Parents often say the teenage years arrive without much warning. One day, their child talks openly about everything that happened at school. Before long, conversations become shorter, bedroom doors stay closed a little longer, and questions are answered with "I'm fine" even when something clearly isn't.

Most parents respond the only way they know how. They offer advice. Teenagers, however, are reaching a stage of life where advice isn't always what they're looking for.

Growing up is not simply about becoming older. It's the period when young people begin asking themselves questions they have never had to answer before. Who am I when I'm not with my family? What kind of person do I want to become? What matters to me? The answers rarely appear overnight, and they certainly don't arrive because someone else provides them.

Goldie Uttamchandani believes this is where coaching can make a meaningful difference.

Parents, teachers, and coaches all want young people to succeed, but each relationship serves a different purpose. Parents naturally want to protect. Teachers are responsible for educating. A coach has a different role. There is no report card to discuss, no family expectations to manage, and no pressure to arrive at the "right" answer. The conversation becomes less about solving a problem and more about helping a teenager understand how they think.

Many young people are surprised by that. They expect an adult to tell them what to do next. Instead, Goldie asks questions. Why does this decision matter to you? What makes you doubt yourself? If nobody else's opinion mattered, would your answer change?

The goal isn't to make decisions for them. It's to help them recognise that they are capable of making thoughtful decisions themselves.

Goldie understands why these conversations matter because she remembers wanting them herself. Growing up in boarding school, there were moments when she wished she had someone who would simply listen without judging or trying to fix everything immediately. Years later, that experience became part of the reason she chose coaching as a profession.

Over the past decade, she has coached teenagers from different countries, cultures, and family backgrounds. Although their circumstances vary, many of the conversations begin in familiar ways. Some feel pressure to choose a career before they understand their own interests. Others struggle with confidence because they constantly compare themselves with classmates or people they follow online. Many simply want someone to hear them without immediately offering an opinion. Listening sounds simple, yet it is becoming increasingly rare.

Adults are often quick to reassure, explain, or correct because they want to help. Teenagers, on the other hand, are often trying to make sense of thoughts they haven't fully formed themselves. Giving advice too early can end the conversation before they have had the chance to understand what they are really trying to say. Goldie believes questions create room for that process.

A teenager who discovers an answer through reflection is far more likely to trust it than one who follows instructions because an adult suggested them. Confidence grows in much the same way. It develops when young people begin recognising that they can think through uncertainty instead of avoiding it.

This is one reason she believes coaching should begin long before conversations turn to university applications or career choices. A profession is only one part of a person's life. Long before someone becomes an engineer, entrepreneur, teacher, or doctor, they are learning how to communicate, manage emotions, recover from disappointment, and make decisions they can stand behind. Those skills influence every career they eventually choose.

Goldie often works with parents as well as teenagers because she sees coaching as something that supports families rather than replacing them. Parents know their children better than anyone else. A coach brings something different: an independent space where young people can explore ideas without worrying about disappointing someone they love.

Career advice will always have its place. Teenagers need guidance as they prepare for adulthood. Goldie Uttamchandani simply believes another conversation needs to happen first. Before asking young people what they want to do with their lives, it is worth asking who they are becoming. The answer to the second question often makes the first one much easier to find.