Design Thinking for Food Well-Being: An Adolescent Language Perspective

Adolescence is a transitional phase that spans from childhood to adulthood, during which physical and psychological mutations transform the individual. In this life stage, young consumers become more independent and start to take the first autonomous consumption decisions as a way of escaping from parental control. As a result, parents lose their primary influence on adolescents, who devote their attention to peers. Friends, then, become a source of inspiration in the consumption process, especially for those products that are publicly consumed or characterized by a strong symbolic meaning, including food (Story et al. 2002; Stanford University 2020). For these reasons, adolescence is an interesting context in which to explore how individuals build their future relationships with goods, services, and brands.