Learning Network: What Teens Are Saying About Age Limits for Anti-Aging Skin Care

March 14, 2025

Dear Reader,

We love it when educators tell us how they are using The New York Times in their classroom. Joel Neden, an English teacher at New Paltz High School in New Paltz, N.Y., recently told us that his students really enjoyed debating an article about proposed age limits on anti-aging skin care products. We created an argumentative writing prompt about the issue, and this week we published a roundup of some of our favorite student responses.

Do you have ideas to share about how you are teaching with The Times? Let us know at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

In other news, our second annual Open Letters Contest is now accepting submissions until April 16. And, students can post comments and questions for the Opinion columnist Margaret Renkl this week. Ms. Renkl will be reading through the comments and responding to many of them.

Sincerely,
The Learning Network

RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

An illustration of a line of people holding a large envelop, pencil and stamp above their heads

Yukai Du

Contests

Open Letters: Our Opinion-Writing Contest

We invite students to write public-facing letters to people or groups about issues that matter to them. Contest dates: March 12 to April 16, 2025.

By The Learning Network

In a black-and-white image, Representative John Lewis of Georgia walks near a van while holding a suit jacket and wearing a shirt and tie and slacks. He is outside the U.S. Capitol.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Conversations With Journalists

Let’s Discuss: What’s It Like to Be a Professional Opinion Writer?

How do these journalists craft arguments to compel readers? Pose questions for Margaret Renkl, a contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times, by March 20.

By The Learning Network

People walk by the front of a Sephora store that has racks of makeup and various advertisements showing models.

Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

current events conversation

What Teens Are Saying About Age Limits for Anti-Aging Skin Care

Students reacted to a California bill that, if passed, would make it illegal for companies to sell such products to shoppers under 18 years old.

By The Learning Network

A festive Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans.

Sophia Germer/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, via Associated Press

Student News Quiz

Weekly Student News Quiz: Ukraine, LeBron James, $90,000 Cheeto

Have you been paying attention to current events recently? See how many of these 10 questions you can get right.

Compiled by Jeremy Engle

A visualization that represents various kinds of living matter and “technostuff” (bricks, concrete, metals, etc...) in the form of cubes, with sizes proportional to their total weight on Earth.

Brice Ménard and Nikita Shtarkman

What’s Going On in This Graph? | March 26, 2025

What do you notice about the mass of biological (living) forms and mass of technological (man-made) forms on Earth? What do you wonder?

By The Learning Network

Young mask-wearing children playing musical instruments.

Film and Podcast Club

Watch: ‘Instruments of a Beating Heart’

What can we learn from a Japanese elementary school’s effort to balance discipline and freedom?

By The Learning Network

Three adults stand in front of a bookshelf in a school library.

Dave Whitman

Great Ideas From Readers

Want to Teach With Our Contests? Ask Your School Librarian for Help.

Here’s how a team of librarians collaborated with teachers to help students enter our Open Letters Contest — and to create their school’s own competition.

By Joanna Drusin

Desiree Rios for The New York Times

What’s Going On in This Picture? | March 17, 2025

Look closely at this image, stripped of its caption, and join the moderated conversation about what you and other students see.

By The Learning Network

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