Stay Confident Today–National Youth Confidence Day 2022

Isabelle Stavsky and Maya Friedman

Confidence, the feeling of being content with who you are and how you present yourself. As a teenager in the 21st century, a large part of life is based on confidence–fake or real. Everyone wants to be accepted by others, looking towards peers for validation in replace of self-confidence but, in actuality, true confidence comes from inner appreciation for who you are. 

So much of what holds teens back from embracing their trueselves is fear of being judged. Senior Owen Daniels advises, “No one really cares what you do, if you do something stupid, people will just forget so it doesn’t really matter.” Nobody wants to look back in 5 or 10 years and regret not making the most out of high school, so it’s important to not let others hold you back from enjoying yourself. 

While other people do have an effect on inner confidence, a lot of it is going on in your own head. Junior Cole Simon shares, “My own view on myself is what affects my confidence.” 

Teenagers especially have societal pressures such as social media as well as appearance and lifestyle stereotypes that make it feel as if you are always being judged and held to a certain standard. 

Sophomore Dianely Escamilla Briceno shares that sometimes her confidence can be affected by social activities, media, or norms. Dianely advises, “Don’t listen to social norms, just be yourself and express yourself in any way you can public or not.”

Ryan Dooley, a staff member of the Terra Linda Wellness Center believes that there are many more negative effects on confidence nowadays than when he was a teenager. He wishes to give teens some advice he wished he had known when he was a teenager, “What I would tell a teen in terms of confidence is–find your people, get to know [the] real people who accept you for your faults and celebrate you for the joy of who you are.” 

The most important thing to remember is that every single teenager struggles with self-confidence on some level or another, which is why it is so crucial to be aware of our impacts on others as well as remember to celebrate everyone. 

In honor of today, National Youth Confidence Day, everybody should take some time to appreciate something about yourself and remember that you deserve to feel confident in who you are.