Staff Writer

About Generation Next

Generation Next is a social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people.

I Finally See That Calorie Counting Worked Against Me

Pixabay Images Puberty had hit me hard. My body wasn't changing, it had changed – I just woke up one morning to find stretch marks and curves. I no longer looked like my friends, in fact I stuck out like a sore thumb. Once my mum found me crying. I hated my body. I [...]

82% Of Australians Say Loneliness Is Increasing

Milos Kreckovic/Getty Images Are you lonely? Chances are, according to a Lifeline survey, the answer is yes – but you’re unwilling to talk about it. The national survey, released on Tuesday, found about 60% of the 3,100 respondents said they “often felt lonely” and 82.5% said they felt loneliness was increasing in society, [...]

Does Quitting Social Media Make You Happier? Yes, Say Young People Doing It

JGI/Tom Grill/Getty Images/Blend Images Our love of social media seems to have grown and grown in the past decade, but recent studies show the tide may be turning for some platforms, with young people in particular ditching Facebook. One study claims that more than 11 million teenagers left Facebook between 2011 and 2014. [...]

Why Isn’t There A Gene For Depression?

Pixabay Images Depression is sometimes categorised as a mental, rather than a physical illness – as though somehow mental health is different from physical health. But the brain is not a magical black box inside your head. It is an organ, just like the heart or lungs, made up of cells and supplied [...]

The Best Headspace For Making Decisions

Flickr Images Let’s say you’re making a hard choice, one that could impact your life significantly. Every time you think you've settled on something, the other option tugs you back to its side. You end up where you started: It's a draw. Should you make ever-more-detailed lists of pros and cons and seek [...]

Why Teens Need Later School Start Time

Pixabay Images Sleep deprivation in teenagers as a result of early school start has been a topic of concern and debate for nearly two decades. So, are teenagers just lazy? I have been researching the impact of later high school start times for 20 years. Research findings show that teens' inability to get out [...]

Could Bad Buildings Damage Your Mental Health?

Pixabay Images Research has shown city dwellers are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression – but could individual buildings have a negative impact on wellbeing? Screaming sirens, overcrowding, traffic; life in the city isn’t always relaxing. These stressors aren’t simply inconvenient or irritating, though; research has suggested that urban living has [...]

Beware Your Biased Brains

Flickr Images Our brain can move very fast, and that can be a real problem. The tendency to make split-second assessments of people can lead to disastrous outcomes. A growing body of research is showing that what we see when we see a face is so strongly shaped by stereotypes, beliefs, and attitudes [...]

Teen Boys Are Blind To Rape Culture

Stocksy/Helen Rushbrook "Oh boy," my son said, rolling his eyes. "Not rape culture again." We were sitting around the dinner table talking about the news. As soon as I mentioned the Stanford sexual assault case, my sons looked at each other. They knew what was coming. They've been listening to me talk about [...]

The Unique Body Image Problem Posed By Social Media

iStock Images Social media is a strange beast. Consider the app, Facetune, which makes the application of Valencia seem like child's play. Facetune is the Photoshop of selfies; it allows you to retouch your skin, add make-up, whiten your teeth, widen your mouth, change your eye colour, change your hair and basically make [...]

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