“These young people are on the cusp of their learning potential, and the mobile phone they were just talking about is the most interesting thing to the teenage brain for two reasons, it stands for friends and trends”. 

On the 20th September, the BBC hosted a live radio show as part of their Teen23 campaign. This quote, said by Dr Jane Gilmore during one of the discussions throughout the radio show, gives an insight into one of the many topics which were spoken about at the event.

The live radio show was hosted by Nicky Campbell at The Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham. As well as Dr Gilmore, a psychologist of the teenage brain, other guests included: Rachel De Souza, children’s commissioner for England, and Ami Charlize, a social media influencer with almost 3 million followers on TikTok. 

The radio show, which aired on BBC radio 5 live, explored what life is like as a teenager in 2023, and the BBC wanted to hear opinions and experiences from teenagers as much as possible. Host Nicky Campbell encouraged the teenagers to unapologetically voice their thoughts and opinions on the topics that were discussed, making the show a beneficial way for teenagers to be able to feel as though their voices are being heard. Several topics were discussed, a few being: whether teenagers are ‘ruled by their smartphones’, body image, protecting children from harmful online content, and the negative effects of social media. 

The aim of the radio show was to get the authentic views and opinions of teenagers and that was achieved well, as plenty of in depth conversations were had involving the teenagers and the invited guests too.