Surviving the Middle School Years

A Q&A with Phyllis Fagell. Plus: My first book giveaway!!!!

Today’s newsletter is a Q&A with none other than Phyllis Fagell, the author of Middle School Superpowers. As a mom to a middle schooler, I found this book extraordinarily helpful for understanding tweens and helping them navigate those tricky middle school years. Phyllis is a counselor at Sheridan School in Washington, D.C. and also provides therapy to children in teens in private practice. She’s a gem — I have interviewed her in the past and also loved her first book, Middle School Matters.

For today’s Q&A, Phyllis and I talked about why the tween years are so complicated (especially right now), how to respond to kids’ baffling and sometimes infuriating choices, and how to connect with tweens when they start to pull away. Our conversation barely scratched the surface of what her book covers, so I highly recommend you buy the book too, and/or enter the giveaway!

Our Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Phyllis, in the introduction to your book, you talk about how, a couple years ago, you realized that middle schoolers were “growing up in an exponentially more complicated world than they used to be. And they need a whole new set of skills to preserve their well-being.” Can you expand on that? Why is the world more complicated for tweens now, and what kinds of skills do you believe they need?