10 Inspirational Books for Teens That Will Make Them Think Deeper

Sometimes a great book can kick a kid into high gear, and these 10 inspirational books for teens can both motivate them and help them feel understood.

If your teenagers are like mine, getting them to finish a book can be challenging. Between reading for school and the allure of YouTube videos and Netflix, books often fall to the bottom on the list of fun things to do.

During the teenage years especially, kids seek information and inspiration from sources beyond their parents. They want to be moved and motivated by others, and sometimes they just need a little encouragement to pick up a great book. By getting kids to buy into the valuable and enjoyable experience of getting lost in a story, we can inspire young readers to love literature—a passion that will cary well into adulthood.

We asked the teens and young adults in our life what books have inspired them the last few years, but our best advice is to let your teen choose the tales they want to read—and don’t criticize. Whether they’re YA books about love or friendships, an adventure series about being stranded on a deserted island, or classics like To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye, reading should always be encouraged no matter what the topic!

Related: 16 Great Book Series for Teens and Tweens They Won’t Put Down

10 of the Best Inspirational Books for Teens

Here’s our list of 10 inspirational book recommendations for teens. From sports-related stories, to gripping tales of racism and oppression, to memoirs about working through mental health challenges, there’s undoubtedly something on this list to get your teen reading.

1. Best inspiring book for sports enthusiasts

Shoot Your Shot: A Sport-Inspired Guide To Living Your Best Life by Vernon Brundage Jr.

Any teen who loves sports can relate to this book. Written in the context of basketball, the book is divided into four quarters. It highlights the key principles that the world’s most elite basketball players (Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, etc.) have applied to their lives and explains in detail how you can use those same principles to help you navigate through life, accomplish your goals, and realize your dreams.

2. Best book for practical information

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers by Sean Covey

OK, we’re going to be honest. This wasn’t a book that our teens wanted to read right off the bat. BUT, with a little prodding, they got into it and they all remarked that they were able to apply some of what they read into their day-to-day life. Like its parent book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Sean Covey, this self-help book offers straightforward advice to how to live with focus, make better, more informed decisions, and have a positive mindset.

Note: We also love this book (and it’s a top seller): Life Skills for Teens by Karen Harris

3. Best inspirational book for teens dealing with mental health challenges

Never Fight Alone: 51 Inspiring Interviews to Help Teens Overcome Their Struggles and Improve Their Mental Health by Shelomo Solson

It’s no secret that today’s teenagers are struggling with their mental health, with many facing extreme bouts of depression and anxiety about the world around them. Worst of all, many teens stay silent about their struggles, fighting a lonely battle that is claiming far too many lives.

Never Fight Alone is a book for teens that consists of 51 inspiring interviews with all sorts of people who have faced similar problems. From teen entrepreneurs to former professional athletes to inspirational authors and speakers, they describe the obstacles they faced, how they overcame them, and offer life-changing tips for how readers can do the same through the teen years and beyond.

4. Best book for building teens’ self-esteem

Just as You Are: A Teen’s Guide to Self-Acceptance & Lasting Self-Esteem by Michelle Skeen, PsyD and Kelly Skeen

Often recommended by therapists, this is a great piece of young adult literature for the teen who needs a little boost to their self-esteem and help shutting down that self-doubt. In Just as You Are, psychologist Michelle Skeen and her daughter, Kelly Skeen, offer simple tips to help you overcome feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, stop comparing yourself to others, and be more open and accepting of all aspects of who you are. You’ll also learn how to be more aware of your thoughts and feelings in the moment using powerful mindfulness tools, build a plan of action for the future based on your values, and start learning self-care.

5. Best inspirational book for teens who like to dream

For Every One by Jason Reynolds

Originally performed at the Kennedy Center for the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and later as a tribute to Walter Dean Myers, this stirring and inspirational poem is New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds’ rallying cry to the young dreamers of the world.

This book is great for any kid who has big dreams but may not think they are good enough. It talks about how to keep your dreams alive, and that sometimes dreams take time or change. They involve struggle. They often involve getting beaten down. But it also encourages kids to take a leap of faith and believe in yourself, as that’s when great things happen.

6. Best inspirational fiction that will make teen readers think

What the Fireflies Knew: A Novel by Kai Harris

This is an amazing coming of age novel about Black girlhood and adolescence. This riveting story follows two sisters as they try to make sense of their new life with their estranged grandfather in the wake of their father’s death and their mother’s disappearance.

7. Best inspirational book to get your teen motivated

Make Your Bed: 10 Life Lessons from a Navy SEAL by William H. McRaven

True story: my husband made our kids read this during the pandemic, and we even read parts of it aloud. It is definitely one of the best motivational books of all time. Based on a graduation speech that went viral, Admiral William H. McRaven started it off by saying, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. Taking inspiration from the university’s slogan, “What starts here changes the world,” he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world for the better.

8. Best inspiring true story (a tough, but compelling read)

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

The lives of two teens from very different neighborhoods are forever changed and bound together by a horrific crime. This compelling nonfiction book for teens about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment tells the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California. An inspirational book for teens that will get them thinking about the world around them.

9. Best inspiring memoir for the YouTube generation

Ryan Higa’s How to Write Good

An unconventional but heart-warming memoir about how a famous YouTuber did something positive with his life. It discusses how he went from being a relatively happy kid to being depressed and angry and filled with dark thoughts—but more importantly, how he found a better way to live his life.

10. Best inspiring and relatable biography

May I Have Your Attention Please? by James Corden

Warm, funny, and relatable, James Corden has achieved his dream of being a great entertainer. His Carpool Karaoke TV show has an almost cult following. Yet at school, he wasn’t cool, or clever – in fact, he was pretty disruptive. But he never gave up, forming a boy band and attending hundreds of auditions. It was only when he followed his heart in an ocean of naysayers that he found success. This inspirational book for teens who haven’t yet found their ‘thing.’

Related: Graduation Gifts: 20 Of The Best Ever Books To Give High School Graduates

Bonus: Inspiring books for teens who are struggling

Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You: This book by Lin-Manuel Miranda is a great pick me up for when the world might be pushing your teen down. Inspired by quotes and messages on Twitter, this is a great read to start your day.

The Happiness Project: Happiness guru (and podcaster) Gretchen Rubin experimented with all sorts of paths and possibilities on the road toward happiness—and she shares what worked, what didn’t in her year of attempting to find more happiness. It’s a great perspective for a negative teen.

Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self: a subtle way to encourage your teens to put their phones down, Manoush Zomorodi investigates cutting-edge research as well as compelling (and often funny) real-life examples to demonstrate that boredom is actually a crucial tool for making our lives happier, more productive, and more creative. It also talks about the effects of social media on our creativity.

Are you in the thick of raising your tweens and teens? You may like this book by Whitney Fleming, the co-owner of Parenting Teens & Tweens: Loving Hard When They’re Hard to Love: Essays about Raising Teens in Today’s Complex, Chaotic World.

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Parenting teens and tweens is a tough job, but you’re not alone. These posts might help:

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