How To Reach Lonely, Anxious Teens

Expert advice from Lisa Damour, Sema Sgaier, and me

Hi Readers,

In June, I was fortunate to be invited to be part of the Aspen Ideas: Health festival, a global gathering of healthcare and public health practitioners, researchers, business leaders, policymakers, advocates, artists, and journalists. The event, held on the Aspen Institute’s Colorado campus, is designed to “elevate and accelerate bold approaches to better health for all.” Although more than 1,000 people attend in person, many more experience the conference by watch recordings of the sessions afterwards.

I am thrilled to tell you that the panel I was part of, “Anxious Girls, Lonely Boys” is one of the most-watched sessions from Aspen Ideas: Health, and is featured in Health Wrapped: Your Favorite Conversations of 2025.

I love that so many people are finding it useful. You can watch the whole thing here:

Featured on this panel:

Lisa Damour

• Lisa Damour is a psychologist and author of “Untangled,” “Under Pressure” and “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers,” which have been translated into 23 languages. She co-hosts the “Ask Lisa” podcast and works in collaboration with UNICEF. Damour authored the monthly “Adolescence” column for The New York Times, is a regular contributor to CBS News and created “Untangling 10to20,” a digital library of premium content to support teens and those who care for them. She is a senior advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University and has written numerous academic papers, chapters and books on education and child development. Damour maintains a clinical practice and speaks to schools, professional organizations and corporate groups around the world on child and adolescent development family mental health and adult well-being. She was a consultant to Pixar on the film “Inside Out 2.”

Christopher Pepper

• Christopher Pepper writes the Substack newsletter “Teen Health Today” and is co-author of the book “Talk To Your Boys: 16 Conversations to Help Tweens and Teens Grow into Confident, Caring Young Men” with Joanna Schroeder. As a high school health education teacher for over a decade, Pepper addressed topics like sleep, mental health and sexuality with thousands of students. He helped create “Be Real. Be Ready,” a sexuality curriculum now used in schools around the world. With the New York Times Learning Network he developed “The Reckoning: Teaching About the #MeToo Moment and Sexual Harassment,” a package of discussion prompts and classroom lessons. Pepper coordinates San Francisco Unified School District’s Young Men’s Health Project, bringing middle and high school boys together to talk about relationships, emotions and healthy masculinity. His work has been featured in Vox, The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Edutopia and on National Public Radio.

Sema Sgaier

• Sema Sgaier is co-founder and CEO of Surgo Health, a public benefit corporation using AI to decode the “why” behind health behaviors. Surgo’s platform reveals the hidden drivers of health decisions, powering smarter, more human-centered care. A serial entrepreneur, Sgaier co-founded and led Surgo Foundation and Surgo Ventures, building analytic tools to address complex health challenges. Previously, she served as initiative lead at the Gates Foundation, where she helped scale global health programs around the world by integrating data, behavioral insights and product innovation. She has held academic appointments at Harvard and the University of Washington, authored over 60 publications and contributed op-eds to The American Institute for Boys and Men, The New York Times and other leading outlets. Sgaier serves on the board of directors of United States of Care and was named a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society.

Jacqueline Howard

• Jacqueline Howard is a health reporter for CNN, covering medicine and healthy living around the world, including the complexities of cancer, mental health, maternal health and infectious diseases. When the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in 2020, Howard was the first CNN reporter to break the news on the air and covered the pandemic as it progressed. Prior to joining CNN, Howard served as senior science editor at The Huffington Post and host/producer of the video series “Talk Nerdy To Me.” She has appeared in educational videos for The Nature Conservancy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Big History Project. Howard was selected to participate in The White House’s “We the Geeks: Women Role Models” initiative. She currently serves as vice chair of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Health and Science Task Force.

Recent Teen Health Today Highlights

• What Does “Scromiting” Have To Do With Weed?

  Unexpected effects from cannabis use. PLUS: Does adolescence really extend past 30?

• How To Talk About Masculinity And School

  Three excellent videos explore how schools deal (or don’t deal) with boys

• Study: Short Social Media Breaks Help Mental Health

  Logging off as a wellness strategy. PLUS: A vaccine is defeating cervical cancer, and is Roblox really safe for kids?

• Sex Ed In America: From Terrific to Terrible

  In some states, students learn about consent and healthy relationships. In others, they get “Baby Olivia.”

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