While achievement of a meaningful answer to this question is a lifelong pursuit, it is the burning challenge of adolescence. According to Erikson, having an identity knowing who you are gives adolescents a sense of control that allows them to navigate through the rest of life. Without self-identities they will be or do whatever they think others want. Erikson calls this miserable state identity diffusion. The successful formation of self-identity follows a typical pattern.
Teens identify with people they admire.
Whether in real life or through magazines and TV, they emulate the characteristics of people they want to be like. By the end of adolescence, if all goes as it should, these identifications merge into a single identity that incorporates and alters previous identifications to make a unique and coherent whole. The quest for identity is scary. Somewhere between twelve and twenty years of age, adolescents are forced to choose once and for all what their identity is to be. It is a formidable task.