Includes index

Part I: castaways. The baton -- Thomas -- Part II: the infancy and childhood of adolescent science. Ad-o-les-cent -- Bones -- The sorrows of young Werther -- The man who put adolescence on the map -- Erikson and Anna Freud -- Sheep brains, puberty, and the night highway -- Crossing over -- Upstairs puberty -- Internet brain -- Part III: meet the future. Darron -- Luke and Henry -- Lindsey -- Anna and Thomas -- Deadname -- Generation rumination -- Part IV: the maturation of adolescent science. Peebudieshawlt -- Risk and reward -- Gaba and glutamate and dopamine -- Facetime -- The dual systems model -- Puberty falls -- Permissive signals -- The Gambia and the Zambia -- Part V: a hero's journey. Darron -- Luke and Henry -- Lindsey -- Thomas -- Part VI: the world we live in: opportunity and chaos. Social media -- The displacement effect -- Neurological mismatch -- Hey, adolescents, own your own #*̂& (or these people will) -- Dear technology companies -- Zombies and other phantom fears -- How to cope with chaos -- The most valuable generation (by the numbers) -- And now a word from Elvis (the movie) and the supreme court -- Part VII: homeward bound. Darron -- Lindsey -- Luke -- Henry -- Thomas -- Courtney -- The adolescent

"Essential reading. " - Dr. Vivek Murthy "This book should be at the bedside of every parent. " - Kirkus Reviews. Greatly expanding his award-winning New York Times series on the contemporary teen mental-health crisis, Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter Matt Richtel delivers a groundbreaking investigation into adolescence, the pivotal life stage undergoing profound - and often confounding - transformation. The transition from childhood to adulthood is a natural, evolution-honed cycle that now faces radical change and challenge. The adolescent brain, sculpted for this transition over eons of evolution, confronts a modern world that creates so much social pressure as to regularly exceed the capacities of the evolving mind. The problem comes as a bombardment of screen-based information pelts the brain just as adolescence is undergoing a second key change: puberty is hitting earlier. The result is a neurological mismatch between an ultra-potent environment and a still-maturing brain that can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. It is a crisis that is part of modern life but can only be truly grasped through a broad, grounded lens of the biology of adolescence itself. Through this lens, Richtel shows us how adolescents can understand themselves, and parents and educators can better help. For decades, this transition to adulthood has been defined by hormonal shifts that trigger the onset of puberty. But Richtel takes us where science now understands so much of the action is: the brain. A growing body of research that looks for the first time into budding adult neurobiology explains with untold clarity the emergence of the "social brain," a craving for peer connection, and how the behaviors that follow pave the way for economic and social survival. This period necessarily involves testing-as the adolescent brain is programmed from birth to take risks and explore themselves and their environment - so that they may be able to thrive as they leave the insulated care of childhood. Richtel, diving deeply into new research and gripping personal stories, offers accessible, scientifically grounded answers to the most pressing questions about generational change. What explains adolescent behaviors, risk-taking, reward-seeking, and the ongoing mental health crisis? How does adolescence shape the future of the species? What is the nature of adolescence itself?