The recession has hit lots of folks hard, and among the hardest, are children.
Kids, after all, are one of the most economically disadvantaged groups; more than 13 million are poor by the official poverty standard, and nearly 30 million live in low-income families, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty.
You can imagine, too, how scary it is for a child to see a parent lose a job, and struggle. It can cause feelings of instability and even anger.
Which is why it's so great that there's journalist Linda Ellerbee. On Sunday night at 8, Ellerbee and Nick News present "$tressed Out! The Economic Crisis and You," a show in which young people talk about how they and their families have been affected by the nation's economic woes.
Durham's Darius Evans (that's him, next to the girl in red) is among the kids talking. He's an 8th grader at Shepard Magnet Middle School, who says he likes science and wants to be a song producer.
Darius was recommended to the folks at Nick by his assistant principal Ericka Boone, whom Darius says, "wants me to experience new things."
Ms. Boone agrees, but she also knew that Darius' mom had lost her job. The school, she says, knows that middle schoolers face a lot of stress, so it held a seminar on kids and stress. "With all the testing and the economy, these kids are under so much stress," she says. "We wanted to make the parents more aware."
Darius, she noticed, was acting differently. And after a talk she found out why. When the Nick News people came calling, she thought of Darius. "I knew he was charismatic enough that they would want him," she laughs. "He's a very bright child."
Though pretty cool over the phone, Ms. Boone says Darius was very excited about his trip to New York. He said the worse part were the microphones: 'they put a speaker in your pants and it hurts." The best part? "Telling people I'm going to be on TV."
Ms. Boone says she hopes seeing Darius talk about his experience on TV will help other children feel more comfortable expressing what they might be going through. "He's a very outgoing child, mature in some aspects, maybe because of some of the things he's gone through. I think other kids might see him and think it is OK to talk."
Darius says he's planning a low-key viewing party on Sunday. "I'll have my family come over and watch, nothing big."
Assistant Features Editor Adrienne Johnson Martin would like to have her life turned into an animated cartoon.