Coming of Age

A compelling, useful and fascinating exploration of the emotional earthquake that is adolescence, revealing its unwritten rules and some really vital insights into crossing the rocky terrain between childhood and adulthood

Jo Brand

Lucy Foulkes’s wonderful and deeply moving book shows us the potentially positive aspects of adolescent experiences so often seen as negative and reveals the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves. You will almost certainly find yourself reassessing your own teenage years

Mark Haddon

I loved this book. Lucy writes so thoughtfully and movingly about this uniquely challenging and exhilarating period of life – to help us better understand and support our teenagers, and as adults, to give our own teenage selves a break.

Polly Waite, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford

Wise and compassionate, well-researched and straight-talking - Lucy Foulkes shows with stories and with science why the teen years are so intense, and how today's adolescents can be helped to flourish in life

Gavin Francis

This is a compelling read, deploying an engaging combination of narrative and science to make important points about a much misunderstood and maligned age group

Tasmin Ford, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Cambridge

Hopeful, inspiring – whatever happened in your teenage years, Coming of Age gives you power over those experiences to better shape who you are today. Foulkes strikes an elegant balance between story-telling and research studies, interweaving tales from adolescence in teenagers’ own voices with her own insights. Her book leaves you with a greater understanding of your own adolescence, and greater compassion for those currently in its throes

Camilla Nord, author of The Balanced Brain

The adolescent years are probably the most dramatic period in human life, and yet they are still the least studied. Lucy Foulkes is an ideal and compassionate guide to unlock this secret world. She does this with delicacy and respect using adolescents’ own testimony. Through their own words we can gain insight into the incredible challenges that must be overcome during this critical point in development

Uta Frith, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, UCL

This is a must read for everyone interested in what is going on with adolescents. Scientific findings are discussed incisively and illuminated with real life accounts of adolescent joys and sorrows. This book is full of insight and compassion

Essi Viding, Professor of Developmental Pyschopathy, UCL

Coming of Age offers a refreshing lens on adolescence as a profound developmental period that shapes how we become, and understand, who we are. Lucy offers a thorough account of adolescent theory and research, and, critically, does so through a lens that bridges academic insight with appreciation of the personal meaning that adolescence holds and a deep respect for who adolescents are. The result is an ode to adolescence as a time that can be fragile and yet defined by courage and connection. This book is essential reading for researchers, parents, professionals, and anyone seeking to better understand themselves

Ola Demkowicz, Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Education, University of Manchester

Foulkes combines firsthand accounts of the transformative experiences of youth, alongside insightful scientific explanations. This captivating and novel approach provides valuable insights into the physical, psychological and emotional changes that teenagers navigate, and fosters a deeper understanding of this crucial stage of self-discovery

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain