It is wonderful to see teenagers taking positive steps toward mental health. Teens have been struggling long enough with feelings of loneliness. Symptoms of mental health conditions may begin to appear in early adolescence, and are often undiagnosed, leaving young people feeling different from their peers and isolated. Shelter in place has made these feelings of loneliness even worse.
"Teenage Therapy" is a podcast with teens having organic conversations on topics important to them and their peers.. According to this New York Times article, "Teenage Therapy" has surpassed 100,000 downloads within a few months of releasing their first episode — a number it can take years for many podcasts to achieve.
"Part of the success of “Teenager Therapy” is that it’s made for teenagers by teenagers. “We never really scripted anything or planned it out. We wanted the podcast to be raw and authentic,” said Gaell Aitor, 17, who got the idea for “Teenager Therapy” in 2018 after hearing “Couples Therapy,” a podcast by the YouTuber Casey Neistat and his wife
“One thing that podcasts can be really good at is creating a space for people to feel vulnerable and to talk things through, to really process,” said Nicholas Quah, founder of Hot Pod, a trade newsletter about the podcast industry.
Since this generation of teenagers depends on the internet and technology for information and social support, we should look no further than to them as experts on the best methods to reach out to other teens.
#TeenTherapy
Ms. Suarez, one of the show’s hosts, said: “It is especially rewarding to record those emotional episodes then see someone in Instagram DMs saying, ‘I went through the same things.’” Find episodes on Teenage Therapy on YouTube