Adolescence represents the age when self-identity is defined, individual abilities, occupational talents and predispositions are outlined. It is the moment when the ideal of life crystallizes, the mission the teenager wants to assume in society is better understood. The paper aims to present a picture of individual development at the age of adolescence, while emphasizing the correlations existing with the features of a modern society. Young people of our time are increasingly giving up traditionalism and the previous occupational system. Major changes have occurred for young women. They occupy today jobs and professions that were once inaccessible to them. Negative effects of youth unemployment as well as new adaptation variants in a highly technologically advanced society are also analyzed. It is an undeniable truth that modernity involves new choices for young people and creates new models in the transition to maturity, especially for young women. New development approaches make young people more free to make their own choices, less related to gender, religion, parental control, or traditions. We can speak of a cultural emancipation that offers new social identities for the younger generation.