‘The Gift of Teenagers: Connect More, Worry Less’ By Rachel Kelly

Laura Pew
Jul 3
2 min read

Learn to enjoy your teenagers more and count their adolescence as a blessing. Rachel Kelly has recently navigated this challenging stage with her own five children and shares the lessons she has learnt, which she hopes may help other parents have a better time.

Rachel says: “We can choose to look at this phase of parenting in new way. No-one started off as a more anxious teenage parent than me. But over time I learnt how to become a different kind of parent – and indeed person. I realised I had to change and grow if I was to stay close to my children and actually enjoy their adolescence. Of course there will be difficult moments, but this can be a positive time for both of you. My book is my attempt to share how I managed to make it one.”

We live in a time of worry about our teenagers and their mental health - from fears of a phone addiction to concerns about an offline world of bullying and drugs, not to mention gender identity. But what if we parents don't need to be so fearful? What if our teenagers are a gift we can all learn from?

In this authoritative book by an established mental health writer, Rachel shares how her hands-on experience, as well as her work with young people in schools and at universities and talking to experts in the field, has led to her own psychological growth.

Raising resilient teenagers begins with becoming a more resilient - and better informed - parent, someone who has learned to manage their own emotions, become aware of their parenting style and they way they think, and understands the world in which our teenagers are growing up.

Thus armed, we can engage with our adolescents more effectively, and discover how they, and their brains, work (short answer: not always like ours!). And in the process, we can build a new relationship with them, the kind of close connection which means we will worry less. The book offers psychologically helpful (and evidence-based) approaches for supporting our teenagers, from navigating personal relationships to dealing with social media. Whisper it, but with Rachel at your side, it might even be a fun ride.

Rachel Kelly is a Sunday Times best-selling writer and former Times journalist. She has written five books sharing her experience of anxiety and depression and the strategies that have helped her feel better - everything from good mood food to poetry. Her books are widely translated and she is an official ambassador for mental health charities Rethink Mental Illness and SANE. She is the mother of three boys and two girls, all now grown-up.

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