Raising teens does not have to suck. Here are the secrets to bringing joy, connection, and laughter to the relationship, by the co-author of the nationally bestselling book about modern puberty, This Is So Awkward.

Conventional wisdom is that teenagers are selfish slobs, obsessed with their phones, driven by raging hormones, and that raising them is a nightmare. But teen whisperer Vanessa Kroll Bennett flips the narrative, arguing that teens can be the funniest, smartest, most caring human beings … if we give them the chance.

Calm, optimistic, and entertaining, Bennett offers positive yet realistic guidance for the biggest challenges parents of teens face—from not taking their behavior so personally to managing tech use to pushing back on today’s high-stress culture. Teenhood provides hard-won tenets for confidently stepping into this stage of parenting, including:

• Treat them like jerks, they’ll act like jerks.

• The path to independence is an ultramarathon, not a sprint.

• They’re not ignoring you—you’re just not interesting to them.

• You can’t make them happy, but you can build resilience.

Pairing cutting-edge research about teen development with sanity-saving stories, strategies, and scripts, Teenhood will make the most complex phase of parenting more joyful and less stressful for all.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The ultimate guide for adults helping tweens and teens navigate the rollercoaster of puberty.

“An accessible, enjoyable, and detailed road map for addressing even the most delicate topics with confidence and compassion.”—Lisa Damour, PhD

Almost everything about puberty has changed since today’s adults went through it. It starts, on average, two years earlier and stretches through high school … and for some, beyond. Gens Z and Alpha are also contending with a whole host of thorny issues that parents didn’t experience in their own youth but nonetheless need to understand: everything from social media and easy-access pornography to gender identities and new or newly-potent drugs. Talking about any of this is like puberty itself: Awkward! But it’s also critical for the health, happiness, and safety of today’s kids.

Bewildered adults have begged for reliable and relatable information about the modern adolescent experience. Eye-opening and reassuring, This Is So Awkward answers their call, helpung adults understand the turbulent pubescent decade and become confident guides for today’s kids.