Teenage Kicks Podcast

Dr Beth Mosely MBE talks to Helen about feeling different as a teenager, rebelling agains her parents to figure out her own identity, and trying to fit in with her peer group. We talk about what causes anxiety in teenagers, how it manifests, and what we can do as parents to help teens accept themselves in order to manage anxious feelings.  We discuss:  Social media - why it isn't to blam...

If your teenager is thinking of travelling over the summer, or taking a Gap year before, or after University, you might be worried about a few things:  How will they finance their student travel? How can they stay safe?  Will a year out have a detrimental effect on their job prospects?  Lee McAteer is the co-founder of Camp New York, a brand new camp in America, where young adults h...

Does your teenager drink? If they're of legal age, how much do they drink, and do you worry that it's a problem? Is the partying at University becoming more of a regular drinking habit? What is normal drinking at that age, and when should you worry about addiction? Ian Hawkins talks about how his addiction began at university, how it helped him, then got in his way, and how he recovered. He talks...

TW: My guest today is Debra Blackman. Debra tells us about sexual abuse that happened to her as a child, so if that’s likely to be difficult for you to hear, please do switch off from this episode. Growing up in a family with an affluent facade, Debra suffered in silence from sexual abuse by a family member until she was 17. Her mother failed to see her plight. When the family moved home, Debra ex...

Do you know what bulking and cutting is? Has your teenager asked you to change what you feed the family, veering between carb-loading and keto-style meal requests? If you're worrying about your sporty teenager's attitude to food, this episode is worth a listen.  My guests are Kate Shilland and Fran Taylor, registered nutritionists who have seen how teenage athletes are influenced by TikTok cr...

As the mother of both a teenage girl AND boy, I’ve seen how both of them have absorbed the messages in society about toxic masculinity, and I’ve been shocked at how polarising those are. I know the effect of attitudes towards women from my own experiences and my daughter’s; but I’ve also seen how damaging some of the narrative around that can be to boys and young men. Boys and young men across the...

Climate expert and campaigner Mark Ballabon says that today's teenagers feel under immense pressure, and have a lot of anxiety around the state of our planet. His book, Home, is described as a coming of age story for the Greta Thunberg generation. He talks to me about how teens are feeling, why some of them shut down conversations about the environment, and what we - as parents - can do to help th...

Young maverick entrepreneur Morgan Boult was a rebel at school and told he would never amount to anything. But at 19 and Managing Director of a successful call centre, already in its 6th year of trading and incorporated when he was aged 13, he is the epitome of proving everyone wrong. But there is more to Morgan Boult's story. Here is someone amazingly unique and earmarked for bigger, greater thin...

Trigger warning: episode deals with suicidal ideation. Suzanne also briefly mentions the impact on her life of being raped.  My guest in this episode is Suzanne Alderson . When Suzanne’s 14 year old daughter Izzy became suicidal, following a period of sustained bullying, Suzanne found herself in a desperate place. While her daughter was immediately wrapped in professional care, Suzanne found...

Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley, hosts of Some Families podcast, join me on Teenage Kicks in this episode to talk about how we approach our teenagers about gender and sexuality. Stu says here that it's completely normal for parents to find this difficult - it's a very easy conversation, where I make lots of mistakes and am not made to feel bad about it, so it's perfect for parents who don't know how to...

Mike Parker tells the story of how he told his family he was gay. It's the warmest story, with a family who were totally accepting, and yet Mike's vulnerability is palpable. He takes us back to that age, when he was terrified of his parents' reaction, and takes us on that journey he went on.  This podcast is for anyone who is loved, but doesn't know how they're going to tell their family the...

This week's guest Jill Grimes is a MD in a US college (like a university GP), so she's well placed to talk about staying healthy at university. But first we talk about popularity in school (spoiler - neither of us was in the popular gang in our teens), why even the popular people don't feel confident in school, and how that all changes when you hit university and everyone is in the same boat.&nbsp...

In this episode of the Teenage Kicks podcast I talk to psychologist and therapist Dr Tara Porter about why parent/teen relationships are so fraught with misunderstandings, and what to do about it.  Specifically, Tara talks about why teenagers think their parents don't understand them - her book, You Don't Understand Me *, is aimed at teenage girls, to help them navigate these tricky years, as...

In this episode I talk to Luke Grim, one half of the dad duo who run website/newsletter These 16 Things . Luke told me about the fathers' belief that kids need to be taught life skills by their parents - some that most parents don't feel equipped to teach. Their newsletter aims to walk parents through the process of having those important conversations with their kids, to teach them to think on th...

Marsh Family Songs Who is Danielle Marsh? Danielle is a 45 year old mum to 3 teens and a pre teen who became known during the pandemic when a Covid parody song they produced went viral in March 2020. Since then the family have continued to post parody songs and original content on a varied host of topics from the cost of living crisis, menopause, repeated political shenanigans and overuse of techn...

Something a little bit different on the podcast today - we ARE going to talk about teenagers, and how they're affected by toxic relationships when things go wrong for their parents. But FIRST we talk about something a lot of us midlife mums (and dads) might relate to - FEELING BLAH. That's the title of my guest's book. Parenting author Tanith Carey writes a lot about the teenage brain. She had a t...

Sarah Middleton is the writer of a new female-led coming-of-age production perfect for teenage girls (age advice is 12+). SHEWOLVES had an incredibly successful and highly critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was named one of The Stage’s ‘Best shows of 2022’. It is now heading to the Southwark Playhouse from 21 June – 8 July 2023 and it's a really lovely, exhilarating piec...

Today's guest is Harry, aka the Champagne Socialist on TikTok. I found Harry through one of his We talk about what it's like choosing a university degree course, what kind of doors open for you while you're there, and how to approach the myriad opportunities a university degree offers. That said, Harry told me that university isn't a golden ticket. University is much more accessible to more people...

Natasha Devon, MBE, joined me on the Teenage Kicks podcast to talk about something most parents of girls will be all too familiar with - friendship issues. Teenage girls don't grow out of problems with their friends as early as we'd like them to, but they do grow out of us being able to fix fallouts for them with a playdate or a sleepover. Put simply, when they're teenagers, it gets even messier....

Here I talk to a mum about how she feared she might be repeating the mother-daughter trauma from her own teenage years with her teenage daughter, despite her best efforts to do quite the opposite. Emma Campbell told me how she tries so hard to get teenage parenting right, yet she constantly feels like she's failing. And I sighed a big sigh of relief. It's not just me. In fact, I suspect it's all o...

I am so excited to bring you a new season of the Teenage Kicks podcast. Over the last few months I've been putting a series of really interesting conversations in the can, with a range of fascinating guests that I know are going to resonate with parents of young adults and soon-to-be teens.  Find more on the podcast on my website , subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts, and come...

What is modern slavery, why should we care, and what do we need to know to keep our teenagers safe? *This episode deals briefly with suicidal thoughts. If this is likely to be triggering for you, please skip this episode.  Modern slavery is something we hear about on the news, but don't imagine it could happen to someone we love. I was struck by a conversation on another podcast - Two Women C...

"Severe acne affects your mental health far more than some medication ever will." Sarah Wood, mum of two young men and a teenage girl. Sarah Wood joins me on this episode to talk about her experience of teenage acne, how she coped, how she eventually treated it, and how she's supported all of her own teenagers through the same thing. Sarah first got acne when she was 12 and she still has it at 49....

Today's guest suffered huge anxiety as a teenager. After trying all the traditional medical remedies for stress, Devorah Goldblatt discovered something she never thought would work - EFT. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques and involves tapping on acupressure points to reduce emotional distress. It's an evidence-based treatment for anxiety, depression, PTSD and phobias that's backed up wit...

Is your teen dating? As a parent that's been one of my most confusing stages as a parent - how do you give your teenager privacy when they start dating, but still keep them safe? If you've ever wondered if your child's choice of partner might be unhealthy, this episode is for you. Liz Merrill is a relationship and mediation expert who specialises in helping people who are in narcissistic and abusi...