THE EDITING CRISIS · TEENS UNEDITED™

The edit begins long before the title does.

Before their identity has even formed, teens edit themselves to fit: quiet, curated, afraid to be different. The same wound as the leader's, one generation upstream, and just as measurable.

“We cannot start assimilating when we’re young, if our goal is to avoid assimilating when we’re older”

-Brielle Lubin · Eighth-grade student, at a Leadership inthe Age of Personalization Summit.

Self

Who they are

40%

of high—schoolers report persistent sadness

CDC YRBS, 2023

Home

The parent gap

52%

of teens would go to a parent, but 80% of parents assume they would

PEW, 2025

School

When structure ends

56→39

thriving falls 17 points into young adulthood

GALLUP & WALTON, 2025

Peers

The pressure to fit

88%

feel pressure to follow a set path, not their own

CITIZENS & JA, 2025

Screen

The curated self

48%

say social media is mostly negative, up 16 pts in 3 yrs

PEW, 2025

"On and off the field, what carried me was a deep belief in what mattered most to me. Helping a young person claim that belief before the world edits it out is everything, and Glenn has mastered it."

Joy Fawcett

The Original Soccer Mom · 2-Time Olympic Gold Medalist · National Soccer Hall of Fame Inductee · First Mother to Play in the Women's World Cup

Help them claim it early

The New Editor · AI

Now the edit begins before the words do.

The central work of adolescence is figuring out who you are — and the instrument for that work is language. A teenager feels something they can’t name, reaches for a sentence, fails, tries another, and somewhere around the fifth attempt finds words that fit — and discovers what they believe. That isn’t writing practice. It’s identity forming.

AI can close that gap before a teen ever feels it. The output is fluent, competent, exactly right for the moment — it just didn’t come from anywhere inside them.

“It’s better writing, it sounds good and helps get a better grade. But it’s kinda generic. Like anyone could’ve written it, not just me.”College student · University of Toronto

AI-writing study, 2026

54%

of U.S. teens use AI for schoolwork

Pew, 2026

30%

use an AI chatbot every day

Pew, 2026

12%

turn to it for emotional support or advice

Pew, 2026

The goal was never to take the tool away. They’ll spend their whole lives beside it. The goal is to show them where their own voice lives — and why it’s worth the struggle to find it

Read the full essay on Forbes →

In Glenn’s Words

Ideas worth leading by.

"The editing crisis does not start at 45. It starts at 15."

— Glenn Llopis

"We are raising children for a world that no longer exists."

— Glenn Llopis

"We were rewarded for conformity, not originality."

— Glenn Llopis

"When your voice matters, so does your work."

— Glenn Llopis

"Your team is not deciding whether to be honest. They are deciding whether it is safe."

— Glenn Llopis

The Conviction Diagnostic

How much of you is edited?

Take the Conviction Diagnostic. In three minutes, see where you've traded who you are for who the room wanted, and exactly where to begin reclaiming it.

Start with the question most leaders can’t answer in a sentence: What do you solve for?

Begin the Conviction Diagnostic