Building a Future When the Future Feels Uncertain

September 16, 2026
1:36 pm

For Youth Mental Health Day 2026, The Principle Trust Children’s Charity Mental Health Ambassador and Patron, Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar, shares practical advice to help parents support young people when the future feels overwhelming.

Youth Mental Health Day is an opportunity to focus on the mental wellbeing of young people and the challenges they face.

This year’s theme, #BuildFutureYou, encourages young people to think about their futures. But when the world and life itself, can feel uncertain, conversations about the future can sometimes create more pressure rather than hope.

For Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar, Creative Health Practitioner, Mental Health Ambassador and valued Patron of The Principle Trust Children’s Charity, building a future shouldn’t mean expecting young people to have everything figured out.

Instead, it is about acknowledging what feels difficult and helping children and young people develop the confidence, support and practical tools they need to take their next step.

Yasmin shares five practical ways parents and carers can help.

Be intentional about social media

For young people growing up in a digital world, comparison can be difficult to escape. Social media can create the impression that everyone else is achieving more, going out more, looking better or simply living a more exciting life.

Yasmin encourages parents to remind young people that they are often comparing the reality of their own lives with carefully selected highlights from somebody else’s.

If particular accounts or content regularly leave a young person feeling anxious, inadequate or powerless, small changes can help. Muting accounts, changing who they follow or simply stepping away for a while can create some valuable breathing space.

As Yasmin explains, staying connected and informed shouldn’t come at the expense of a young person’s sense of self.

Steady the body before trying to solve everything

When we feel overwhelmed, it can become much harder to think clearly, see different possibilities or work out what to do next.

Rather than immediately trying to solve the problem, Yasmin recommends first helping young people find ways to feel more settled.

Movement, music, sensory activities, time outdoors, rest, breathing exercises or spending time with someone they feel safe with can all help to turn down the volume.

The goal isn’t to remove or control every difficult emotion. It is about becoming steady enough to manage the next step.

Listen before reassuring

When a child is worried, a natural instinct for many parents is to reassure them with phrases such as “You’ll be fine.”

Although well intended, Yasmin explains that reassurance can sometimes make a young person feel that their worries haven’t really been heard.

Instead, she suggests beginning by acknowledging the feeling:

“I can understand why that feels worrying. Which part feels hardest at the moment?”

Listening first gives young people the opportunity to explain what is really troubling them before adults move towards reassurance or solutions.

Make the big questions smaller

Questions about careers, education and the future can feel enormous when a young person is already struggling.

Instead of asking, “What are you going to do with your life?”, Yasmin suggests breaking the future down into smaller and much more manageable conversations.

Parents might ask: “What are you curious about at the moment?”, “What would you like to try next?” or “What is one step we could take together?”

Building a future doesn’t require having the entire journey mapped out. Sometimes, knowing the next step is enough.

Recognise when additional support may be needed

Worry is a normal part of growing up, but it is important to recognise when it is becoming overwhelming.

Yasmin advises parents to pay particular attention when worries persist or begin affecting a young person’s sleep, eating, education, relationships or ability to take part in everyday activities.

Parents and carers don’t have to manage these situations alone. Support can be sought through a GP, school or college, counsellor or an appropriate mental health service.

Taking the future one step at a time

At The Principle Trust, we understand how adversity can affect a child’s emotional wellbeing and the whole family. Our free, week-long respite breaks give children and families across Yorkshire facing adversity precious time away from the pressures of everyday life – time to rest, reconnect, have fun together and make positive memories that last.

Yasmin’s message for Youth Mental Health Day reflects an important principle: building a future doesn’t mean knowing exactly what that future will look like.

It can simply mean giving young people the support, steadiness and flexibility they need to move forward – one gentle step at a time.

We are incredibly proud and grateful to have Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar as both a Patron and Mental Health Ambassador for The Principle Trust, using her professional experience and passion for children’s emotional wellbeing to help us raise awareness and better support children and families.

Yasmin is a Creative Health Practitioner, practitioner-artist and founder of Watoto Play. She creates trauma-informed creative programmes using play, creativity and the arts to support children’s emotional wellbeing and strengthen family connections. Through Scribbledeedo®, a Watoto Play brand, Yasmin also provides accessible creative wellbeing resources for families, including a free five-part online summer programme.