This unprecedented look into the lives and social groups of boys across America is a parent and teacher's key to understanding the hidden hopes, fears, pains, and passions of their sons and students. Male teenage cliques have come a long way since the days of the Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High , when most adolescents could be lumped together as either Jocks, Druggies, or Nerds. After crisscrossing the country--meeting with boys from varying cultures, creeds and socio-economic backgrounds, and geographic regions ranging from Seattle to Miami, Boston to Chicago--investigative journalist Malina Saval introduces readers to the next generation of male teens by creating a new series of archetypes and redrawing the ever-expanding social map. The Secret Lives of Boys is an uncensored look into boyhood culture and reveals with unabashed honesty spine-tingling confessions, heartrending sadness and isolation, unbridled optimism and seemingly boundless resilience. By listening without judging, Saval has created an authoritative entrée into the clandestine culture of boyhood, lending a voice to a demographic undeservedly jilted. This book asks the pertinent questions: Who are these boys? What do they think of themselves ? How can we advise them properly in a way that they will not resist? Saval digs deep to uncover what binds these boys, what makes them different, what they want you to know.