Adolescent refers to a young person in the stage between childhood and adulthood, roughly from ages 12 to 18. During adolescence, your body changes rapidly, you start thinking in more complex ways, and you become more independent. An adolescent might tower over their parents one year after being much shorter, or suddenly care intensely about what their friends think.

Adolescents are actively growing into adults. Their brains are rewiring to handle more sophisticated thinking. They're figuring out who they are beyond just being someone's child. They're developing their own interests, opinions, and values.

You'll often hear adolescent used in more formal contexts, like in health classes or psychology books, while teenager is the everyday word for the same age group. When someone calls a behavior adolescent, they usually mean it's immature or impulsive, like how teenagers sometimes make dramatic decisions without thinking through the consequences. Adolescence is also when people develop crucial skills like abstract thinking, long-term planning, and understanding complex relationships.