Some ride the subway alone. Others cannot leave home unescorted. They hang out on Broadway and at Target. They play on the swings with the little kids, then bike home in the dark through traffic-choked streets. They exchange daily pleasantries with doormen and bodega owners and grapple with the incomprehensible fact that some people sleep on the sidewalk.

They are New Yorkers of a certain age: 13, give or take a year or two, straddling the border of childhood and adolescence. And as they move toward independence, the city’s opportunities and diversions, challenges and frustrations come into focus. This is an unusual place to grow up — sometimes magical, sometimes impossible. But it is home.

There are nearly half a million New Yorkers ages 11 to 15. If they were their own city, it would be bigger than Atlanta or Miami. They are more like their own planet. We spent several weeks there, exploring what makes a New York kid a New York kid.

In many ways, of course, children in New York are like their counterparts elsewhere. Their lives are filled up with school and screens and friends and sports and siblings and parents. Backpacks are essential. They are partial to fast food and chain restaurants, and when we asked several dozen of them their favorite place in the city, the most popular answer by far was Times Square.



But there are differences, too. New York kids seem to worry about their safety more than most. They deal with a competitive high school admissions process that can be as nerve-racking as picking a college. They often have a hard time finding places to play, or simply a place of peace and quiet amid the cramped city’s unceasing roar.

Sonia Smith, 11, lives in a second-floor apartment overlooking the Grand Concourse, the Bronx’s main thoroughfare. All night long, the traffic thrums, the whoosh broken up by occasional honks and sirens and slamming doors.

Yet it brings her comfort.

“I like the noise; it helps me sleep at night,” Sonia said. “I feel like I know the city is still awake and protecting me.”