Anthony Pico

On this week's This American Life, they featured Anthony Pico, a teen who has been in the foster care system. To the outside world, he's a "winner" or "star" because he goes around the country speaking to different groups about the problems in the foster care system and what needs to be done about it. He's very articulate and can easily speak to people.

But internally, the person that most people don't know, is that Anthony is still a kid without any parents. He lives in a building with other teen foster kids, and there are no adults living in this building, and no adults present in the building after business hours.

So Anthony really has nobody to talk to, is years behind in school, and is unmotivated. Public speaking has been the only way he's figured out how to talk to adults and get advice from them, by networking with adults after his speeches.

The show highlighted this important insight -- nobody can make you do anything (like show up for school), and nobody can do anything without help (like show up for school). It is a strange paradox.