The private enthusiasm adults dismiss may be organizing a young person’s whole afternoon.

What looks like a passing craze from outside can be the structure of somebody’s week. The game, the band, the forum, the collection: it sets what they do after school, who they talk to, what they look forward to, and how they measure themselves. Calling it a phase is accurate about duration and completely wrong about importance.

Ask a young person to show you the thing rather than assessing it. Let them explain the parts you find baffling. Being taken seriously about a small enthusiasm is how people learn that their interests are allowed to be their own.