Up Beat Issue Number 3 1992

There are two sides to every story. You’ve surely heard that before. Well, it is true. Sometimes there are even three or four sides to a story. It depends how many people were there to tell the tale. Behind every story there is a writer. Behind a picture there is a photographer. And they are ordinary people, like you and me. They eat, sleep and play like the rest of us. Like us, they have their own ideas and feelings about the world. And these ideas show in their stories, books or photographs. So what you read is not the truth. It is someone’s version of it. Always read with an open mind. Be a detective when you read! Ask questions, think, search for clues and weigh up the facts. Then decide for yourself which story comes closest to the truth. You must have learnt about Christopher Columbus at school. Well there’s another side to that story in our article called ‘Who discovered America?’. Read it and decide what YOU think really happened. Upbeat writes a lot about young peoples’ experiences of growing up. There’s another side to being a teenager - being the mother of one. Nomasondo Hadebe openly shares with us the pain and joy of having teenage children. We don’t only learn from grown-ups or famous people (or both). Upbeat is full of stories about youth, their ideas and feelings about the world. By sharing experiences, problems and ideas we can learn from each other. So don’t miss our letters page, advice column and talkshop. Read what young people have to say. You can agree or disagree with their ideas. And when you close the magazine you may feel a little sadder, happier or angrier. But you will always be wise