The Feel Wheel – A Fun Emotion Wheel with Teen Slang
Helping teens explore, open up and communicate their emotions using familiar slang from everyday conversations.
The Feel Wheel is an exciting new resource that helps practitioners, educators and professionals explore emotions with young people in a way that is relevant to them. By combining core emotional concepts with the everyday language teens already use, it creates a more accessible way for young people to explore how they feel.
About This Resource
The Feel Wheel is a visually engaging, three-layered tool that supports emotional awareness, understanding, and communication.
At the centre of the wheel are core emotions, providing a simple starting point. Moving outward, these are broken down into more specific feeling words, helping to build clarity and depth. The outer layer then reflects the kind of language teens commonly use in everyday conversations, creating a direct link between how they speak and what they feel.
This layered structure allows young people to move gradually from a general sense of emotion to a more specific understanding, helping them recognise patterns in how they feel and giving them language they feel comfortable using.
Features
- Clear three-layer structure that supports a step-by-step approach to identifying and understanding emotions, from broad feelings to more specific and relatable language.
- Teen-friendly design that feels engaging and accessible, avoiding overly clinical or childlike presentation.
- Inclusion of real, current slang to reflect how young people naturally communicate with their peers.
- Printable, one-page format that is easy to use in a range of settings without preparation or additional resources.
- Guidance included to support practitioners, educators, and parents in introducing and using the tool effectively.
- Flexible and adaptable for different ages, needs, and contexts.
Benefits
- Supports teens to recognise and identify what they are feeling, even when they initially struggle to describe it.
- Helps build a broader emotional vocabulary, making it easier to move beyond vague responses like “I’m fine” or “I don’t know.”
- Encourages more open and meaningful conversations, creating opportunities for deeper connection and understanding.
- Makes emotional exploration feel more relevant and less intimidating by using familiar, everyday language.
- Helps young people gain confidence in expressing themselves, both in informal conversations and more structured settings.
- Supports the development of emotional awareness and self-understanding, which are key for wellbeing and communication.
Suggested Uses
The Feel Wheel can be used flexibly across a range of settings:
- In 1:1 sessions (mentoring, counselling, youth work) to support conversations about feelings and experiences.
- In classrooms as part of wellbeing activities, check-ins, or discussions around emotions and mental health.
- In small group work to encourage shared discussion and help normalise different emotional experiences.
- In pastoral or support settings as a visual prompt to help young people express what they may find difficult to say.
- At home, providing parents and carers with a simple way to support conversations about emotions.
- As a displayed resource in wellbeing spaces, offering an ongoing reference point for young people.
Why Teens Will Connect With It
The Feel Wheel is designed with teens in mind, using language that feels familiar and relevant and reflecting how they already communicate with their friends. This reduces the pressure to “find the right words” and instead gives them a starting point that feels natural.
Because it avoids overly formal or clinical language, it feels more approachable and less intimidating. It also allows young people to express themselves in a way that feels authentic, whether that’s through slang, humour, or more direct language.
Importantly, it helps bridge the gap between how teens talk and how they feel, making it easier for them to open up without feeling put on the spot.
Why Download The Feel Wheel?
The Feel Wheel is a simple but effective tool that helps translate between everyday language and emotional understanding.
By meeting teens where they are and using language they recognise, it supports them to explore their emotions more clearly, express themselves with greater confidence, and engage in more meaningful conversations.
It's not just about using their language, but showing that you are willing to understand them and communicate with them in a way that matters to them.
Become a member and download The Feel Wheel today!
