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Free Webinar Replay: How to Unleash Your Teen’s Superpowers

In this hour-long webinar-on-demand, learn how to help your teen feel comfortable with his or her ADHD traits with Stacey Turis.

4 Comments: Free Webinar Replay: How to Unleash Your Teen’s Superpowers

  1. We are struggling with guiding our 14 year old son who has just started high school. He’s always been a child who loves to explore different styles especially in his appearance. Over the past few months he’s ran into a number of incidents where he’s the target of harassment and even bullying. We know that his style is not always accepted especially in a small rural town. Most recently he was sporting a green man bun and gold chains. He loves to put together the outfit that feels right to him each morning so his appearance does matter to him. Lately we’ve been feeling inclined to discourage some of his fashion statements just because of the negative attention it’s drawn. He also has a strong passion for creating his own music and comedic & satirical YouTube videos. He’s very talented with much of it but we are concerned that the online persona is lost on most peers and also draws negative attention. We’ve been encouraging him to do less of “putting himself out there” but that feels wrong to me to discourage him from being him. When is it the right time to encourage or discourage these interests/ hobbies??

    1. I’m not an expert, just a parent. I think the most important thing is for your son to know that you have his back. Talk with him in a non-hurried part of the day about the risks and rewards of standing out from the crowd. Ask him if he would rather go ‘undercover’ at school and maintain a business/professional/academic look and persona, or whether he would rather be the one fighting to make his school more diverse. Remember he can choose each day based on how he feels that day.

      Most importantly, let him know that you will support his decisions and that if necessary you will help him go to the school administration if he experiences bullying. All schools have anti-bullying policies. It is up to you as a parent to advocate for your child and make sure those policies are followed in a way that benefits him and also the other students. When my son experienced bullying, he reported it, and then we met with the teacher and the vice principle. The end result was the student who did the bullying met with the school psychologist for a few days (instead of going to the class they were both in) until the psychologist thought he had worked through his issues and was ready to apologize.

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