It is not just teenage bodies that undergo tremendous changes in adolescence; young minds begin working in new ways that sometimes cause awkward situations just as do the newly elongated legs or deeper voices. Referring to the work of Piaget, Erikson, Goffman and his own studies, David Elkind looks at the intellectual, emotional and social consequences that result from the changes in thinking. These changes permit new ways of reasoning and enable students to take on much more challenging materials, but sometimes the transition results in inconsistent forms of thinking that create social and emotional difficulties.

The film includes newly shot film of a public middle school and structured interviews illustrating the intellectual challenges of this period of life when adolescents are constructing personal identities and new mental capacities.