Helping Teenagers from Underprivileged Backgrounds Believe in Their Potential
Today, I sat across from a 15-year-old girl, bright and articulate, as she shared the business plan she had been developing as part of her school curriculum. Her ideas were imaginative. She spoke clearly. She even added creative touches that reflected both intelligence and effort. But as we talked, I sensed something was missing: belief. While she could talk about the plan, she didn’t seem to believe it could become real. It remained abstract, distant—like a story that belonged to someone else.
This moment stayed with me. And it led me to reflect on the deeper layers behind what I witnessed: the mindset shaped not just by age, but by circumstance.
The Invisible Wall: Why Some Teenagers Struggle to Project into the Future
Neuroscience tells us that during adolescence, the prefrontal cortex—the brain’s center for planning, decision-making, and imagining future outcomes—is still developing. This makes it inherently harder for teenagers to think long-term or visualize consequences. However, that developmental process is deeply influenced by a young person’s environment.
When a teenager grows up in a context where opportunities are scarce, where success feels like a foreign concept, the brain doesn't just develop slower—it develops differently. Over time, the absence of positive reinforcement, visible role models, and lived experiences of agency can lead to what psychologists call learned helplessness: the belief that effort is futile, because past experiences have taught them that nothing they do really changes their outcomes.
In contrast, I’ve worked with teens from more privileged backgrounds who could pitch similar plans with unshakable confidence. The difference wasn’t in talent or intelligence—it was in exposure. They had seen success modeled, experienced small wins, and internalized the idea that plans can lead to progress.
How Coaching Can Transform This Process
Early coaching adds another dimension to this support system. While mentoring offers advice, coaching asks powerful questions that help young people build ownership of their goals. For teens who have internalized a sense of limitation, coaching helps rewire those thought patterns. It activates what’s called mental contrasting: the ability to visualize a desired future and identify obstacles—then work through them strategically.
Coaching provides:
A safe space for self-expression: Many teens have never been asked what they truly want—or believed when they say it.
Structured reflection: Helping them connect the dots between thoughts, feelings, actions, and outcomes.
Mindset work: Building resilience, self-efficacy, and emotional regulation—skills that academic curricula often overlook.
In short, coaching helps turn “I can’t” into “I might,” and eventually, “I will.”
Belief is Built, Not Given
What I witnessed today wasn’t a lack of ambition. It was a lack of belief—something entirely different, and far more fixable. When we equip young people not just with knowledge, but with the tools to believe in themselves, everything changes. Non-profits, educators, and coaches have an opportunity to create that shift—together.
Because the moment a teenager starts to believe that their plan could become a reality, that’s when the real transformation begins.
