Lucía Galán Bertrand calls for a better understanding of adolescence as a developmental stage

The paediatrician Lucía Galán Bertrand advocates for recognising adolescence as a crucial period of growth, urging parents to adapt boundaries, understand brain maturity, and address digital influences with guidance rather than control.

Lucía Galán Bertrand, the paediatrician better known to many families as Lucía, mi pediatra, has spent years trying to shift the way parents think about adolescence. In an interview with Diario de Sevilla, she argued that much of the anxiety surrounding this stage comes from misunderstanding it: teenagers are not miniature adults, but young people in a period of intense change, both emotionally and biologically. Galán Bertrand, who co-founded Centro Creciendo and has written widely on child health, said the goal is not to excuse difficult behaviour, but to recognise when a teen is simply acting their age and when they may need help.

Her central point is that adolescence is still too often treated as a problem to endure rather than a developmental stage to understand. Galán Bertrand said parents usually arrive at it with less preparation than they have for early childhood, even though the pressures can be just as significant. She described adolescence as a time when young people are separating from their parents, building identity and learning how to live more independently. That shift, she said, can be unsettling for adults who are used to being at the centre of their child’s world.

Galán Bertrand also stressed that adolescent behaviour makes more sense when viewed through the lens of brain development. She pointed to the prefrontal cortex, the region involved in planning, impulse control and decision-making, as one of the last areas of the brain to mature. That helps explain why a teenager may reason brilliantly one moment and act impulsively the next. Medical sources support that view: the US Department of Health and Human Services says cognitive development in adolescence involves pruning extra connections, strengthening useful ones and continuing brain maturation into the mid-twenties, while Cleveland Clinic describes synaptic pruning as a normal process that improves efficiency by removing unused neural links.

She used the same framework to explain why limits still matter. For Galán Bertrand, boundaries are essential, but they should evolve as children grow older. They are meant to provide security, not to control every move. She advised parents to stay present without becoming intrusive, to ask questions without interrogating and to choose their battles carefully. That, she said, is what allows adults to remain a stable point of reference even as teenagers push for greater independence. She also warned against the familiar idea that adolescence must mean constant conflict, saying that myth can do real damage to families.

Galán Bertrand was equally direct about mental health and the digital world. She said parents should look out for sustained changes in mood, sleep, eating habits or social engagement, especially if a young person has become isolated, persistently sad or unusually irritable. She urged families not to dismiss self-harm, suicidal thoughts or references to death, and said asking about suicide does not plant the idea; it can open the door to support. On social media, she rejected simplistic answers, saying the issue is not whether online platforms are wholly good or bad, but how much harm they can cause when used too early and without safeguards. She backed stronger protection for children online and said a basic phone is not the same as a smartphone with unrestricted access to the internet and social networks. In her view, digital education means guidance, not just surveillance, and it should continue until young people can manage that responsibility themselves.