Question: If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be?

Maryam Clark answered on 9 Mar 2026:

That’s a really good question – it made me think a lot!

If I could give advice to my younger self, I would say: it’s okay to do things even when you feel scared.

When I was younger, the world sometimes felt very big and a little frightening. I thought I had to stop being scared before I could try new things, like becoming a scientist.

But when I became a brain scientist, I learned something amazing about our brains. Our brains try to protect us, because a very long time ago humans had to stay safe from dangerous things, like lions!

Today we don’t usually have to worry about lions, but our brains can still make things like moving somewhere new, trying something hard, or talking to someone we like feel really scary.

But here’s the secret: those things aren’t lions.

Your brain is just trying to help you stay safe. Feeling scared is actually a normal and healthy part of being human, and sometimes it just means you’re about to do something brave.

So my advice is simple: feel the fear, and try anyway. That’s often how the best adventures begin.