Why Young People Need Our Support

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE.

I WAS BORN LIKE THAT.

— Eve Ensler

Most people don't listen to teens—but we do. Listening is the foundation of everything we do. At The Intuitive Writing Project, we are here to listen to and amplify the voices of young people, to hold space for their thoughts, feelings and ideas, affirming their experiences and mirroring back their unique strengths. Through carefully curated content and class discussion, we challenge teens to think for themselves. Then, after they have written their thoughts on paper, we are here to validate and encourage their insights.

It’s not easy being a young person. It’s never been easy. But with social media, it’s become a lot more complicated. Teens today—especially girls*—are facing epidemic levels of anxiety, depression and despair. According to a recent report from the US Surgeon General, “half of all female teens” have reported “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” (*Although we are here for ALL teens who want to write with us, we focus primarily on girls and gender-expansive youth.)

We live in such a externally-focused world, young people are often denied the time and space they need to express their needs and discover their voice. Consequently, the majority of teenage girls suffer from low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, body dysmorphic disorder, and a chronic sense of inadequacy and worthlessness. With this comes drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, unsafe sex, and codependency in abusive relationships. And yet, as we all know, self-esteem is an inside job. That’s why the internal-focus of The Intuitive Writing Project offers an antidote to the toxic pressures currently confronting teens. (You can read more about the mental health benefits of writing here.)

At The Intuitive Writing Project, we offer teens the time and space they need to go within, to connect to their heart, and discover not only who they really are, but who they want to become. The more they go within, learn to trust their intuition, and cultivate their own voice, the more they develop authentic self-esteem and self-trust, the very foundation of happiness, health and personal growth. We are here to support young people in becoming the authors and leaders of their own lives, the kind of visionary thinkers who will change the story of the world.

Resources worth reading:

https://hbr.org/2021/07/writing-can-help-us-heal-from-trauma

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_achievement_culture_has_become_so_toxic

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/18/culture-girls-childhoods-climate-crisis-economic-decline-online?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2024/0514/prevent-male-loneliness-help-boys

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/facebooks-dangerous-experiment-teen-girls/620767/

https://blog.gitnux.com/single-gender-classrooms-statistics/

https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/girls-do-better-at-singlesex-schools/280329

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/humanities/study-reveals-benefits-of-allgirls-schools/news-story/bd53dfc34ee1b989266b5e7ae45a3a44

https://girlsschools.org/advocacy/why-girls-schools/

https://girlsschools.org/research/quick-facts/

https://magazine.byu.edu/article/when-women-dont-speak/