Adolescence is a truly consequential time for a young person’s future.
Focusing on adolescence is like investing in a triple dividend. You’re not only investing in adolescents themselves. You’re also promoting a healthier trajectory when they reach adulthood. And that reaches into the next generation—when they can be healthy parents, healthy mothers and fathers.
What is the greatest challenge in research with adolescents?
Scheduling and finding them. A lot of them have jobs. How many times have I scheduled an interview and they don’t show up? They say, ‘Oh, I forgot,’ or ‘I overslept.’ You learn to never schedule an interview before noon. It’s just not going to happen. They’re night owls!
What do most people not know about adolescents?
In cities like Baltimore, a lot of adolescents are heads of household themselves. Many of them are caring for younger siblings, and they don’t often have a parent who’s at home. Sometimes they’re sleeping at an aunt’s house or a grandparent’s house. They have multiple different addresses that they’re going back and forth to.
They may have an adult in their life, but sometimes their biggest supporter is maybe a coach or a director of a youth program. That’s their go-to person. That’s not something that many people outside adolescent researchers know.
We’ve written before about your work on nutrition and adolescents. Is it still one of their biggest health challenges?
Nutrition is related to so many health outcomes in adolescents. They have this rapid rate of development happening, lots of changes happening. If they’re not getting their caloric intake, that impacts learning, mental health, and all these other health issues. Nutrition is one of the main things that we need to be concerned about if we’re trying to promote adolescent health.
Any advice for adults trying to understand adolescents?
So many adults don’t listen to adolescents. If we’re trying to find solutions, we need to give young people the podium. If you give them the tools to be comfortable talking, they’ve blown me away with what they say. If we just give them space and time, we could learn so much about what we should be doing.
Does your work fill you with hope for young people—or worry?
My work with adolescents fills me with both hope and worry. I worry because I see fewer investments being made in adolescent health, and I know how easily decades of hard-won progress can be undone. Yet, I also carry hope—because history has shown us that even in times of crisis, whether it be COVID-19 or global recessions, new opportunities can emerge. These moments often spark innovation, collaboration, and new approaches that can strengthen our work. That resilience and the creativity I see in young people and communities remind me that progress is still possible.
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