Almost every teenage boy in America has an adult he can turn to.
Far fewer have a man. (RAND, 2025.)
I didn’t believe that gap the first time I saw it. So I found the source. It held.
That’s how this started.
I’m a father, not an expert
Not a researcher. Not an activist. A dad.
But once I’d seen that one, I started seeing the same shape everywhere — a boy with no man to turn to, and years later, a man with a full contact list and no one to call.
Quiet, documented gaps in how boys and men are doing. The kind that don’t trend and don’t get a ribbon.
So I started drawing them. Sixty-two conversations, one gap at a time.
What this is
On TikTok and Instagram, each one is a short illustrated conversation — a boy, or a young man, and one adult who shows up for him. It ends on a single verified number.
Here is the longer version: the whole statistic, where it comes from, what it actually measures and what it doesn’t, and the strongest argument against it.
The one rule
That last part runs everything:
Named, primary sources only. No “studies show.”
Contested or unsettled? I say so — on the page, not in a footnote.
The best counterargument goes in front of you, so you never get half the picture.
No outrage, no villains. This isn’t a complaint about anyone. It’s a case for someone.
Honest numbers move more people than loud ones. A true figure you can check outlasts an inflated one a critic can wave away.
So I’d rather hand you one that holds.
What to expect
New pieces when they’re ready. I’d rather be right than regular.
It’s free, and it stays free to read.
Subscribe and I’ll send you the first thing I made for this — 10 Conversations Every Dad Should Have With His Son.
If you’ve ever looked at a boy you love and thought someone should be keeping track —
that’s what this is.