Coming of Age by Lucy Foulkes review – our formative years

From being popular to taking risks, a myth-busting study of adolescence

What does your reminiscence bump look like? If this sounds like& a blow to the head with a touch of amnesia, it isn’t – but it might be just as painful. No, as Lucy Foulkes explains in her eye-opening guide to the psychology of adolescence, it’s the period of life during which people report the greatest number of important autobiographical memories. For most of us it starts around 10 and peaks at 20, taking in a plethora of firsts: first kiss, first love, first time drinking alcohol or taking drugs, first time away from home. Not to mention exams, bullying, breakups and bereavement. Thinking about it, maybe a concussion would be preferable. But then, as Foulkes shows, it’s these enduringly vivid years that define the adults we become.

Chloe’s reminiscence bump gets off to an accelerated start, thanks to her wild friend Natalie: “When I was 14, I broke my ankle, so was off school. Natalie knew where my spare key was so she let herself in, and she woke me up with a spliff and a bottle of alcopop. The school rang me but I said I hadn’t seen her.” Once the ankle had healed, they headed to Skegness to get tattoos, and then spent much of the coming years “having sex with lots of people, taking lots of drugs, truanting from school, going out in cars with much older men”.