Written by Megan Rouse, Communications Associate, UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
This blog post was written using quotes from the second session of the 2025 Adolescent Brain Development Symposium, Supporting Entrepreneurship and Economic Innovation during AdolescenceDuring this session, Leah Somerville, a professor at Harvard University, and Anthony Waller, the co-founder and CEO of Athlete to Athlete, spoke with moderator Andrew J. Fuligni, the co-executive director of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent. Watch the full video on our YouTube.
Research has shown that adolescents are exceptional learners and are more willing than adults to explore situations with uncertain outcomes. In the last session of the 2025 Adolescent Development Symposium, researchers and young entrepreneurs discussed why brain development during adolescence makes us particularly inclined to innovate and participate in entrepreneurship, and how this can be a way for young people to take positive risks and even set them up for future success.
Adolescents are Motivated to Try New Things
During adolescence, the reward systems in our brains are more responsive to novel experiences than during other periods in development, making the positive feelings we can get from surprising results and trying new things more intense. We are also more tolerant of uncertainty than during other stages of our lives, making us more willing to participate in activities with unknown outcomes.
“We think of [adolescence] more as being a time of life where people are gathering up lots of new experiences, which then in turn shape and sculpt the development of the brain toward a brain that’s ready to tackle the challenges of adulthood,” says Leah Sommerville, a professor of psychology at Harvard University who studies adolescent development.
Participating in new activities and taking risks can be highly beneficial for development, as trying new things helps us discover our interests, test our ideas, and learn from our experiences.
“There is a heightened tolerance of risk in choices. This is not necessarily thought to be a bad thing,” explains Leah. “It means trying new possibilities that could lead to positive outcomes or negative ones.”
Youth Are Natural Innovators
In addition to being good risk-takers, young people are also innovative because they are more likely to try out novel solutions and new ways to solve problems.
“We know from research that adolescents tend to be highly exploratory in their choices,” says Leah.
This increase in exploratory behaviors means that young people are more likely than adults to try out new things like tactics in a board game, a strange ice cream flavor, or a new hobby. Not knowing the outcome of a particular action will encourage young people to try it because the outcome could be good.
These tendencies can be supported through programs and policies that encourage innovation in adolescents, which could lead to progressive solutions, future success, and healthy development.
One program attempting to tap into this inclination for exploration is Startup UCLA, a summer accelerator that provides a workspace, guidance, legal services, and mentorship to early-stage companies founded by students.
During his undergraduate studies at UCLA, Anthony Waller took advantage of this program to try something that he had always wanted to do: start a business.
“I had always wanted to try something on my own. And I think that it was a great program where I could get access to the information that I didn’t have about how to do this specific goal,” says Anthony.
Providing ways to take healthy risks during adolescence, like starting a business or nonprofit, can channel our motivation for new experiences into positive exploration, a feeling of purpose, and possibly future economic success. It can also help us exercise our need for agency and autonomy, and prevent us from seeking out risks that could be unhealthy.
Mentors and Peer Role Models Support Positive Risk-Taking
Although young people are good at taking risks and coming up with unique solutions, they still need mentorship and support to reach their goals.
In the case of Startup UCLA, the program provided guidance and scaffolding on how to take smart risks and make informed decisions.
“I think there’s a couple of different kinds of barriers that were in the way,” explains Anthony, “Information barrier for sure… I had no idea how to go about starting an early-stage company despite having this ambition to do so.”
Anthony Waller now runs a startup called Athlete to Athlete, which pairs current Division I college athletes with youth athletes in a virtual mentorship program. He says he couldn’t have done it without the support and encouragement from Startup UCLA.
“There’s also this like belief barrier,” says Anthony. “Having people who have gone through this and have succeeded, both giving you information as a practical support, but also just giving you that emotional support and that reassurance that, hey, this is something that you can do.”
Research also shows that some mentors may be better than others. In the case of Anthony’s startup, he pairs current athletes with emerging athletes and has seen success in part due to the proximity in age of the athletes.
“I think we’ve learned a couple of critical things, like it’s not so much about sports as it is about just having like an older sibling kind of role model,” says Anthony.
“One theme that has come out of that research is the role that slightly older peers can play in being incredible teachers to adolescents and also to influence them, for better or for worse,” says Leah.
Providing young people with relatable mentors who provide support and encouragement can motivate young people to take healthy risks, participate in prosocial behaviors, try out new things, and become happy and thriving adults.
Conclusion
During adolescence, we are more motivated to try new things and to innovate, which can be positive for development and can help youth build trajectories for a healthy future. Providing support for young people to learn to be entrepreneurs–to start either a business or nonprofit endeavor– can help young people use these motivations to build economic opportunity while supporting key developmental needs like agency, exploration, and finding meaning and purpose.
Young people need guidance, direction, and mentorship that provides information and encouragement as they work to create progressive and innovative solutions.
Transitioning to the responsibilities and demands of adulthood can be both exciting and challenging for us all. But without support, the challenges can make the path to a financially secure adulthood more difficult, as young people need to prioritize securing necessities like housing or food, and delay or forego opportunities that could increase their economic mobility. In the second session of the 2025 Adolescent Brain Development Symposium, researchers, policymakers, and youth advocates discussed how we could use financial assistance to help young people navigate this transition to adulthood and how we should implement these types of programs.
“Workforce development and focusing on career preparation is fundamentally a developmental question,” says Andrew Fuigni, co-executive director of UCLA CDA, to kick off the first panel discussion of our 2025 Adolescent Brain Development Symposium on economic opportunity.
So, how do we create career preparation policies and programs that effectively support young people in the pursuit of meaningful careers while integrating developmental science to support positive development and future outcomes?
