Shatkin - Born to be wild: why teens take risks, and how we can help keep them safe

Advance Praise for Born to Be Wild

Yes, its incisive, engaging and beautifully written. Yes, its well grounded in the science and provides practical, clear and thoughtful advice. But what I found most outstanding, at an emotional level, is that this book brought me back to myself as a teenager, reliving a state of mind I had almost forgottenand it gave me a clearer notion of what was actually going on inside my brain.

Harold Alan Pincus, MD, professor and vice chair of the department of psychiatry, Columbia University

Why is age twenty-six the new eighteen? Why do adults make the best decisions using the least information? This fascinating and illuminating book will help you understand and influence your teenager, and yourself.

Wendy Mogel, PhD, bestselling author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

In this extremely accessible volume, Dr. Shatkin makes sense of humorous, irrational, curious or dangerous adolescent behaviors. Based on a more accurate understanding of how teenagers think and feel, parents and other adults who interact with teens are provided with more effective approaches to deal with adolescent risk taking.

Gregory K. Fritz, MD, president, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Refreshingly honest, empathic, and written with a clarity that can help parents, educators, and health professionals accept and understand why risk taking is often part of teen behavior.

Robie H. Harris, author of Its Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health

This book by one of Americas leading child psychiatrists is a must-read for anyone working with or raising adolescents. It demystifies this too-often baffling period of life and, most important, shares what we can all do as parents, teachers, and society at large to help turn our adolescents away from unsafe risks and toward a safe and healthy future.

Dave Levin, cofounder, KIPP

Skillfully integrating the latest scientific findings with expert clinical acumen, Dr. Shatkin has done a masterful job of capturing the complexities and contradictions that define the teenage years. Anyone who has teens, knows teens, works with teens, or even was a teen needs to read this book!

John Piacentini, PhD, ABPP, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, UCLA

Take what you know about your teenager and risk taking and chuck it out the window. (Carefully, because youre an adult.) While giving you research-based tools to curbing the truly dangerous activities teenagers engage in, Born to Be Wild is also a joyous celebration of teenagers and their sometimes inexplicable impulsiveness. Born to Be Wild is smart, funny, and deeply comforting.

Judith Newman, author of To Siri With Love: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and the Kindness of Machines

Born to Be Wild is for everyone who wants to develop the tools to connect better with adolescentsparents, teachers, policy makers, and, in my case, writer-performers.

Ilana Glazer, comedian and cocreator and star of Broad City

This book is brilliantly written, incredibly informative, and presented in a comfortable down-to-earth manner. It is definitely going to be my new go-to referral reading for parents, educators, and therapists who will better understand why kids do the darndest things.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, marriage and family therapist, SiriusXM Radio host

Jess Shatkins book is a must-read.... With colorful personal stories, he weaves a brilliant, highly readable, and scientifically grounded analysis of the paradox of adolescence. Without a doubt, parents, teachers, policy makers, and anyone who wants to better understand themselves, their children, or the younger generation will benefit from reading this book.

Kathleen M. Pike PhD, professor of psychology and director of the Global Mental Health Program at Columbia University Medical Center

Crafted with medical and scientific tough-mindedness, empathy, and compassion by one of the worlds experts in adolescent emotional and behavioral development... Born to Be Wild should be required reading for anyone who has or plans to have a child.

James J. Hudziak, MD, professor of psychiatry, medicine, pediatrics and communication sciences, University of Vermont College of Medicine and Medical Center

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street

New York, New York 10014

Copyright 2017 by Jess P. Shatkin

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Tarcher and Perigee are registered trademarks, and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

Ebook ISBN: 9781101993422

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING - IN -P UBLICATION D ATA

Names: Shatkin, Jess P., author.

Title: Born to be wild: why teens and tweens take risks, and how we can help

keep them safe / Jess P. Shatkin, MD, MPH.

Description: New York, NY: TarcherPerigee, [2017] | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017016376 | ISBN 9780143129790

Subjects: LCSH: Risk-taking (Psychology) in adolescence. | Adolescence. |

Adolescent psychology.

Classification: LCC RJ506.R57 S53 2017 | DDC 616.89/140835dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016376

Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.

Cover design: Will Brown

Cover image: Enjoynz / iStock

Version_1