Whether it is Simon and Garfunkel, Siskel and Ebert, or Bryant and O’Neal, a great duo is always based on mutual admiration and respect.

Well, maybe a duo doesn’t always need those things. But Jenny Kane and Dr. Wes Crenshaw, new advice columnists for the Lawrence Journal-World, not only admire and respect one another — they actually like each other.

“She’s a shining star,” Crenshaw says. “In some ways, she’s almost like a young version of me.”

Their column, a new addition to the Pulse section, will answer questions from real teens and parents in the Lawrence community. They will touch on issues such as drugs, dating, eating disorders and other teen problems.

“As long as the person writing is sincere,” Crenshaw says, “we’ll do our best to answer any question.”

Crenshaw, a native of Oakley, earned his doctorate in psychology from Kansas University in 1994. His practice, Family Therapy Institute Midwest, 2601 W. Sixth St., specializes in working with teens and families. Crenshaw recently published “Treating Families and Children in the Child Protective System: Strategies for Systemic Advocacy and Family Healing.” He is working on another book about raising adolescent girls.

Kane, a senior at Free State High School, says she has always been interested in helping people with their problems and frequently gives her friends advice. She began studying journalism in middle school and has a particular interest in photojournalism. Since ninth grade, she has worked on the yearbook, which is how she met Crenshaw.

Kane interviewed Crenshaw while putting together a yearbook page on depression. The two found they had a common interest in helping others, so they kept in contact via e-mail. She provided inside information on the world of teenagers, and he provided his psychological perspective on her friends’ issues.

They soon realized their partnership could help more people, but they needed a way to disseminate the information. The idea of writing an advice column seemed humorous at first.

Jenny Kane, Free State High School senior, and Dr. Wes Crenshaw, a Lawrence psychologist, will be writing a column for adolescents and their parents that will run each Tuesday in the Pulse section of the Journal-World.

“It started as a joke,” Kane says. “Then we began to think it was actually a good idea.”

They started by writing sample columns based on the problems of Crenshaw’s patients (who remained anonymous). They write their answers separately and then compare their responses to reach a conclusion. Though the two work independently, they often reach the same conclusions.

“Sometimes it’s odd,” Kane says, “because we’ll have almost the exact same sentence.”

When Crenshaw and Kane disagree, it tends to be more in tone than in message — but not in the way people may think.

“Jenny tends to be harder,” Crenshaw says. “She can be a little more critical.

“She’s tough.”

Kane says she is sometimes more conservative in her writing than she is in real life.

“I feel like I’m different in the column,” Kane says. “I’m a lot more liberal than I sound.”

Both Crenshaw and Kane say it’s tougher now to be a teenager than ever before. They say many of the problems are the same, but they have intensified. Kane says it’s particularly bad in a college town like Lawrence.

“Kids are facing more and more open doors in the world,” Crenshaw says. “They seem more disposed to walk through those doors than ever.

“As the Doobie Brothers said, ‘What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.'”