How are we teaching young people to handle fear?

We need to share the messy, emotional reality of our own experiences with young people, not just the polished outcomes. When we sanitise our stories and skip over the struggle, uncertainty and fear we felt whilst figuring things out, we leave young people feeling isolated in their own difficulties and rob them of the most valuable lesson: that not having it all worked out is completely normal and part of the process.

Alexis Redding is faculty co-chair of Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she researches, teaches, and advises on student development, mental health, and the transition from college to work.

Before her academic career, she worked as a college counsellor for 10 years, and her research focuses on making the American college experience more supportive for students navigating the challenges of young adulthood.

This episode will help you

• Understand why sharing the messy, emotional parts of your own journey matters more than offering tidy success stories when supporting young people through uncertainty
• Recognise the difference between caring deeply and over-managing, particularly when fear drives you to track, fix, or solve problems that young people need to navigate themselves
• Learn specific ways to ask questions that open possibilities rather than prescribe answers, helping others develop self-authorship instead of seeking external validation

Highlights

• [00:07:04] Resisting the urge to remove all struggle from young people’s lives
• [00:10:52] How Alexis manages relationships
• [00:12:40] Self-authorship
• [00:17:06] ?We study what we’re trying to make sense of
• [00:23:25] Allowing young people to make their own mistakes
• [00:26:58] Shifting away from majors and singular career paths
• [00:30:07] The development effects of parental tech
• [00:34:45] How parents can manage their fears
• [00:39:47] How Alexis manages her resources
• [00:41:31] Alexis’ fears in her work
• [00:42:39] Taking the TEDx stage
• [00:47:33] What Fearless Forward means to Alexis
• [00:48:05] Takeaways from Sally-Anne

Resources

• Connect with Alexis via LinkedIn
• Connect with Sally-Anne via LinkedIn
• Why We Keep Telling Young Pdults the Wrong Stories – Alexis’ TEDx talk
• The End of Adolescence, by Alexis Redding and Nancy Hill
• Mental Health in College, by Alexis Redding