Plot Twist Parenting: Teenagers

Neil the Amazing Adolescent Seal

There's a one-ton elephant seal named Neil currently shutting down towns in Tasmania, and the whole internet thinks he's a rebel — but the scientists know he's just a young creature practicing to become what he's meant to be.  In this lighter, breathe-easier episode, Julie makes the case that so much of the teenage behavior that terrifies us isn't pathology, it's practice: half-baked brains rehearsing adulthood on the only equipment available, which is usually our homes and our hearts. Through Neil, some bored orcas off Portugal, and one very over-loved llama, we find the real plot twist — that the wildness is rarely the danger, and the thing to actually guard against is holding on so tight they never get to become themselves.  Come take the exhale. Find Julie at julie-w.com.

Graduation Season is Weird

Graduation Season: Behind the Curtain When you picture a high school graduation, you probably see the cap and gown, the walk across the stage, the backyard party. That's one version. This episode is about what's actually going on underneath it for a lot of parents — the grief sitting next to the pride, the disorientation nobody warned you about, the strange feeling of being unmoored even when everything is technically fine. Graduation season is complicated in ways that don't fit in a congratulations card. And you deserve to know you're not alone in that. Connect with me at julie-w.com — I read everything you send me.

Be It til you Are It

What do you do when you're supposed to show up as a connected, intentional parent — and you have absolutely nothing left? This is the episode for the depleted days. The ones where Date Day is on the calendar and everything in you wants to cancel it. Where you love your kids deeply but parenting feels like a performance you're failing to pull off. Here's the plot twist: you're not performing. You already are the parent you're trying to be. Let's reframe "fake it till you make it" for something with real roots: be it till you are it. Drawing from Brené Brown's research on daring leadership, the science of enclothed cognition, and the faith concept of metanoia (transformation of mind), this episode makes the case that showing up with your tools, even when the feeling isn't there, isn't performance. It's practice. And practice is exactly how identity is built. You'll walk away with three concrete strategies for leading with the tool instead of waiting for the feeling, and a challenge that takes less than five minutes. If nobody's told you lately: what you are doing matters so much.

Mother's Day <3

Why is Mother's Day in May? And is there a better time? Not really--there's no time of year when moms are just chilling. Pick any month and they're carrying so much. And moms of teenagers are doing some of the hardest parenting of their lives in what looks from the outside like the quiet years. The invisible work of parenting teenagers — the 10pm conversations, the restraint nobody sees, the steadiness you hold so their nervous system can find calm — is also some of the most sophisticated leadership development available to any human being. Science agrees. So does the origin story of Mother's Day itself, which turns out to be far more remarkable than greeting cards would suggest. You'll hear some of what actually happens to a woman's brain through pregnancy and why it's really a superpower, what Psalm 100 says about who you already are, and why the women who founded Mother's Day believed mothers were the steadying force in a fractured world. If nobody's handed you a gold star lately — this one's for you.

You’re Doing Better than You Think

A closing reflection on what it actually means to parent teenagers in the long, messy middle. This episode isn’t about doing more or fixing anything. It’s about noticing what’s already happening beneath the surface: the emotional labor, the restraint, the repair, and the quiet devotion that rarely gets named. Julie revisits the five practices from Season 1—connection, truth, trust, joy, and unconditional love—not as a checklist, but as postures parents return to over time. Drawing from leadership, applied science, and faith traditions, she reflects on how these practices help parents play the long game: staying connected, regulated, and present even when outcomes are uncertain. Most of all, this episode offers reassurance. Growth doesn’t always show up as immediate change. Often it looks like calmer responses, quicker repair, and a steadier nervous system. That work counts. Season 1 closes by inviting parents to let go of the question “Am I a good parent?” and replace it with something more honest and sustaining: “Am I a devoted parent?”