Hi everybody, welcome back!

It's time for a brand new episode of News Bites!

I'm Nancy Sun.

And I'm Brody Halverson.

In today's stories, social media causes anxiety among Taiwanese teens, and an emotional support alligator Wally brings joy to his community!

Let's get started!
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台灣青少年的身體形象焦慮
Body Image Anxiety Among Taiwanese Teens

Do you use social media (社群媒體)?

Do you scroll (滑) through Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok without thinking?

Do you know what social media does to our minds?

A survey from The Child Welfare League Foundation (兒福聯盟) found that social media causes body image anxiety (身體形象焦慮) for many Taiwanese teenagers.

Over 70% of middle and high school students do not like how they look.

This is almost 3 in every 4 kids!

Many students try to change how they look by using filters (濾鏡) or editing (編輯) their photos.

Sometimes, they edit their pictures so much that the pictures do not look real.

Sometimes, they do not share their pictures because they worry about what other people will think of them.

Seeing pretty pictures of other people causes teenagers to feel less confident (自信) about themselves.

The foundation hopes people will pay attention to this problem and suggests (提議) some ways to reduce (減少) the anxiety.

First, we can spend less time on the Internet and on social media.

Parents can spend more family time with children away from their devices.

Second, we can turn off social media notifications, so we do not check the apps as often.

This will also help reduce anxiety.

Third, we can practice positive affirmations.

Look into the mirror and tell yourself, "I want to like you, and I want to learn how to truly love you!"

Psychologists (心理學家) say that positive affirmations (正面肯定句) can help us build confidence and be happier.

This means that the more positive thoughts we think and say about ourselves, the more we will believe in them!

我們對自己說越多正面肯定話，我們就會越相信自己！

It is important to know that everyone is beautiful in their own way.

You are unique, and no one else is like you!
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情感支持鱷魚沃利
Emotional support alligator Wally

You might have seen therapy dogs (治療犬) around…

But have you seen an emotional support alligator (情感支持鱷魚)?

Wally was an emotional support alligator owned by Joie Henney from Philadelphia.

When Wally was 1 year old, Joie rescued (拯救) him from Florida and brought him home.

Joie built a 1100-liter pond in his living room for Wally.

That's about the size of 5 bathtubs!

Wally liked to eat cheese puffs, and he enjoyed watching "The Lion King".

He grew to about 2 meters long!

Wally became Joie's important friend.

He took Wally out on walks on a leash (牽繩), and Wally even slept with him in the same bed!

Joie was receiving treatment for cancer, and he said Wally brought him a lot of comfort.

Joie noticed that Wally calmed people down.

For some reason, Wally did not bite people.

Joie started taking Wally to schools and senior living centers (養老院).

The students and elders were very happy to see him.

Wally是一隻很特別的鱷魚，牠不會咬人，而且很和善！牠的主人常帶著牠去探望學校和老人院。

At one school, Wally met a boy with Tourette's syndrome (妥瑞症).

The boy's tics (抽動) stopped while he was petting Wally.

One of Wally's teeth had been wiggling (搖晃), so Joie pulled it out and gifted it to the boy!

The tooth is very special to the boy to this day.

Wally also helped people with anxiety and depression feel happier!

Wally became very famous, gaining 153,000 followers on TikTok.

Unfortunately, one day Wally was taken without permission (許可).

He was caught by a trapper who did not know he had an owner and released into a swamp (濕地) earlier this year.

But there are also other unique emotional support animals around.

There's "Cuddle Quack" the emotional support duck, and Pita Peppa the emotional support pig, and Travis the emotional support llama (大羊駝), just to name a few!
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So in today's News Bites:

A survey from The Child Welfare League Foundation finds that social media causes anxiety among over 70% of Taiwanese teenagers.

Many use filters or edit how they look.

The foundation encourages people to spend less time on social media and practice positive affirmations.
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And…

Emotional support alligator Wally became a special friend to cancer patient Joie.

Wally visited many schools and nursing homes.

Wally helped many people with anxiety and depression feel happier!
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趣味小點
Tasty Tidbit

For today's Tasty Tidbit…

Did you know alligators can go through up to 4,000 teeth in a lifetime?

Alligators have 80 teeth, and each tooth can regrow up to 50 times!

And that's it for today's episode of News Bites!

If you have a fun fact, a joke or an interesting news story you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to newsbites@icrt.com.tw, and you might hear it at the end of an episode.

We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!