Listening to Adolescents Is a Pressing Need

Adriana Gómez Gómez.

Executive Director

Every August, on International Youth Day, the world reflects on the numbers. At TeenSmart, we go beyond quantitative analysis—we also listen to the stories. After more than 20 years of working with adolescents and young people aged 10 to 24, we’ve seen, heard, and felt a great deal.

Did you know that in low- and middle-income countries—like ours—adolescents make up over 25% of the population, yet receive only 2.4% of global health aid? Or that by 2030, an estimated 464 million adolescents with overweight or obesity are projected to lose more than 42 million years of healthy life due to mental health disorders and suicide?

These figures are part of the call to action from the Second Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing (2025), supported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

You can read the full report here

The numbers are striking—but they are not just numbers. This is a generation already grappling with climate change, violence, displacement, chaotic cities, and unregulated access to harmful products like ultra-processed foods and e-cigarettes.

And yet, despite all of this, young people want to talk. They want to participate. They want to take care of their health. But they need safe, accessible channels designed with them in mind.

At TeenSmart, we listen in multiple ways:

Through confidential questions submitted via the Looking for Advice? service, automatically sorted by topic and category. Over the years, the top category has consistently been family relationships. Young people want to learn how to get along with caregivers and siblings, how to negotiate permissions, and how to bridge generational understanding. In more recent years, mental health has risen to the top of the list. This has led us to ask: what lies beneath the anxiety, fear, and depression? The stories tell us—experiences of violence, risk, and neglect. Mental health is shaped by day-to-day realities.
Health, risk, and protection questionnaires reveal an increase in poor nutrition, alcohol use, and feelings of depression.
Satisfaction surveys give us feedback on our services, interventions, content, and digital experience. We’ve witnessed a shift from the early days—when teens were amazed by any digital tool we offered—to today’s young people, who are critical, reflective, and demanding.
Youth groups, from JovenSalud leadership clubs to our GenZ Advisory Council, now co-create side-by-side with our staff.

From all this listening and analysis, we’ve learned a lot. That mental health is impossible without support networks and essential life skills—skills that help young people resist peer pressure, stay motivated, and make informed choices rooted in science, values, and purpose.

We’ve learned that mental health cannot be separated from holistic health. Life is a whole—it includes the body, mind, soul, and relationships.

We’ve also learned that adolescents know more than we often think—and that they want to make decisions that improve their quality of life. If we don’t build with them, nothing we build will be sustainable.

Today, I’m not only a mental health professional. I’m also the mother and aunt of teens—the same age as those we serve. And that challenges me even more deeply: to be consistent and live what I teach.

This year, we’re evolving how we listen. Because true listening involves not just ears, but hearts.

We’re launching a new version of the GenZ Advisory Council. And our team has embraced it with a level of commitment and passion that has exceeded our expectations. It fills us with joy—and some uncertainty, too. After all, we’re a diverse team representing multiple generations, promoting youth leadership. And let’s be honest — generations don’t always see eye to eye.

We hope this space will be one of dialogue, respectful debate, and co-creation.

And this is urgent. Because it’s not enough to hear young people through content, technology, or interventions—we want their voices to shape our 2026–2029 organizational strategy.

I’ll keep you posted on how we’re doing.