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 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 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 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

Dr Lucy Foulkes is an academic psychologist. She is currently a Prudence Trust Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she leads research into adolescent mental health and social development. She is also an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL. She is the author of What Mental Illness Really Is (and What It Isn't) and has written for the Guardian, New Scientist and other publications. Her work has been discussed on BBC 2's Newsnight and reported in The Times, Economist, New York Times and Atlantic, and she has appeared on BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind and Start the Week.