Three generations of women reflect on their youth, dreams and the opportunities

A photograph shows Tetiana’s dark, slightly wavy hair neatly secured with a hairpin. She wears a dress with a collar and earrings, her gaze directed into the distance. Back then, Tetiana was just a young girl – now she is a mother and grandmother. 

Together with daughter Olena and granddaughter Nadiya, Tetiana is looking through family albums. Her own photographs are all monochrome, while Olena’s are mostly in colour and Nadiya’s albums are stored on her mobile phone. 

"I remember myself at fifteen and I want to say that being a teenager is amazing in any era," says Olena. "The living conditions and ways of exploring the world change, but the feelings remain the same – exciting and warm."

“Life was wonderful”

To prove her point, Olena finds a picture of herself – a smiling teenage girl wearing a bright dress. She jokes that fashion moves in cycles and that her daughter Nadiya can now confidently wear this "vintage clothing”.

Nadiya asks her grandmother what she used to wear as a teenager.

"I had one dress that my mother sewed for me,” recalls Tetiana. “I accidentally tore it and hid it at the bottom of the chest where we kept clothes, so my mother wouldn’t see. I often wore my older sisters' clothes.”

However, despite the hardships, Tetiana has many happy memories of her youth. 

"Life was wonderful,” she says. “In spring, the water would rise all the way to our house, and my friends and I would sail on the river in a small boat. We reached Duby, a grove with huge trees, and picked snowdrops there. I used to catch fish with a basket, standing barefoot in the water until my feet cracked from the cold."

Her daughter Olena also spent a lot of time outdoors with friends as a teenager.

"Life at fifteen was wonderful – carefree, eventful, and bright," she says. "We had household duties, as the farm was big. We often took on small jobs, like helping to dry grain, to earn some extra money. Then we studied and rushed out to meet our friends – that was the best part."

Olena loved singing and regularly went carolling with friends.

"Nowadays, children communicate via phone, but our communication was live and very active," she says.

Her childhood coincided with the Chornobyl disaster and the air in the local Polissia region was heavily polluted. Olena went to health camps with her classmates, and her mother also took her to stay with an aunt who lived in the Mykolaiv region.

"I travelled a lot across Ukraine in my childhood,” Olena recalls. “My parents gave us that opportunity.”

“My parents wanted me to get an education”

After leaving school, Tetiana had plans to work on a farm, milking cows. She also considered travelling to another region for seasonal work and even packed a suitcase.

"My mother came back from the field and saw the suitcase,” says Tetiana. “She burst into tears, and I realised I had made a mistake. My parents wanted me to get an education and I am very grateful to them for that now.” 

In turn, she did everything possible to provide her own children with an education.

"At fifteen, I dreamed of becoming an accountant,” says Olena. “My friend’s mother worked as an accountant in the village council – her desk was covered with papers and an abacus, and I loved watching her work. I managed to obtain an accounting qualification, although my first education was in a technical field.”

She hopes that Nadiya will also find her calling in life.

"The biggest challenge for my generation at fifteen was choosing a dress for the disco. We lived under a peaceful sky, but our children have to endure air raid alerts and the anxiety of war." 

Despite these challenges, Nadiya is forging her own path.

"The teenagers of my granddaughter’s generation are very open to the world, they travel a lot, they are communicative, brave and knowledgeable," says Tetiana. "They are completely different from how we were at fifteen, and these changes are for the better." 

“We all dream of peace”

Nadiya’s generation is growing up in an environment dominated by the internet, which projects images of perfect women living in an ideal world. 

"In my opinion, the biggest challenge for girls is to meet all the standards – to be perfectly intelligent and perfectly beautiful at the same time," says Nadiya. "I think these are stereotypes that prevent most women from accepting themselves as they are. They start changing themselves not to match their own vision of who they want to be, but to fit the expectations of others." 

She says beauty stereotypes are often reinforced by social media, with overly perfect images, effects and editing. 

"I used to strive to fit these unrealistic standards too,” she says. “I tried to straighten my curly hair, braid it in a way that hid my curls, but over time I realised that I should just be myself – my curls are my unique feature." 

For teenage girls, peer support and family understanding are essential.

"My mother and grandmother have been my two biggest pillars of support since childhood,” says Nadiya. “They have always set a wonderful example of the kind of person I should be.”

Nadiya aspires to learn many languages, including English, Korean and French. She is passionate about photography and has been singing in a folk ensemble for many years.

"After finishing school, I plan to enrol in university, work in an international humanitarian organization and help people see the world as a better place. I want to create more opportunities for women so they can fulfill themselves in the fields they love.”

Her mother is determined to help her along the way.

"I truly want my daughter to live under a peaceful sky, to be happy and to find her passion – something that will inspire her and guide her through life," says Olena. "And we will be there for her." 

"Now, we all dream of peace and for the world around us to become a better place,” adds Nadiya. “I want everyone to realize that they are important to the world and can make a significant contribution to its development.”

Adolescence is a critical time for growth and development, yet for many teenagers in Ukraine, this period is marked by uncertainty and hardship. One in three teenagers reports feeling so sad or hopeless that they stop engaging in their usual activities. The lack of social connection exacerbates these challenges, as many schools near frontline areas remain closed, and frequent air raid alarms force students to spend hours underground.

The impact of war on education has been profound. Thousands of schools have been damaged or destroyed, and many students struggle to keep up due to displacement, unsafe learning environments, limited access to technology, and the psychological toll of war. 

Education is more than just acquiring knowledge, it is key to building resilience, critical skills, and hope for the future. UNICEF is working to ensure every child can continue learning by repairing and improving school shelters, providing essential learning materials, training teachers to address learning gaps, offering catch-up classes, and strengthening both in-person and online education. Because every child has a right to learn, grow, and build a brighter future.