Ask for help
Scarleteen began with direct questions from young people and continues to offer and prioritize our direct services. You can access different kinds of help from us tailored just for you, with our text service, live chat, moderated message boards, and more. We can provide all of our direct services to people age 13 and up.
Direct Services
Message Boards
Whether you’re looking for information or help for yourself, want to read or take part in a group discussion, or offer up support for others, you can talk to staff, volunteers, and peers on the boards. They’re open 24/7 most days of the year, and are actively moderated for everyone’s safety and security.
Text/SMS
The SMS service is available for short conversations 24/7 most days of the year. It is free, but message and data rates apply, just like with any texts you send or receive to or from anyone. It is also limited to texters in the U.S.
To opt-out, just text STOP to 66746 anytime.
Advice
Advice questions with in-depth responses from our fantastic writers are the OG Scarleteen format. Although we read every submission, only some will result in replies or published columns, so for immediate and guaranteed answers, you can submit your question to our other services, too.
Live Chat
For direct service users who may only feel safe, who may otherwise benefit from additional privacy or longer interactions than we can offer via our text service, or who cannot access our other services, we may offer chat when we have staff available.
We are not offering drop-in chat times, or accepting chat requests as we have in the past, due to staffing shortfalls and increased levels of abuse our team has recently been experiencing.
IMPORTANT: By using any of our services you are agreeing to follow our user guidelines and policies. Please note that none of our services are appropriate for medical emergencies and that anyone under 13 requires parental consent to use our services. You can read more on this and how to use our direct services by clicking here.
Scarleteen’s direct services are open and available most days of the year, except for the following holidays:
- New Year’s Day (1/1)
- Martin Luther King Day (1/20)
- Holi (3/14)
- Last day of Ramadan (3/30)
- Passover (4/13)
- Juneteenth (6/19)
- Labor Day (9/1)
- Rosh Hashanah (9/23)
- Yom Kippur (10/2)
- Diwali (10/20)
- Halloween (10/31)
- 1st day of Hanukkah (12/14)
- Christmas Day (12/25)
Other options
Other Resources
Need something we can’t provide or just want to check out other sites?
Click here to view our collection of 186 external resources.
Something else? Email Us
For things like parent questions, media queries or partnership asks, send us an email using our contact form.
