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Childhood and adolescence

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

Addiction Ageing and death Childhood and adolescence Cognition and intelligence Consciousness and altered states Family life Gender and identity Language and linguistics Life stages Love and friendship Mental health Mood and emotion Neurodiversity Neuroscience Personality Pleasure and pain Psychiatry and psychotherapy Self-improvement Sex and sexuality Sleep and dreams Social psychology Spirituality Teaching and learning Technology and the self Wellbeing

Black and white photo of two girls in dresses touching foreheads while sitting on a rock in a field of daisies.

video

‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child

4 minutes

Photo of two boys sitting in a dilapidated room surrounded by debris with a view of an overgrown outside through a broken wall.

video

War and peace

Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines

22 minutes

A young girl with curly hair applies makeup in front of a ring-lit mirror, her reflection visible.

video

Technology and the self

The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy

14 minutes

Photo of children playing in the desert in windy conditions, with sand swirling around them and smiles on their faces.

essay

Childhood and adolescence

Hegemony and childcare

Early childhood development interventions in the Global South is a huge industry built on highly questionable assumptions

Francesca Mezzenzana & Gabriel Scheidecker

Photo of three boys riding wooden carts down a street in an urban setting, with onlookers in the background.

video

Sports and games

Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play

5 minutes

Young girls dressed in riot police helmets and gear standing outdoors in the rain.

video

Childhood and adolescence

The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order

28 minutes

Painting of a child in a red dress with arms raised standing beside an adult in a pink dress against a dark background.

video

Childhood and adolescence

Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress

8 minutes

Black and white photo of a teenage girl with dark hair smoking, eyes closed, with a blurred outdoor background.

video

Meaning and the good life

Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world

10 minutes

Photo of a doll with curly red hair, blue eyes, and a large maroon hat, wearing a double string of pearls and a red dress.

essay

Rituals and celebrations

Tender, yet creepy

Dolls help children create wonderfully vivid and imaginative worlds, while also serving as unsettling reminders of the abyss

Tishani Doshi

Children climbing on monkey bars, photographed from below, against a clear blue sky.

video

Education

Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America

25 minutes

Four young girls in dresses smile outside, with one holding a small cat.

video

Biography and memoir

Preserving memories of a Japanese internment camp, and the land where it stood

8 minutes

A person with light blonde hair, wearing a dark hoodie, stands on a cliff by the sea, holding a bird. The sea is rough with waves crashing against the rocks, and several rock formations are visible in the misty background.

video

Childhood and adolescence

The unique fellowship between teens and young puffins on a remote Icelandic island

20 minutes

Illustration of a child sitting with their head down and knees up, next to a toy box with a teddy bear sticking out. An adult’s legs, dressed in a red skirt and brown shoes, are visible seated nearby on the right.

essay

Psychiatry and psychotherapy

The therapist who hated me

Going to a child psychoanalyst four times a week for three years was bad enough. Reading what she wrote about me was worse

Michael Bacon

A group of girls walk past the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC

essay

Gender and identity

Silencing of the girls

Girls are still in a bad bargain with patriarchy: the price of relationship is keeping their true thoughts to themselves

Carol Gilligan

Illustration of three scouts in uniforms with red neckerchiefs, one wearing a hat. They have different facial expressions and are sitting in a row.

video

Childhood and adolescence

Striking shadow puppetry illuminates a skater kid’s memories of Boy Scout camp

12 minutes

A smiling young girl and a cat, nose to nose, by a window sill, with pinecones beside them

essay

Stories and literature

The best stories smell

When scents are used to intensify a narrative, they heighten young readers’ emotions and enrich their memory banks

Natalia Kucirkova

Vintage black-and-white image of two young children standing outside, a boy wearing a jumper and a girl in a dress. They’re in the middle of explaining religion.

video

Religion

From God’s shoes to satellites in heaven – children weigh in on religion

8 minutes

A baby in a high chair waves a yellow toy while a woman in a pink top opens a sauce bottle at a table with plates of food.

essay

Human evolution

How to grow a human

Our childhood is preposterously long compared to other animals. Is it the secret to our evolutionary success?

Brenna Hassett

Four children are playing on and around wooden steps outside a raised house in a rural area, with logs and foliage in the background.

essay

Family life

Amazonian childcare

In the eyes of the Runa people, Western kids grow up indulged, over-mothered and incapable of facing outward to the world

Francesca Mezzenzana

Two girls sitting at a wooden table, studying with notebooks and stationery, with a large world map on the wall behind them.

essay

Education

Unschooling

It takes nerve to go against the grain and take your child out of school. But, for some, that’s when learning really starts

Naomi Fisher & Heidi Steel

A woman wearing a maroon hat, earrings, a floral scarf, and an owl brooch, with city lights blurred in the background at night.

video

Life stages

At 14, Asal is excited about her engagement. Her relatives all have their own opinions

33 minutes

Child with long hair and a white shirt, arms open wide and mouth agape, standing in a garden with brick walls, greenery, and wooden planks.

essay

Personality

Born that way

Confident or shy, our temperament is mostly baked-in from birth. But how that influences our lives is up for grabs

Gina Mireault

Two boys play with sticks and a metal object on a street corner, while an elderly person steps out of a shop.

essay

Stories and literature

Leave them alone

Parenting advice from D H Lawrence: don’t smother your children with love. They are more sagacious than you think

Lara Feigel

A group of women and children stand in a lush, green meadow holding gardening tools and a lunchbox, with trees in the background.

essay

Subcultures

The utopian machine

For children like me, growing up in an utopian community, life was a bewildering chaos of freedom and indoctrination

Susanna Crossman