“The guide to becoming yourself”: a personal development booklet for teenagers
Mental health issues following the Covid pandemic, the growing presence of disinformation, new questions raised by the rapid development of AI…the challenges facing modern adolescents are no small fry, and they cannot be expected to handle them alone.
Educators need new resources, approaches and partnerships to help young people surmount these challenges. The Airbus Foundation supports this need through a wide variety of actions aimed at developing young people’s soft skills and scientific mindsets, and by offering them tools such as this personal development booklet.
“The guide to becoming yourself”
Because becoming yourself at this age is much more challenging than it sounds, this booklet has been carefully designed to introduce young people to different topics important to self-development. These range from how to practise self-care and empathy, to identifying disinformation, improving online safety and forming a unique and powerful voice.
Teenagers will design their own journey through the ten different chapters, which comprise several activities to put ideas into practice, alone or with friends and family. Additional external resources will help them explore each subject more deeply.
Science and aerospace are subtly scattered throughout the booklet to increase the readers’ science capital, inspire them and spark interest in these topics.
Expect fun, questions, investigations, games, and much more.
Whether they wish to build stronger relationships or to start a revolution, they will find some initial tools here. The guide will help them bring out what is already inside them: the best of themselves.
A co-creation
This booklet, commissioned by the Airbus Foundation, has been co-created with long-time partners Culture Instable, an agency dedicated to science engagement, and Funk-e, a Dutch creative agency that provided the illustrations.
These partners have been working with the Foundation on content creation for the last few years, particularly on the mini video series for 8 to 12 year olds that explores how science is present in daily life.
An extract of Chapter 5 - "Dreaming your life".
A free resource in four languages
As the Airbus Foundation is working with several partners all around the world, it was important to reach a wider audience by making this content available in German, Spanish, French and English.
All four versions of the booklet are available on the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space website. The digital version can be downloaded on the website, while the print file can be requested by email.
About the Airbus Foundation
The Airbus Foundation, created in 2008 to facilitate philanthropic initiatives worldwide, provides access to Airbus’ unique portfolio of high-tech products, services and know-how to help address some of the world’s most pressing problems, contributing to sustainable solutions for a safe and united world.
Contact details: Marie-Claire Certiat - Programme Manager - marie-claire.certiat@airbus.com / Madeline Jouve - Project Manager - madeline.jouve.external@airbus.com