The power and positivity of raising teens | Editors' Best of 2019

In the past, teenagers have had a reputation with parents that preceded them. Does the eyeroll emoji come to mind? Well in 2019, we saw the rise of an exciting movement that empowered parents raising teens to see them in all their awesome, creative, out-of-the-box thinking, risk-taking glory. And as parents of soon to be four teenagers (with a couple more to follow in the next few years), we are here for it. We've always felt strongly that teenagers are powerful forces, with the aptitude and ability to do some pretty awesome things. But, it's not easy raising teenagers (hint: it's not easy raising kids in general), and the push-pull that comes as they establish their own identity and independence combined with hormones (so much hormones) can make the whole thing pretty challenging.

That's why we were so delighted to see the work of teen parenting experts really come to the forefront in 2019, including Dr. Ken Ginsburg, who was one of our favorite Spawned podcast guests of the year, Casey O' Roarty, Lisa Damour, Jessica Lahey, just to name a few. These folks have helped change our own approach to parenting teens, not to mention how we view teenagers in general. And if you're not convinced by what teens are capable of, look at the work of Greta Thunberg, David Hogg, Isra Hirsi, Marley Dias, and Jordan Reeves (again, just to name a few) are doing. Incredible! Here on Cool Mom Picks, you'll see a lot more posts focused on parenting teens in 2020. We've already started a pretty healthy traveling with teens section on our site, and expect a lot more in the coming months. As parents of teens ourselves, it's important to continue to foster a healthy, positive view of some of our favorite people, and inspire and support them in growing into the cool adults they can be.