Why You Need to Have a Proper Adolescence

It’s an enormous privilege to have an adolescence - and, to an extent rarely spoken about, not everyone gets the chance to have one. Adolescence isn’t just a particular time of one’s second decade, and it won’t unfold automatically simply when one reaches fourteen or seventeen and three quarters. Adolescence properly understood is a state in which we’re able to explore - with courage and newfound independence - who we might be outside of the projections and mental dictates placed upon us by our parents… Sign up to our mailing list to receive 10% off your first order with us: For books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: Our website has classes, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: If you want to keep working on your mental well-being and self-understanding, download our hugely helpful new app now: For information on The School of Life’s learning and wellbeing solutions for businesses, including workshops and talks, visit Email business@ or join our monthly business newsletter: Join this channel to get access to exclusive members perks: FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: “It’s an enormous privilege to have an adolescence - and, to an extent rarely spoken about, not everyone gets the chance to have one. Adolescence isn’t just a particular time of one’s second decade, and it won’t unfold automatically simply when one reaches fourteen or seventeen and three quarters. Adolescence properly understood is a state in which we’re able to explore - with courage and newfound independence - who we might be outside of the projections and mental dictates placed upon us with enormous ingenuity and great force by our parents. Parents are the greatest propagandists that any of us will ever meet with - and part of their genius is that we rarely know what they are up to. Below the surface they are engaged in a ruthless and ongoing attempt to sell us a version of reality: to tell us what we are ‘really’ like, what we actually need, what life is truly about - and who they have been and what their motives are. It goes without saying that some of their ideas will be eminently correct but the function of adolescence is to take a good long look at, and deal with, the ones that aren’t…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: LinkedIn: ttps:// CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Cara Watson Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions