Throwdowns with parents. Bud brawls. Fear of talking to that cutie in chem. It's all so negative. With a few tweaks, you can turn relationship woes into positive vibes.

1. Chat up the crush
It's hard to imagine uttering actual words to the boy you're gaga over, but vow to make a move! Start by simply tossing a smile. Next, kick it up by saying “hi” and asking about his weekend. It might make him comfortable enough to strike up the convo next time. Boys need confidence boosters, just like you do.

2. Make a peace treaty with sibs
Brothers, sisters…they can be a major pain. But admit it -- sometimes you aren't so easy to live with either. Do something fun with a younger sibling on your terms. By giving a little, you'll get a fat dose of respect in return. Wanna get closer to an older sib? Throw an occasional nonchalant compliment instead of nagging and tagging along. Your subtle show of maturity will earn major respect.

3. Be more patient with parents
Do the 'rents need to know everything you do? Look, they love you -- A LOT. But to avoid certain subjects, be the conversation starter. Serve up a few fun facts about your life. This way you keep the topics to your liking, and they feel they're getting to know the person you're growing up to be.

4. Don't sweat the petty friendship stuff
Friends often feel left out…even if the gang had good intentions. Overreacting can explode into a full-on bud battle. Dodge the bud-blowout bullet if you make a pact to shoot each other straight. Two pals didn't invite you to movie night? Gently tell 'em you'd love to be included next time, without creating drama.

5. See teachers as allies, not the enemy
When you score a less-than-stellar grade on a class project, your gut reflex might be to blame an “insanely difficult” teacher. But they aren't the bad guys -- they just want you to learn. Meeting with a teacher after school shows you're making an effort…and you might pick up clues on what to expect from the next pop quiz!

In the vast land of video games, could it be that the industry is neglecting the girl population? Recent reports prove that girls like to get their game on just as much as boys do. But game developers seem to be missing the mark when it comes to making games that really get girls stoked!

Hey, Fair Play!
“The stereotype that only boys play video games is far from true,” says a recent Pew Research report. “Girls constitute a large (if not equal) percentage of total gamers.” The study found that of the 12- to 17-year-olds surveyed, a full 97 percent play computer, Web, portal or console games. Almost all of the boys -- 99 percent! -- report regularly playing video games, and girls aren’t far behind at a surprising close 94 percent.

Get This Party Started
According to a report titled Girl Power: Understanding This Important Consumer Segment, tween girls, ages 9 to 12, are particularly into virtual-world online games. “Girls, in general, are famously social creatures,” says industry analyst Anita Frazier. “The growth in use of social networking and virtual-world Web sites for girls is a natural extension of this core value, which needs to be recognized by manufacturers who count girls as a primary market for their goods and services.” Let us paraphrase: Game makers need to get a clue as to what girl gamers like!

Fun on the Phone
Seems girls are more likely than boys to engage in gaming on a cellie. Fifty-three percent of girls play games on cell phones, compared with fourty-three percent of boys, even though boys are equally as likely as girls to have a cell. But owning a phone isn’t necessarily a factor -- twenty-one percent of teens who play games on cells do not have one of their own.

Battle of the Sexists
Researchers who conducted a University of Maryland study of students with a mean age of 19 years determined that video games probably promote gender stereotypes. Who hasn’t noticed that most female video game characters are overly sexualized? The study found males were more likely to find such depictions acceptable, while the females weren’t so forgiving of unrealistic images that paint women as sex objects. The dudes thought of it as “harmless entertainment.” The gals saw it as a “negative influence.”

Boys vs. Girls
While there are nearly as many girl gamers as boys, the guys tend to spend more time at the console. Play every day? Thirty-nine percent of boys report daily game play, compared with twenty-two percent of girls. And when boys do play, they stick it out for longer periods: Thirty-four percent of boys and eighteen percent of girls play for two hours or more a day. Perhaps girls would put in extra playtime if there were more games to get them jazzed. Part of the problem is that women represent less than twelve percent of the game development industry. Organizations, such as Women In Games International and the International Game Developers Association’s Women In Games Special Interest Group, are working to enlist more women in the game industry. So don’t hit “quit” just yet!

Hey, it’s not that girls don’t want to play sports. But a recent Women’s Sports Foundation study shows that many girls still aren’t getting a fair shake in the athletic arena. That’s out of bounds! Especially when it’s been shown (and this research confirms) that kids who participate in sports are healthier and happier, get better grades and have more family involvement.

The Gender Gap
Yep, there’s a gender gap in physical activity between girls and boys. In general, boys are exposed to more athletic opportunities than girls. In the United States, a staggering 68 percent of girls living in rural communities have no physical education classes at all in 11^th and 12^th grades. For urban girls in the same grades, a whopping 84 percent report no phys ed!

An Uneven Score
Not all girls are losing out. In some communities -- usually suburban -- girls and boys get equal playtime. But girls from urban areas, which are often economically challenged and have fewer school resources, are the ones largely left out of the game. One in four 9^th- to 12^th-grade urban girls has never participated in an organized school team sport.

Nothin’ About Biology
OK, so some people might think boys are just naturally more interested than girls in sports. Wrong! The study finds that girls’ and boys’ differences have more to do with opportunity and encouragement. In fact, boys tend to exaggerate their enthusiasm for sports (maybe they think it’s expected of them). Forty-two percent of third- to eighth-grade boys said “sports are a big part of who they are” even though they weren’t athletes!

Girls Got Boys Beat
While girls are less athletically involved overall, they participate in a way wider array of various activities than the boys do. The boys tend to stick to the traditional old-school stuff, but the girls do that and then some. They explore recreational activities, like double Dutch, dance, cheerleading and volleyball, that break away from the strictly conventional.

Late in the Game
Girls generally get involved in sports at a later age than the boys. On average, boys join the team at around 6 years of age, and girls jump in when they’re about 7-years-old. Girls also drop out of the game a lot earlier and in greater numbers than boys, and some researchers blame this on the late start setting girls up for failure. This usually happens during the middle school years, but perhaps this will encourage you to stay in the game: Girls who participate in a team sport are more content with their lives than girls who don’t play sports.

Make the Team
Researchers observed that the positive social, health and educational (triple threat!) benefits of being athletic were most apparent in girls and boys right around sixth- through eighth-grades. So, what’s a girl to do if her school doesn’t offer any sports opps? Well, the report’s title says it all: Get Out and Play! Round up your crew, and start a dance club, plot a bike route or kick off a soccer game in the park. Better yet, get the gals to rally your rec center or school officials about getting girls active in organized athletics. There’s no way you can’t win!