For much of our lives, friendship has been predetermined for us teens. We befriended students in our classes at school. Our parents introduced us to their friends’ children and arranged playdates for us.

Our social lives were limited by immobility, bedtimes and our parents’ selectivity. The teenage years gave us the autonomy to determine our social circles but also the responsibility to maintain our friendships and find people who have a positive impact on us. The type of friendships we build during our teenage years will have a substantial impact on our lives.

For us teens, being integrated into friendship networks improves not only our mental and physical health but also helps us gain the social skills we will need to thrive in life. Evidence shows that teens with strong social circles demonstrate fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, are happier, and have better self-esteem.

In addition, social connections can improve teens’ immune systems and life expectancy. Friendships also equip us teens with an improved ability to regulate our emotions, better cognitive function, heightened empathy and trust for others and increased stress-coping capacity.

It’s possible to reap the benefits of teen friendship without being popular and having a large circle of friends. In fact, research shows that teens who prioritize forming close friendships have better mental health and are more proficient at managing key social development challenges while teens who focus on being broadly popular actually have more social anxiety.

So the number of followers you have or the number of parties you get invited to remain relatively inconsequential in comparison to the number of genuine bonds you have with people.

As teens, we are given the responsibility for the first time of choosing our friendships without our parents’ assistance. We are no longer isolated in a social bubble of students in our classes, neighbors within walking distance of our houses, or participants of our after-school activities. We teens are biologically wired to seek out new relationships, and the freedoms we gain during the teenage years — driving, socializing at parties and other events, using social media to connect with new people, attending schools with larger student bodies — allow us to make more friends.

They also give us the responsibility of finding friends that enhance our lives. Peer pressure works both ways — friends can motivate us to abstain from dangerous activities just as effectively as they can encourage us to partake in them. It all depends on the people we decide to surround ourselves with.

The teenage years offer us valuable opportunities to broaden our social circle, but we should choose wisely. Prioritizing superficial friendships over strong, long-lasting relationships for the sake of popularity undermines the real purpose of friendship: having people we can turn to no matter what. I’ve maintained two of my closest friendships since early childhood, and knowing that we will always be there for each other offers us a sense of comfort. Life can be volatile and uncertain for us teens, but having people in our lives whom we trust and can always rely on offers us stability and comfort in this constantly changing world.

Maria Proulx of Ledyard is a senior at St. Bernard School in Montville.