Teenagers have a ‘Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes’, said author, scientist and resilience coach Sujata Kelkar Shetty.
Participating in a session on ‘Resilient Teen Parenting in the Digital Age’, at Manotsava, the mental health festival in the city, Ms. Shetty said, “Teenagers have an extraordinary capacity to learn and to feel. They can learn an extraordinary amount of information. You would have seen if you have teenagers at home. They can have this wonderful debate with you on climate change, yet at the same time, they are also equally capable and will often forget their water bottles in school.”
She said that teenagers are also impulsive because their brains have ‘bicycle brakes’. “So you got a Ferrari brain with a break that does not function and steering that does not work either, then it is a combination of poor brakes and poor steering,” she said.
Ms. Shetty said that adults have to provide the brain power that teenagers lack, especially when it comes to thinking about the mental and physical health of teenagers.
No public health system
“The problem that arises is that when it comes to thinking about mental and physical health of teenagers, we don’t have a public health system that gives them the kind of importance that deserves. And the onus then lies on us to support them,” Ms. Shetty said.
She added that it is even more important in today’s age because we have situations where the environment is relentless, algorithmically-driven, and where stimulation is extraordinary.
Post-pandemic scenario
“Post pandemic, you have a situation where your teenagers are spending too much screen time than ever before, they are more socially isolated than ever before and that leads to an upsurge in mental health issues, both anxiety and depression,” she added.
She also said that if teenagers are spending time on social media, they aren’t just wasting their time but they are actively rewiring their brain.
Sleep, nutrition, movement
She added that parents, apart from being compassionate coaches, should also focus on triad of sleep, nutrition, and movement.
“Just to give you some data, 90-minute less sleep causes a drop in IQ points in your teenager. Supplementing that diet with Omega 3 improves the amount of brain fertilizer and allows them to focus better. So you got to think about sleep, nutrition. And just 30 minutes of exercise in a day increases the Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and the composite of these three will make a world of difference in your teen,” she added.
Published – November 09, 2025 08:07 pm IST
