How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence

"Essential reading." - Dr. Vivek Murthy"This book should be at the bedside of every parent." - Kirkus ReviewsGreatly 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. 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