As children approach adolescence, they often experience confusion and uncertainty as they attempt to appear more grown up than they really feel. Research on both girls and boys has documented that the buoyant self-confidence of younger children often gives way to self-consciousness as young adolescents become aware of the complexity and difficulty of life's challenges. Educators and parents understand the importance of self-confidence, and sometimes attempt to counteract tweens' loss of confidence by "supplying a surround-sound of confident language: "You are wonderful." "You are smart." "You can do anything." This kind of praise, however, does not increase young people's ability to persist with challenging tasks. Instead, adults need to foster tween' awareness that their success depends on their own hard work and persistence.