Identity through life stages

Many aspects make up a person’s identity: gender, race, ethnicity, hobbies, interests, friends, family and so much more. When people grow and change and move through different stages in life, so too does their sense of self.

‘Me In My Own Words’

Ensuring that children and young people can explore and define their developing identity is crucial to ensuring emotional wellbeing, autonomy, and connectedness. We began addressing this by co-developing, ‘Me In My Own Words’ for Express. This feature allows young children and those with additional support needs to be able to create one-page profiles and support life story work. By the time a child is 3 or 4 years old they are aware of cultural and racial groups they are a part of and by the time they are 5 or 6 they begin to become aware of their gender identity. (Ref1)

Changing identity

On reaching adolescence, young people build upon their identity and relate it to their peers and the people surrounding them. Creating space for a young person to explore, question, build up and then break down and re-question their identity is important for young people to feel empowered and begin to build up a values-based approach to decision making (Ref 2)

‘This Is Me’

This is where, ‘This Is Me’ comes into play. This Is Me is the newest co-produced scenario in the One app for young people to explore their identity, build on life story and create one-page profiles. The questions are tailored to the young person’s age, so that certain questions only appear for older young people. As young people evolve and advance so should the tools at their disposal.

To learn more about “This Is Me” contact your account manager or email us at hello@mindofmyown.org.uk.