How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence
by Matt Richtel
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"This is essential reading for parents." -- Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General
Greatly expanding his award-winning New York Times series on the contemporary teen mental-health crisis, Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter Matt Richtel delivers a groundbreaking investigation into adolescence, the pivotal life stage undergoing profound--and often confounding--transformation.
One of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2025
The transition from childhood to adulthood is a natural, evolution-honed cycle that now faces radical change and challenge. The adolescent brain, sculpted for this transition over eons of evolution, confronts a modern world that creates so much social pressure as to regularly exceed the capacities of the evolving mind. The problem comes as a bombardment of screen-based information pelts the brain just as adolescence is undergoing a second key change: puberty is hitting earlier. The result is a neurological mismatch between an ultra-potent environment and a still-maturing brain that can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. It is a crisis that is part of modern life but can only be truly grasped through a broad, grounded lens of the biology of adolescence itself. Through this lens, Richtel shows us how adolescents can understand themselves, and parents and educators can better help.
For decades, this transition to adulthood has been defined by hormonal shifts that trigger the onset of puberty. But Richtel takes us where science now understands so much of the action is: the brain. A growing body of research that looks for the first time into budding adult neurobiology explains with untold clarity the emergence of the "social brain," a craving for peer connection, and how the behaviors that follow pave the way for economic and social survival. This period necessarily involves testing--as the adolescent brain is programmed from birth to take risks and explore themselves and their environment--so that they may be able to thrive as they leave the insulated care of childhood.
Richtel, diving deeply into new research and gripping personal stories, offers accessible, scientifically grounded answers to the most pressing questions about generational change. What explains adolescent behaviors, risk-taking, reward-seeking, and the ongoing mental health crisis? How does adolescence shape the future of the species? What is the nature of adolescence itself?
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780063282063
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Matt Richtel
- Publisher
- Mariner Books
- Published Date
- July 8, 2025
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 336
- Physical Info
- 1.03 in H x 9.22 in L x 6.36 in W (1.0 lb)
I've been teaching adolescents for over three decades. I’ve coached boys and girls for twenty-five years, and I have three twenty-something daughters. As a high-school neuroscience teacher and part-time administrator, I read every book about parenting and/or the brain I can. None is better, more engaging, more informative or more grounded in neurobiology than Matt Richtel’s How We Grow Up. Like only the best writers, Richtel combines extraordinary story-telling (and the stories he shares could not be more compelling) with a remarkable ability to make some high-level science not only understandable but also downright fun to read. I recommend this book especially to parents and educators (as well as their students), but also to anyone who’s curious about the brain. It is that rare science book that reads like a page turner! Honestly, I cannot say enough.
This book is beautifully written and extremely helpful in understanding adolescents and the challenges they face growing up today. My book club has several teachers and grandparents in it, and we discussed this book at our last meeting. We have never had a more engaging meeting. Matt Richtel gives such compelling examples from the lives of the actual adolescents he studied for this book, that even new scientific theories are easily understandable We talked about our students and our own families. We talked about our own experiences as adolescents in the ‘50s and ‘60s. We talked about how iPhones and the internet have intensified our kids’ lives. Most of all we got real insight into being able to protect our adolescents without preventing the growth they need and deserve.
I listened Matt's need book. A great listen Matt has the ability to make complex scientific easily understandable to the lay person. He is able to make the book enjoyable with laughs and it doesn't read like a text book. Matt is truly one of the great writers of our time. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
As a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who has worked with thousands of adolescents over the past 30 years I found this book to be well informed and up to date. The concept of adolescence is constantly evolving and this book integrates historical theories as well as the impact of our current environment such as the CoViD19 pandemic and social media. I will be recommending this book to colleagues as well as to families.
This book completely changed how I see adolescence. The science is explained in a way that’s both clear and compassionate.
