As most if not all adults know too well, the road to self-confidence is truly a journey. While as we grow older we often slowly become more comfortable in our own skin, this skill is something entirely new to teens. With new emotions and trying circumstances, the adolescent years can be an especially difficult time when young people are learning who they want to be, how to feel comfortable in their identities, and garnering the faith in themselves needed to accomplish their goals. To help them face this journey head on, we’ve created some tips on how to build confidence in teens — to help you support them as they learn to believe in themselves! 

Self Love

While “self-love” seems like a simple and easy skill that everyone should have, it actually takes daily practice. While self-love may or may not come naturally, it is important to continuously foster positive feelings toward oneself. Encourage your teen to treat themselves like they would their best friend. They can start by talking to themselves in the mirror with kind mantras. If this feels too awkward, they can begin journaling about their favorite mental, physical, or intellectual attributes. 

Maybe your teen is so proud of their determination in the classroom or maybe they are in awe of their own strength. Whatever makes them feel good about themselves is worth recognizing and appreciating with ceremony each day. Recognizing their accomplishments builds the necessary belief that they will continue to succeed. Over time, these confidence activities for teens can become a permanent fixture in their lives that feels entirely organic — a new routine that simply reminds them how beautiful, strong, and capable they are on the inside and out!

Self Care

Much like self-love, it is equally as important to create a daily practice around self-care. Being mindful about and taking care of one’s mental and physical health is a key component to building confidence. Seeing the proof that they are able to accomplish what they set their mind to, is truly important to their belief in themselves and their abilities. 

To set this practice in motion, help your teen set goals about how they want to prioritize their wellness throughout the year. Assist them in planning different activities, check-ins, or other mental health activities for teens. For example, work with them to create an exercise routine, plan a healthy menu or carve out time for self reflection. Help them find a planner, journal, app or other tool that allows them to track their goals and visualize their progress. Sometimes seeing is believing!

Self Support

When learning how to build confidence in teens, they must go through a process of acquiring independence. While they are still technically children in their early years, they are fast approaching young adulthood. This means they must slowly grow out of relying on others for certain things and begin to find confidence in their abilities to take on many aspects of life on their own. An important part of your job as a guardian for your teen is to give them the proper balance of space and support that they need as they are growing.

To encourage your teen in their efforts to be self-supporting, be willing to loosen the reins on activities they can accomplish themselves. Whenever possible, do not police their eating, exercising, sleeping, studying, or other habits that they are accomplishing well on their own. Let them start to decide how to approach their lives and positively reinforce productive and healthy behaviors. Set an example by practicing healthy habits in the household and acting with positivity about yourself as well. As always, if you notice unhealthy habits, you can still have a non-judgmental talk with them, and offer to assist them in finding a productive balance.

At Tilly’s Life Center, we believe that teen mental health resources can be instrumental in helping young people find their way to happy, healthy, and beautiful lives. Part of teens creating a happy life for themselves means acquiring the confidence that they need to believe in their abilities, loving who they are more and more along the way. To facilitate these positive changes, we provide workshops to offer resources and mental health activities for teens that encourage them on their path to becoming their best, most-fulfilled selves. To learn more, visit www.tillyslifecenter.org.