Kate Lieimandt, now a high school senior, has been writing The Austin Scholar and sending it out to subscribers weekly since March 2022. She tells ATX Lifestyle she started the newsletter, “To teach parents to understand, motivate, and talk to their teenagers.” Her tagline is, “I tell you what your teen is thinking so you don’t have to guess.”
The newsletter covers topics such as education, life skills, college preparation, and mental health and Kate’s goal is to reach 10,000 subscribers in the next year. If she could give parents one piece of advice on how to better understand their teenagers, she says it would be, “Listen to your teen. Listen to their ramblings about whatever they’re obsessed with at the moment and take the time to learn about their obsessions so you can have engaging conversations with them about it. Listen to their complaints about classes or friends and offer your support. Listen to how they say ‘I love you’ to you and to their friends and try and echo it back. Meet your teenager where they’re at.”
Kate admits, “There is no one-size-fits-all advice I can give to you to help your kid,” but the daughter of Andra and Joe Liemandt, says, “What I can do is tell you how my parents changed my life–and you can take from my stories what you will. The reason that I am able to put myself and my innermost thoughts and emotions in writing and send pieces of my soul to thousands of people each week is because of my parent’s unyielding support. They truly believe that I am capable of doing whatever I put my mind to, and they will do whatever they can to help me along the way. They tell me that they love me and that they support me–but more than that, they show me, and over the past three years, my relationship with my parents has transformed. I went from an angsty teenager who spent all of her time in her room with her door closed to a daughter and a sister who laughs and cries and watches movies with her family. That’s why I can be your ‘cheat code,’ your insight into your teen’s mind so you can help your kid live to their fullest potential - in their academic life, in learning life skills and in their relationship with you.”
Find The Austin Scholar
Newsletter
Link to subscribe andd read previous posts: https://austinscholar.substack.com/
Twitter
@austinscholar, where Kate says provides regular "insights on how you can help your kid thrive in this crazy, changing world."