Question: Why do Teenager at different to other people?

Emily Mattacola answered on 12 Nov 2019:

Lots of reasons! As teenagers, this is normally one of the first times in our lives where we’re able to decide how to behave for ourselves. Normally as children, our parents make decisions for us, and we do things to make them happy. When we reach being a teenager, we change to being more worried about how our friends think about us, so we’re more likely to do things to please them instead. That can have both good and bad consequences for our health, depending on the sorts of behaviours that we think our friends would approve of us doing – if they’re really healthy and do lots of exercise then that can be good, but if they smoke or drink alcohol, then that can be bad.

The way that your brain has grown when you reach being a teenager also means you might make different decisions. The part of your brain that processes fun and makes us impulsive is the same size as an adult, but the bit of your brain that tells you something is risky and a bad idea is still small, so we’re more likely to make fun and impulsive decisions without thinking through the consequences of our actions!