentric but kindly strangers 'adopt' Novalee and her infant daughter, helping them buck the odds and build a new life.