Identity experimentation and consolidation is an important part of adolescence and young adulthood.

A narrative identity is a personal story that reveals our values and offers a sense of continuity.

Young people are exposed to a wide array of possible identity labels online.

A label can be a starting point for wrestling with identity.

When I arrived at college as a freshman in 1984, I met Chloe. She had long curly hair, trailed patchouli wherever she went, and seemed to have an endless selection of flowy, Indian print skirts. She listened to the Grateful Dead, fretted about getting tickets to their upcoming shows, and hung out with the kids playing hacky sack on the green during the warm, golden autumn we had that year. Chloe was a Dead Head.

Then I met someone who had gone to high school with Chloe. According to this person, a few short months before coming to college, Chloe owned no Indian print skirts and never smelled of patchouli. She didn’t listen to the Grateful Dead in any conspicuous way. Instead, she was a rather nondescript, somewhat nerdy kid whose socks sometimes didn’t match. It seemed clear what had happened. Given the opportunity for a fresh start in a new place, Chloe had adopted a new identity, one that came with a fully formed set of tastes and behaviors and offered a sense of belonging.

The American psychoanalyst Erik Erickson was one of the first to discuss explicitly the importance of identity exploration and consolidation in adolescence.........

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