You’re Not Broken — You Were Just Never Taught This. A Preview from the upcoming podcast.

What if the anxiety, confusion, or self-doubt you’re feeling isn’t a flaw — but a gap in what you were never taught to handle?
In this short but powerful preview, Emer O’Donnell, founder of TeenReconnect, shares a moment of clarity that changed her life — and how it sparked her mission to equip the next generation with tools she wishes she had as a teen.

If you’ve ever wondered why so many young people feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of their path, this conversation will resonate deeply.

✨ The full episode releases in just 3 days — and it’s packed with empowering insights for young professionals, mentors, and anyone passionate about helping others grow.

Transcript

Emer O'Donnel: 0:00

I made a lot of mistakes when I was a teenager and I didn't even realise I was making them. As Steve Jobs says, it's bit easier to connect the dots when you're looking backwards. But actually what I think is so important today is that if we get our relationships within ourselves right, then we can get relationships with other people right. And I think it's very difficult for a lot of young people living through COVID, you know, a lot of them are, you know, on digital devices all the time, really knowing who they are, really knowing what they want and empowering them to have that knowledge so that they don't feel lost and overwhelmed. It's pretty much what I'm about when it comes to my work. Yeah, so there's two sides. I'm a mom, no doubt about it, love it. And then also I have that professional side, you know, and a fun loving side. I think our lives need to be lived with joy. We need to try and find it. We need to be able to handle the uncertainty of the world we live in now. And that takes upgraded skills. And I think every kid needs somebody and I call it the good adult. And that's another part of the training that I do is that we train the adults who are either part of the kid's life, it might be a parent, it might be a teacher, it might be a sports coach. We train them with these upgraded skills because we know then that's really going to create the security blanket for young people. place where they can feel safe, someone they can trust, because if it's missing, we know that the rates of depression, self-harming, anxiety and suicide go through the roof. And you know what? We've created a hugely modern world. It rotates 24-7 and it never needs to stop. We cannot stay still in that without upgrading our ability to connect with. with people because without that connection we're lonely and we're lost. And that's no way to live. Whereas now young people are being asked to make decisions about their futures that they're terrified to do because they don't know who they are. We would never do this in business if we didn't have the data to support the decision making. And there's a huge fear of failure because again they didn't get to run around, be free like all the generations before them. And I think also there's another piece in negative cycle and parents don't mean to do it. It's the constant feedback that they give to their kids. Just don't leave them alone and they don't even realise we do it. It's the second greatest human need after breathing. And we do it every three hours. And often most of the time when parents give feedback, unconsciously, it's because you've done something wrong. You know? And I notice I do it myself and I'm aware of it I go, no, stop, be quiet, say nothing. Let them do it. Let them learn through the process. And then the other thing is, you know, that's that social comparison. I only had to compare myself with friends at school or, you know, people who lived in my neighborhood. I'm not comparing myself with the world with a whole world of illusion out there. You know, just see what AI can create now, you know, as if everyone's having the perfect life and you're not. And it's not true. That's not the human journey. And yeah, and I think It's like a cauldron, it's a mixture of factors. And if you don't know who you are, if you don't know that you have, you know, limiting beliefs, if you don't know, have any sense of who you are, you can feel very lost and disconnected because you feel like you're a failure. And if you don't have the off switch for that, to change the story, know how the psychology of it works, then actually I see young people ending up in a total, what I call the "freak out zone" So we go from a comfort zone to a learning zone, but if we're pushed beyond what we're able to cope with, we end up in the freak out zone. And that's what I'm seeing. That's where the stress and anxiety is coming from. So I just recognize that cycle in my work.