Selfies, Instagram, laziness, and mood swings are all things that stereotypically make up your average teenager. It is a well-known fact that teenagers go through a self-absorbed and selfish developmental stage, and this is exacerbated by social media. Young people can easily become selfish and completely obsessed with their phone and their own internal world. So what can we do about it?

A great antidote to teenage selfishness is getting involved in charity work, volunteering and helping others. This helps teenagers look outside themselves and experience the fulfilment of helping others before helping themselves. Some schools offer the Duke of Edinburgh award as an extracurricular activity where the students are expected to complete voluntary work in some form. DofE is a great way to get involved in volunteering since you have to branch out and experience new things and in doing so you are helping others, it’s a win-win situation. Schools also actively encourage charity fundraising, with charity clubs and reps organizing events,

My experience with raising money for charity started when I was 12. I decided to raise money for ‘Young Lives vs Cancer’ by selling cupcakes at car boot sales and doing online orders. Overall I raised over £1200. I loved doing this because I got to bake cupcakes, and it improved my confidence and self-esteem. Selling these cupcakes improved my social skills and made me feel more confident interacting with people because I went to local supermarkets to ask for donated ingredients. From this I received support from the charity’s fundraising team thanking me. This made me feel so happy and encouraged me to keep raising money at local car boot sales and bake sales at school. This was an amazing opportunity and I’m so glad I did this instead of sitting on my phone all day. I also learnt about the charity’s work and visited their home from home unit, CLIC Court, Oxford. Getting an understanding of the experience of young people with cancer definitely took me outside of my everyday world and helped me appreciate the difficulties of other teenagers, giving me perspective on my own life and the hardships I thought I was experiencing.

Overall raising money for charity is incredible for any teenagers feeling unfulfilled or isolated and getting sucked into the self-obsessed world of social media. Getting involved in volunteering and charity work helps the charity and their cause but also has significant rewards for the people involved. It boosts self-esteem, opens your eyes to the wider world, gives you knew skills and improves your mental health.