FARMINGTON, Connecticut - Four young writers whose work appears in The Tattoo were showcased last week on WTIC-AM's afternoon drive time host Colin McEnroe's daily show, where they talked about everything from teen driving to the presidential campaign.

McEnroe spent an hour interviewing Bristol teens Beth Pond and Rachel Glogowski and West Hartford middle schoolers Luke Pearson and Kiernan Majerus-Collins.

McEnroe, a columnist for The Hartford Courant, called The Tattoo "very lively" and pointed out that it has "lots of interesting stuff in it."

The young writers said they've learned a lot from their participation in the group - and had the chance to do things others don't.

Glogowski said that when she got a chance to see Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton at a Hartford campaign rally "I really would not have experienced it the way I had if I wasn't a teen journalist" " equipped with a media pass.

"It was great listening to her," Glogowski said.

Pond talked about attending another Hartford rally, for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, which she found "definitely really interesting" because of the crowd and Obama himself. She called him "a great speaker."

Pearson said it was "really amazing how so many kids knew so much stuff about him" when he interviewed young people at the rally for the newspaper.

Majerus-Collins spoke about a piece he recently wrote about the way young people toss around "gay" as an all-purpose insult in school. McEnroe said he could see that Majerus-Collins was "a gigantic troublemaker," which he called a good thing.

Tattoo photo

WTIC radio host Colin McEnroe, with Youth Journalism International writers Kiernan Majerus-Collins, Luke Pearson, Beth Pond and Rachel Glogowski.