What are young people concerned about today?
Each year, we publish our annual Good Childhood Report. Children and young people’s experiences and views are at the heart of the report’s findings and the basis for how we set our policy recommendations. Here are The Children’s Society’s reflections on the thoughts and feelings of some of the young people who shared their views for The Good Childhood Report 2025.
Video and content
We worked with Young Advisors on The Good Childhood Report 2025 to understand what can influence young people’s wellbeing, and to gain an insight into the ‘why’ behind some of the trends that we see in children and young people’s wellbeing.
Young people raised many factors that impact their wellbeing, including pressure to achieve, stereotypes, appearance, social media, and issues at school. Watch the video and hear them talk about the issues affecting them today.
Stereotypes
Many young people feel like they are being held to stereotypes and standards enforced by people older than them, which leads them to feel misunderstood. When negative assumptions are made about young people, there is little room to see them open up and grow to meet their potential.
Young people who took part in the consultations shared that expectations and unrealistic standards affect the way they feel about themselves and how they interact with each other. They also highlighted that negative messaging about teenagers impacts how they feel about themselves, other young people and in their communities.
Adults often misunderstand young people. They might think someone is being rude or lazy, but that person could be feeling stressed or sad.
Stereotypes and quote
You never know what someone's going through. They might be going through a lot in silence. They don't feel comfortable enough to speak up about it. They might be going through the same thing as you.
Appearance
Over one in seven (15.1%) children were unhappy with their appearance.
With social media impacting teenagers in their daily lives more and more, even though young people also highlighted the benefits that digital connectivity can have, it’s harder to block the stream of noise that comes with it. Social media creates unrealistic standards of appearance, which young people might see and want to emulate. Those online standards can seep into the offline world, affecting how children see beauty in themselves and others around them.
Appearance and quote
With girls’ wellbeing, the appearance, I think that's a big thing. Got to have straight hair, you've got to have a tan, you've got to be skinny, you've got to have a full face of makeup.
School
School was the area young people were most unhappy with in our survey this year: one in nine children were identified as unhappy with this aspect of life.
From the pressure of trying to get good grades to secure their future, to some young people being bullied with no change in school policies, many young people feel like the system is not working for them.
Parents don’t understand how overwhelming life can be with school/college and work. They might not have had a similar experience so it’s hard for them to empathise.
School and quote
From my experience – there are really limited factors which make you considered a success at school, and they are mainly academic.
Feeling overwhelmed
While useful in helping stay connected, young people felt that a constant stream of negative news and content, particularly greater nowadays due to easy access on social media, could feel overwhelming.
There is more content consumed on phones today than there ever has been. That plays a part in how young people see themselves and the world around them, especially if they see polished versions of everyone else’s lives and begin to compare themselves.
Feeling overwhelmed and quote
Because a lot of young people are, like, easily influenced, then they want to live up to those standards, and it can very easily cause their, like, happiness to decline because they're not living like a realistic lifestyle.
Hope
Despite the challenges, many young people are hopeful and want to be part of the solution. With the right support, we can help them build happier, healthier lives.
If you really believe in something, I think the best thing to do is to act on it. And that's exactly what I did.
Despite the fact young people don’t have much power, they still want to change things in society.
