For this special edition, we wanted to look beyond the numbers and better understand how these challenges show up as students return to school. We shared findings from Surgo Health’s Youth Mental Health Tracker with Izzy, a 16-year old high school student, and asked for her  perspective: Which findings reflect what students are really experiencing? What might adults be missing? And, as a new school year begins, what could parents, teachers, counselors, and other trusted adults do differently to better support young people.

Here’s what she had to say, in her own words.

This summer, billions of people around the world are watching the same thing. Stadiums are packed. Group chats are buzzing. Strangers in bars are high-fiving over goals. For a few weeks, the World Cup does something rare: it gives people a shared identity and the experience of belonging to something bigger than themselves.

For young people, that feeling is more than a nice-to-have. The Youth Mental Health Tracker data suggest it may be one of the most important things we can offer them.

For millions of young people, summer means long days outside, pickup games at the park, bike rides to a friend's house, afternoons at the pool. We know these experiences matter for physical health and wellbeing. Ninety percent of youth rate their physical health as good, and youth who do are 1.6 times more likely to find life meaningful and feel optimistic about the future. 

However, summer doesn't land the same way for everyone, especially when it comes to physical activity.

The rulings against Meta and YouTube have set off a wave of  calls to limit (or even ban) young people's social media use. The instinct is understandable, but it’s important to understand the broader context around how and why youth are engaging with social media in the first place. Data from the Youth Mental Health Tracker paints a more nuanced picture when it comes to youth and social media.

With ongoing conflicts overseas, breaking news alerts, and social media feeds saturated with images from war, today’s youth are absorbing a world crisis in real time. For parents, this can raise difficult questions: How much should I say? How do I talk about scary and complex events? How could this be affecting their mental health?