Nirvana's breakout album Nevermind rocked the music scene in the early 1990s as underground punk and indie vibes exploded into the mainstream. Despite the initial reluctance of radio stations across North America, Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit landed top ten spots on international billboard charts disrupting the norm. Nirvana's vibe was wildly was different than the hair metal rockers and shiny pop stars, their sound was raw and grungy marking a generational shift that I remember well. As a teenager of the 1990s, I recognize I didn't understand the broader cultural upheaval that was ongoing as Nirvana raged into play, nor did I have any idea of the polarized opinions on their rise to fame. What I did know was that their music lit up something in my adolescent brain—it felt good, like a safe rebellion, as my friends and I cranked up the radio and rocked out to Cobain.

While this spin is not going to dissect Cobain’s tragedy or Nirvana's meteoric rise to fame, it is going to dive into something just as intense, the adolescent brain. The teenage years are a massive period of brain development that is frequently misunderstood and discredited. This spin is dedicated to the awesome, spirited teens in my world who fuel my curiousity and inspire me to disrupt negative spins on teens today.

There’s a gritty tension in adolescence between the struggle to come as you are while navigating the pressure to fit in and conform to peer dynamics. It is a complex interplay between impulses, desires and uncertainties. While the teenage brain is primed for adaptable learning, it is shaped by social experiences and responds differently to stress. Human development in adolescence is marked by raw strength and profound fragility, a rugged push and pull between staying true to oneself and conforming to social expectations. This complicated physiological stage deserves huge respect and deeper understanding. As one inspiring educational leader, my colleague Shawn Anderson, so beautifully puts it:

“Kids these days are showing up exactly as they are. And our schools are starting to let them. We’re not lowering expectations; we’re raising the level of belonging... They don’t need us to fix them. They need us to notice them. Not just their grades, but their effort. Their humour. Their resilience. Their truth. Let them be loud. Let them be quiet. Let them be late, brilliant, broken, joyful, uncertain. Let them show up. Because all means all, and all means as they are.”

I appreciate Anderson's perspective as it captures not only the essence of our come as you are youth but the heart of what inclusive education means. It’s not about perfection, it’s about presence and it is messy, unpredictable and powerful. It’s about recognizing the full humanity of every teen and creating educational spaces where they feel seen, valued, and safe to be themselves. Anderson’s call to truly see and support students as they are, "brilliant, broken, joyful, uncertain," echoes a growing movement in education grounded in brain science. It helps us move beyond behaviour management toward understanding and honouring the whole child: their neurobiology, lived experience, capacity for growth, and humanity.

So what does neuroscience reveal about the teenage brain?

It turns out that the years from adolescence into the early twenties mark the second most significant phase of brain development, second only to infancy. During this time, the brain undergoes major changes that shape how teens think, feel, and behave. Dan Siegel’s Brainstorm offers an important perspective on a pivotal stage of human development. His research reframes adolescence, not as a chaotic or immature phase, but as a vital period of intentional brain remodelling. During the teen years, the brain is busy growing as processes like pruning and myelination enhance cognitive function while also fuelling emotional intensity and impulsive behaviour. It is a complicated period for youth as big feels collide with big growth internally and externally.

Pruning is an essential process in adolescent brain development as the overabundance of synapses, connections between neurons, are trimmed. This helps streamline brain function making it faster and more specialized. Pruning happens most in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision making and impulse control, helping to set the stage for healthy and safe decision making. As the teenage brain rewires for adulthood, myelination guides the transition from emotional impulsivity to intentional, goal-focused thinking. It’s a vital process in which axons, nerve fibers that carry signals between brain cells, are coated with a fatty substance called myelin. This insulation allows electrical signals to travel more quickly and efficiently throughout the brain. Researchers are starting to pin down brain circuitry of emotion-focused regions such as the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala and hippocampus and how they create the feelings flood that freezes, flies or finesses the teen brain. Neuroscience shows us that teenagers are not just being difficult or moody, they are navigating an intense period of brain remodelling.

While my understanding of adolescent brain development is that of a layperson, my aim is to reframe adolescent behaviour as a reflection of growth rather than dysfunction. Knowing that teens are processing information more emotionally than rationally helps those in their world support their growth with empathy, compassion and patience.

So what does this mean for adolescents?

Life is full of big feelings. Life is full of highs and lows, confusing periods, harsh disappointments and immense joys. This paradox intensifies during adolescence, a time wickedly punctuated by firsts. As the parent of two amazing teenagers, I watch some of the things they navigate and my middle age mind is always in awe of their capacities and wisdom. Adolescents have immense potential to carefully navigate life’s complexities, especially when we provide the right guardrails. The scary part is, we adults have to let them take the wheel. That doesn’t mean handing over the keys entirely; it means starting the engine and guiding them as they learn to steer safely. So what does this mean for adolescents? It means they have to feel our trust and support. They have to know that we are here and that we won't let go, even when mistakes happen. Our ability to hold steady in their emotional storms will help them learn to move through big feelings in safe, supported ways.

Teens benefit from understanding what’s happening in their brains as they develop. Learning about applied educational neuroscience can help normalize intense emotions and impulsive decision-making, so they don’t get stuck in “why me?” spin cycles. Recognizing that there are biological reasons behind their feelings, and that the adolescent brain is wired for emotion, can disrupt patterns of loneliness and disconnection. This awareness lays the groundwork for growth and discovery, while also normalizing the human mistakes that come with independence and autonomy.

So what does this mean for adults?

Patience, patience, patience—and grace. I think I should probably drop the mic and close here. Because our ability to recognize that “what was previously seen as immaturity is actually behavioural and neurological flexibility that allows teens to explore and adapt to their shifting inner and outer worlds” (Abrams, 2022) is the key to supporting them with compassion and insight. Understanding human development and seeing statements like "you just don't understand" as invitations rather than barriers can set the stage for growing together.

There are other essential guardrails that our teens need help navigating. Three of the most impactful areas to build boundaries around are sleep, technology, and relationships.

Sleep. Maintaining healthy sleep habits is especially challenging for adolescents. Their natural circadian rhythms shift during puberty, making it harder to fall asleep early and wake up refreshed. Yet the world they live in, structured around rigid 9-to-5 schedules, rarely accommodates this biological reality. Adult awareness of this and embedding soft start approaches are important, particularly in education. This doesn't mean that we don't have expectations for respectfully being on time as per the daily school schedule, but it does mean if we know we have students that are genuinely tired, compassion and kindness can help as they biologically reset to participate. Adult awareness of sleep habits in the home is also important. Most teens do not get enough sleep. Research shows that the hormone melatonin works differently in teenagers. During adolescence, melatonin production shifts later into the evening compared to children and adults, making it harder for teens to fall asleep early, even when they’re exhausted. So when there are down days and a good sleep in is possible, let our teens enjoy longer slumbers. Then help them as the evening hours approach, by setting clear boundaries around technology use and modelling them yourself. No one needs to fall asleep tethered to a screen.

Technology. Establishing expectations and setting boundaries around technology use is the responsibility of the adults in teens’ lives. While teens are learning to make independent choices, it’s up to us to provide the structure and guidance they need to navigate the digital world safely. While we want to nurture independent decision-making, it’s unrealistic to expect the adolescent brain to consistently resist the pull of the digital world. Their developing minds need guidance, not just freedom, to make healthy choices. Monitoring social media use and helping teens understand AI guidelines are two essential digital guardrails. It’s important to remind them that what they post online becomes part of their public identity, it doesn’t simply vanish with a delete button. Just because you’ve hit “send” or “delete” doesn’t mean the message is gone. Digital footprints linger, and teaching teens to navigate that reality with care is part of preparing them for a connected world.

Relationships. Creating opportunities for youth to learn about healthy relationships involves real life exposure as well information about safe boundaries and decision making. Modelling caring interactions and nurturing their human connections are essential to helping teens thrive. In education, we see a long standing trend of high parental involvement in the early years which peters out in the secondary school years. Encouraging parents to amp up connections in the teen years is important. Knowing who your teen is hanging out may feel increasingly tricky particularly in the digital world but it is just as essential as knowing who the neighbourhood kids are. Become familiar with the things that are important and of interest to our teenagers. A wise colleague of mine once shared with me how she would listen to her teen's music and accept all their invites with a quiet of intention of always just meeting them where they were. Her words stuck with me and I come back to them when I feel tired or not particularly engaged, just meet them where they are. Because the relationships we build with teens today shape how they will relate to others tomorrow.

I use my spin as a platform for building understanding for myself and potentially others. This spin centred around thinking more about the intricacies of the developing adolescent brain and all that they are making meaning of during a period of massive human development. Teen growth is messy, magical and full of paradox. It's late night chats, sometimes slammed doors, countless brilliant ideas and quiet resilience. It carries the scent of possibility, rebellion and becoming.

It smells like beautiful teen spirit.