October 28, 2016: Teenagers form an important part of society. Adolescence is also a very tricky stage of life when one is neither a child nor an adult. Lack of proper understanding of the stage leads to confusion and as a result, creates circumstances when most of the teenagers are often misunderstood by society.

Here are some facts about teenagers and their habits:

• Looks are very important to teenagers, especially girls! Around 70 percent of girls aged between 15 to 17 years try avoiding daily routine, even attending school because they think they don't look good enough.

• Low self-esteem can a have very serious impact on adolescents. Statistics show that 75 percent of girls with low self-esteem engaged in self-detrimental activities such as smoking, cutting etc. , whereas only 25 percent of girls with high self-esteem engaged in such negative activities.

• Depression is becoming shockingly common among teenagers. Studies show that nearly 20 percent teens go through depression at least one before reaching adulthood.

• Teenagers, especially girls, strongly wish to have better communication with their parents.

• Around 6 percent of middle and high school boys admit that they have tried steroids. 38 percent admitted using protein supplements.

• 7 out of every 10 girls don't feel confident about their looks, school performance and social life.

• The self-esteem of a girl depends more on her own perspective of her body and weight rather than the actual facts.

• Prescription drugs have killed more teenagers than heroin and cocaine combined!

• Statistics show that 1 out of 9 high school seniors has tried synthetic marijuana.

• Nearly 64 percent teenagers who have admitted to using pain relievers admit that they got them from their friends and relatives.

• Youngsters who drink alcohol regularly are around 50 times more likely to abuse the teens who don't drink.

• In 2012, a total of 15 percent high school seniors used prescription drugs. Almost 35 percent of them admit that regular use is risky.

• Nearly 28 percent of adolescents know a friend who has tried ecstasy. 17 percent of them know multiple users.

• By the time teenagers reach 8th grade, 29.5 percent of them have tried alcohol, 15.5 percent have smoked cigarettes, and 15 percent have tried marijuana.

• Teens whose parents communicate with them on a regular basis about the dangers of drugs are 42 percent less likely to try drugs than those whose parents don't. However, only one- fourth of the teens report having these talks.

• Less than 2% of teenagers have had sex by the time they reach 12 years of age. But teenage is a time of quick change. Only 6% of teens have had sex by age 15, compared with one-third of those aged 16, nearly half (48%) of those aged 17, 61% of 18-year-olds and 71% of 19-year-olds. There is a little difference by gender in the timing of first sex.

• More than 50 percent of all teenagers aged 15-19 has tried oral sex. 55 percent of boys and 54 percent of girls have given or received oral sex, while 49 percent of boys and 53 percent of girls have had intercourse.

• On average, young people have sex for the first time when they become 17 years old.

• Around 1 million adolescents every year becomes pregnant. Up to 95 % of those pregnancies were unplanned and unwanted.

• 3 in 10 teenage mothers do not finish high school. The ones who do complete high school are less likely to start college than non-teen mothers.

• The rate of Teenage pregnancy is directly dependent on the income and education of the adolescent 's family. Almost 50 percent of the girls living in poverty will become pregnant before reaching adulthood.

• For every sexually active teenager, one out of four will get an STD within a year.

• European adolescents are more likely than American teens to use contraceptives ; hence they have considerably lower pregnancy rates.

• Three percent of males and 8% of females between 18 and 19 years of age in 2006–2008 admitted their sexual orientation as homosexual or bisexual. During the same period, 12% of females aged 18–19 admitted same-sex behaviours (any sexual experience, including oral sex), compared to 4% of males in the same age-group.

• CDC researchers have studied that 2.2 percent of American adults aged 14-39 had Chlamydia. Almost 1 out of 20 women aged 14-19, 4.6 percent, were infected. In 2003, 877,478 such cases were reported in the U.S, making it the most commonly reported STD, the CDC said.

• Around 50 percent of all new STDs in 2000 occurred among youth aged between 15 to 24.

– by Pragya Arora of NewsGram. Twitter: @Wanderlust6400