At Healthy Teen Network, we believe creating a better future for young people requires more than good intentions. It requires asking questions, listening to communities, building evidence, and continually learning what works—and how we can put that knowledge into practice. For more than three decades, Jennifer Manlove has contributed to that work through research that has helped advance our understanding of adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health.

We’re honored to present the 2026 Douglas B. Kirby Researcher of the Year Award to Jennifer Manlove, PhD, for her longstanding leadership, research, and commitment to building the evidence base that helps our field better support young people.

At Healthy Teen Network, we believe young people deserve access to information that is accurate, inclusive, relevant, and engaging. Young people are constantly learning about their bodies, relationships, sexuality, and identities—and they deserve resources that meet their questions with honesty rather than shame, stigma, or misinformation.

That belief is at the heart of the Healthy Teen Network Visionary Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations whose innovative work is helping shape a more equitable future for young people and the sexual and reproductive health field.

At #HealthyTeen26: Made to Belong, we’re honored to present the 2026 Visionary Award to Amaze for its groundbreaking work making comprehensive sex education accessible to young people everywhere.

At Healthy Teen Network, we believe every young person deserves the opportunity to build a future they envision for themselves and their families. That belief has been at the heart of our work since our founding in 1979 as the National Organization for Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting (NOAPP).

From the beginning, Healthy Teen Network has worked to affirm and support young people who are pregnant or parenting and to ensure that young families have access to the resources, services, and support they need to thrive. We do this because creating inclusive, affirming systems for young parents helps create greater equity for all young people. That commitment is also why we created the Healthy Teen Network Young Parent Achievement Award.

The Young Parent Achievement Award recognizes a young parent who has met the challenges of early parenting, achieved extraordinary personal and/or professional success, and demonstrated phenomenal leadership. But this award is about more than recognizing accomplishments. It is about celebrating young parents for who they are, what they have achieved, and the futures they are creating for themselves and their families.

We’re honored to present the 2026 Young Parent Achievement Award to Mariama Smith.

I’m going, going, back, back to Cali, Caliiiiiii.

That’s right, we’re on the West Coast again!

It’s your favorite foodie and adventurer back with things to do and see while here in San Diego for Healthy Teen Network’s 46^th annual national conference, Made to Belong.

Come along with me as I curate your visit to San Diego.

Come along with me as I curate your visit to San Diego.

Stop 1: Gaslamp Quarter

The historic heart and soul of downtown San Diego, the Gaslamp Quarter boasts a multitude of restaurants, cigar lounges, and entertainment options. Stroll the promenade while taking in excellent people-watching. Check out their website for a myriad of events and happenings while you’re in town!

This spring, a team of middle school researchers from Wake and Durham County public schools did something studies about young people don’t do often enough. Young people collected the data themselves, coded it themselves, and then told the adults what it meant.

They surveyed 477 of their peers on a Belonging and Wellness Student Poll that they designed. Working in pairs late into the night, they read open-ended responses and negotiated the right label for each one until they agreed—the same inductive coding a doctoral student would be trained in during their PhD journey. Then they partnered with doctoral students in a university research methods course to run statistics on their data set, and they carried the findings to the national stage at the American Educational Research Association.

Here is the most important thing our team seeks to emphasize: Young people are the experts of their own belonging experience.

Here is the most important thing our team seeks to emphasize: Young people are the experts of their own belonging experience. Nobody has better insight into whether they belong in your space than they do. Give them the tools, and they will show you exactly what they see.

They are reading the room—the people, the setting, and the system. Those three domains have names. In our Opportunities to Belong framework (Gray, Hope, & Matthews, 2018), belonging is conceptualized across three structures: interpersonal, instructional, and institutional.

Interpersonal: Are there people here I connect to?

We asked about the things adults do to seem cool that just make it worse, and 44% named using slang. In interviews, the students were generous about it. They described the discomfort of watching an adult they liked reach for a shortcut around the connection they had already started to build. They can feel the difference between an adult connecting and an adult performing a connection. The move that works is the opposite of trying harder. Walk in your own confidence, and when you genuinely want to understand their world, let them teach you. A young person explaining their culture to an adult who is truly listening is belonging in motion.

Instructional: Is this a setting I want to belong in?

A young person makes inferences about their own belonging by watching what happens to people who get things wrong—including the adults. Students are precise observers of the distance between what adults say and what they do. One of the clearest examples in the data was the phone rule. One in four students expressed that adults who impose phone rules on them also spend significant time scrolling and laughing while looking at their own devices.

They also want adults to own their Ls when they make a mistake. When you say, “I got that wrong,” or say “Teach me, I don’t actually know that one,” you make it safe for a young person to be wrong, too—to ask the awkward question, to give the honest answer.

Institutional: Do people here value people like me?

The dress code theme emerged throughout the youth-led poll, even though no question was ever asked about it. When students were asked what makes them roll their eyes, many answered, “Take your hood off.” If there is one thing the middle schoolers we work with love, it’s a nice, comfortable hoodie. Think about it: They are rapidly developing and going through puberty, experiencing bad hair days, or simply expressing themselves through fashion. Hoodies cover all bases. As one seventh grader explained, “Not being able to have your hood on makes zero sense—you can still see the person.” That is a thirteen-year-old auditing a rule and reporting that no one ever gave a reason for it. When the reason is missing, young people fill the blank, sometimes with the least generous explanation available.

Ask the experts you already have

The young people you serve are likely asking themselves: Are these people real? Is this setting safe? Is this system fair?

The young people you serve are likely asking themselves: Are these people real? Is this setting safe? Is this system fair? You can gather those data the way the students did. Ask your own version of the question with the young people you serve—”Name something here that doesn’t make sense to you”—anonymously. Then report back, and name one thing that will change because of what you heard. The asking is easy. The reporting back and making adjustments is where it gets tough.

In closing, you do not have to guess how belonging is going in your space. You have experts on site. The middle schoolers who ran the study we supported coded the responses, ran the statistics, and presented to a room of professors—and they demonstrated that when young people take the methodological reins, they surface what many of us miss.

Want to learn more about what it takes to foster belonging? Hear DeLeon speak at #HealthyTeen26 in San Diego, October 5–7!

We’ve all seen examples of the young person who is eager to show up for one class but consistently ends up in the nurse’s office during another. Then there is the teen with a 4.0 who quietly stops going to school, risking graduation due to low attendance. And we all know kids who thrive in their activities outside of school but seem to do the bare minimum during the regular school day. Why is this?

There are many explanations. But one comes up again and again with the teens I support—and the research backs it up: social connection. Here is how I often hear it expressed:

“I don’t have any friends in that class.” “That teacher doesn’t like me.” “I feel put on the spot when I get called on.” “I can’t focus.”

The science is clear: We need human connection to survive.

The science is clear: We need human connection to survive. Across social species, it is one of the strongest predictors of how long and how well we live. For adolescents, the drive for belonging is especially intense. When a teen feels like they don’t belong—at school, at home, among their peers—the same part of the brain that registers physical pain lights up.

It hurts that much.

Feeling excluded sets off a neurobiological threat response. Your heart rate climbs, blood rushes to your large muscles, your body readies itself to fight or flee. When fighting or fleeing are not possible (e.g., you can’t leave the place that feels scary), your nervous system shifts into freeze. Cortisol keeps your inner engine racing at full throttle, so you are hyper-aroused on the inside and completely paralyzed on the outside.

Under threat, the brain protects you by shutting down the very machinery you need for social engagement and learning. Clear thinking, working memory, impulse control—the work of the prefrontal cortex—go offline. From the outside, it can look like a teen who refuses to go to school. Who knows the answers but is unable to perform on the test. Who has chronic headaches, or a stomach that’s always upset. Who is quick to anger. Who reaches for alcohol or drugs to soothe the pain.

Each of these is a sign of a nervous system under distress.

I think of a young person in my practice who told me, down to the period, which class she had one friend in—and which ones she didn’t. The classes with a friend, she walked into. The ones without, she found a reason to be somewhere else. Same kid. Same brain. Different conditions.

Here’s the hopeful part. Connection doesn’t just feel good. It buffers stress at the level of the body. When we are near people we trust, the brain literally outsources the work of managing threat.

Experiments using fMRI imaging have shown that when a person faces a threat (like an electric shock) completely alone, the prefrontal cortex burns enormous amounts of energy to manage the fear. Give that same person a trusted hand to hold, and the prefrontal cortex goes quiet. The brain saves the energy because it no longer has to face the danger by itself.

This reaction explains why we feel less fearful and more capable when we are with people we trust.

When a teen feels safe and connected, their brain can stop scanning for danger. All that freed-up energy can be redirected into social and academic engagement, memory consolidation, and deep learning. Teens who feel secure in their relationships are more likely to show up, take risks, be curious, contribute, and dream.

Belonging is a biological experience that is foundational to healthy development.

Belonging is a biological experience that is foundational to healthy development.

But belonging doesn’t just happen. We have to design for it—and then monitor it with the same attention and rigor as we do other important measures. It may in fact be the most important thing to measure since it is predictive of so many other outcomes—including longevity.

There are many research-based strategies to increase belonging that have had positive results, but no one strategy works for every teen in every place. This is why it is critical that we partner with young people in our communities and listen deeply to understand what they are experiencing, what they need, and what they hope for. It is especially important to invite young people who are part of marginalized groups into the co-design process; they are more likely to experience ‘belonging uncertainty,’ and it is critical that any effort to increase social connection and belonging centers their experiences, needs, and ideas.

The teen in the nurse’s office, the 4.0 student who stops showing up—there is nothing ‘wrong’ with them. They are telling us that something about the conditions we have created is not working for them.

Want to learn more about the neuroscience of connection? Hear Kathleen speak at the opening session of #HealthyTeen26 in San Diego, October 5–7!

Summer often brings a shift in pace. School is out, routines and schedules change, and communities come alive in different ways. Warm weather fills neighborhood parks with families and friends, concert venues and fields buzz with excitement, and sports fans gather to cheer on their favorite teams. Whether it’s attending a local festival, watching a match with friends, or spending more time outdoors, summer can create opportunities for connection, growth, and joy.

As I think about Healthy Teen Network’s upcoming conference, Made to Belong, and its focus on connection, community, and coming together, I find myself reflecting on the ways summer helped shape my own sense of belonging and connection.

The Summers That Shape Us

This reflection brings me back to how I spent my summers as a teen. Those memories carry a sense of nostalgia that I often find myself recreating in my summer plans today. I think of weekends spent at Florida’s many beaches, cookouts and fireworks with family, volunteering at our local community center, creating playlists with my siblings and cousins filled with our favorite summer jams, and exploring new interests like photography and piano. Looking back, those experiences offered more than entertainment or a way to pass the time. They helped me build relationships, discover new skills, and develop a stronger sense of self and community. I always found myself entering the new school year feeling recharged, inspired, and connected to myself in new ways.

The moments that helped me feel connected, supported, and inspired as a young person continue to shape how I build community, pursue new interests, and find joy in adulthood.

While these moments may seem simple, they can play an important role in supporting young people’s well-being. Summer can be a season of discovery and often creates space for experiences that are harder to find during the school year. This free time can provide opportunities to try something new, spend time with people who support and encourage them, and engage with their communities in meaningful ways. These experiences can help shape how young people see themselves and their place in the world. Perhaps that’s why I find myself recreating so many of those experiences today. The moments that helped me feel connected, supported, and inspired as a young person continue to shape how I build community, pursue new interests, and find joy in adulthood.

Creating Spaces for Connection, Growth, and Joy

This summer, many people are finding connection through shared experiences, whether gathering with friends to watch the World Cup, attending a local concert, participating in community celebrations, or simply spending time with loved ones outdoors. These moments remind us that belonging often grows through shared experiences.

When young people see themselves as part of a team or fan group, a volunteer group, or a community gathering, they can begin to build meaningful connections that support their growth and well-being. These experiences help foster a sense of connection not only to others, but also to themselves and the communities they call home.

Youth-supporting professionals can foster these opportunities by creating welcoming spaces, building meaningful relationships, and recognizing that growth often happens beyond formal programming. Whether through community events, volunteer opportunities, creative activities, or simply environments where young people feel seen and valued, these efforts can make a lasting difference.

Sometimes the most meaningful experiences are not the ones we carefully plan, but the moments that help young people feel connected to themselves, their communities, and one another. As youth-supporting professionals, we have an opportunity to create and champion spaces where young people can explore their interests, build relationships, and experience the joy that comes from belonging.

How are we creating opportunities for young people to experience connection? To discover new interests? To build relationships? To find joy?

As we move through the summer months, we can challenge ourselves to think beyond activities and schedules. How are we creating opportunities for young people to experience connection? To discover new interests? To build relationships? To find joy?

These moments may seem small, but they can leave a lasting impact long after summer ends. After all, belonging isn’t built in a single moment. It’s cultivated through the relationships, experiences, and communities that remind young people they matter. Their joy matters. As schools pause and communities gather in new ways throughout the summer, we have an opportunity to create the kinds of experiences that foster connection, create joy, and help young people feel that they truly belong.

When you attend #HealthyTeen26, you’re joining a community of educators, advocates, youth-supporting professionals, and changemakers committed to helping young people thrive. But what if you could deepen your learning, strengthen your skills, and start building meaningful connections before the conference officially begins?

That’s exactly what our Learning Add-Ons are designed to do.

Taking place before the conference’s first general session kicks off, Learning Add-Ons are full or half-day training sessions. They offer an opportunity to dive deeper into specialized topics through immersive, interactive training experiences.

This year’s Learning Add-On lineup offers opportunities to deepen your expertise, strengthen your practice, and explore innovative approaches to supporting young people.

This year, Healthy Teen Network’s conference theme is Made to Belong, highlighting the importance of connecting, finding community, and coming together. This April, I had the opportunity to put this theme into practice by leading an activity during our annual staff gathering that embodied that feeling. Part of the activity involved making a song together, so armed with maracas, tambourines, and egg shakers, I encouraged my coworkers to make a beat. The goal wasn’t to create the most beautiful sound in the world; it was to come together and make something unique and have fun!

We worked together as a team, made fun memories, and created something special. That’s the power of music.

As I looked around the room and saw my coworkers shaking their instruments, laughing with one another and trying their hardest to stay on beat, I could feel something shift. Did we make the next trending song of 2026? Not even close! But we made something that was ours. We worked together as a team, made fun memories, and created something special. That’s the power of music.

Music has always been a big part of my life. I first joined band and began playing various instruments in elementary school. In 4^th grade, my cello was bigger than I was, and I was dedicated to lugging it around school like a champ. I have fond memories of sharing my earbuds with friends on the bus ride home from middle school. In high school, I took to the stage and sang my heart out alongside friends as we performed musicals like Into the Woods and The Wizard of Oz.

Music as connection

Even now, as an adult, music continues to play an important role in my life. It helps me connect with others and build meaningful bonds, which is especially valuable when the world around me can feel scary and uncertain.

Unsurprisingly, there is a scientific reason why music makes us feel good and draws us to one another. Researchers believe it is directly related to rhythm. Moving to a beat helps synchronize our brains and bodies. When we do that in a group, it can strengthen our sense of community, release dopamine and endorphins (the neurotransmitters responsible for pleasure and mood boosts), and create social cohesion.

One study by Idil Kokal asked two-year-olds to synchronize their dancing to a drumbeat, and the results were insightful and adorable. To keep it simple, when one child started to lose focus or drift off beat, the other would jump in to help. These children began as strangers, but dancing together transformed them into the cutest dance team you’ve ever seen. If that’s not a great example of the power of community within music, I don’t know what is!

Music as community

One of my favorite parts about music is how deeply it is woven into so many cultures. As a Black American, I find that music runs deep in my culture and has connected my people for generations. A perfect example are my family’s summer cookouts. During the summer, friends and family gather around and enjoy food, games, and of course, music! The songs that incorporate line dances are my favorite, because as soon as the first notes of a song begin to play, everyone rushes to the dance floor. It’s a magical moment. You can feel the energy in the air as everyone dances in sync. People are laughing, jumping around, and even if you get a move wrong, there’s no shame, just laughter (and maybe some light teasing!). Grandparents, uncles, teenagers, and even toddlers wiggle to the beat, performing dances that have been passed down from generation to generation. After the dance is over, we giggle, hug, and share stories, deepening our connections while music continues to play in the background.

If you are inspired to find community through music, there are so many ways to do it!

If you are inspired to find community through music, there are so many ways to do it! Concerts are an easy way to find people. I can’t count the number of times I’ve made friends while waiting in a long concert line or turned to the stranger next to me to sing along to our favorite song, instantly connected by our shared love of the same artist.

If loud concert venues aren’t your thing, consider checking out community events in your city. Many communities host a variety of music-related gatherings, from drum circles to live jazz performances. Maybe you’re like me and played an instrument in school, but it’s now tucked away in a closet. This could be the perfect time to brush up on your skills, invite some friends over for a jam session, or sit down at a public piano and see who stops to listen or chat. Music is beautiful because it transcends culture, age, and language, so you never know who you will meet and connect with.

If you’re interested in finding belonging in music with us this year, consider attending our conference in San Diego!