"This is essential reading for parents." — Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General

Greatly expanding his award-winning New York Times series on the contemporary teen mental-health crisis, Pulitzer Prize–winning science reporter Matt Richtel delivers a groundbreaking investigation into the psychology of adolescence: the crucial life stage undergoing a profound — and often confounding — transformation.

The transition from childhood to adulthood is a natural, evolution-honed cycle that few fully understand. Richtel explains how this transition confronts a modern world that creates so much social pressure it has injured rather than helped so many of our teens. The result is a neurological mismatch between a still-maturing brain and a high-pressure modern world that is contributing to the crisis of troubled youth today.