Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable and Compassionate Adolescents

This book offers a crucial reframing that helps us understand teens, their emotions, and their behavior. I couldn't love it more. Damour gifts parents the knowledge, words, and practical advice needed to reach our teens so that we can help them become happy, healthy, and fully themselves. -- Tina Payne Bryson, New York Times Bestselling co-author of THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD, NO-DRAMA DISCIPLINE and THE POWER OF SHOWING UP

This book is required reading for anyone who worries that their kids aren't happy, aren't happy enough, or might be happy now but could become unhappy in the future. Lisa Damour explains why intense feelings-including negative ones-are a key part of teenage development, and how we can help young people (and ourselves) understand, express, manage, and most importantly, embrace the full spectrum of human emotion. The Emotional Lives of Teenagers is written as clearly, usefully, and warmly as anything I've read about the psychology of adolescence. As a psychologist and a mother of two teenagers, I give it my highest recommendation! -- Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of GRIT and co-founder of Character Lab

In her latest book, and her first for parents of all genders, Dr. Damour uses her signature wisdom and relatability to first dispel harmful but pervasive myths about teen mental health, then to reframe our understanding of the mysterious inner workings of teenage emotionality.

If, like most parents, you find yourself alienated or confused by your teen's unruly, unknowable, or unpredictable feelings, add this book to the top of your reading pile immediately. It will put you at ease and your child will thank you for becoming the competent and confident resource on whom they want, and need, to depend.

-- Michelle Icard, author of FOURTEEN TALKS BY AGE FOURTEEN

In The Emotional Lives of Teenagers Lisa Damour applies her powerful intellect, decades of clinical experience, and deep empathy to one of the most essential questions of our time: How can adults best support adolescent mental health? Damour lays out a new, essential framework for understanding teens' emotional lives and hands parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors the playbook they need to help teenagers feel heard, healthy, and whole. -- Jewel, singer/songwriter and mental health advocate

I can't recommend The Emotional Lives of Teenagers enough. Damour delivers on her promise to give parents practical and actionable research-backed advice that will ensure their children develop the emotion skills they need to thrive." -- Marc Brackett, PhD, director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, professor, Yale Child Study Center, and author of the bestselling book, Permission To Feel.

Lisa Damour is a wonderful, rigorous thinker who draws beautifully from both research and clinical practice to help adults understand teenagers. Damour's striking clarity and insight make her the perfect guide for those looking to make sense of teens' emotional lives. -- Richard Weissbourd, author of THE PARENTS WE MEAN TO BE