Indigo children are believed to be old souls in young bodies, adolescents who possess incredible wisdom or talent beyond what they would normally be capable of at their age. Indigo children are thought to be “light workers,” or individuals whose purpose on Earth is to assist others in spiritual awakening.

If you’ve ever met a very young child or teen who seems abnormally introspective, wise, talented or gifted, you’ve probably crossed paths with an indigo child.

These individuals are believed to incarnate on Earth with very specific purpose. They are, above all else, just different from other peers within their age group. What some people don’t realize, however, is that indigo children also tend to have a lot of emotional turbulence growing up. Given that they don’t feel they fit in anywhere, they have a hard time figuring out their identity, or cultivating a sense of belonging.

But not fitting in is their greatest gift, because when you don’t quite fit into this world, it’s because you’re here to help create a new one. Still, the process to getting there isn’t always easy. Here, why indigo children often feel most lost by their early 20s.

1. The early 20s is typically when the indigo child’s life “takes off.” Sure, they possessed the skills they needed for years, but it takes a certain level of personal development before they really hit their stride, and that tends to happen now.

2. Indigos don’t abide by any of society’s norms, and in your early 20s, everyone around them is either going to college, getting married or having kids. Indigos feel stifled by this, and called to different paths.

3. By their early 20s, indigos are finally free to start developing their own sense of identity. However, before that reinvention occurs, they often find themselves feeling completely out-of-touch with who they really are.

4. This is also the time when indigos are often “out on their own” for the very first time. Now that they no longer have to live by someone else’s rules, they begin to figure out how they want to conduct their own lives. This leads to a lot of shifts in lifestyle, religion, and so on.

5. In their early 20s, indigos often feel as though they’ve lived many more decades than they have. They experience an interesting mix of being both exhausted by all that’s happened, and overwhelmed by all that’s yet to come.

6. This is the time at which indigos often start sharing their gifts with the world. This is often a process that requires intense vulnerability.

7. Indigos have their most tumultuous emotional breakdowns in their early 20s, because they have to undo all of the conditioning they faced throughout their childhoods, and then relearn how to think and behave the way they feel most called to.

8. Aside from dealing with the usual slew of discomforts everyone goes through while coming-of-age, indigos are also dealing with the maturation of their extrasensory abilities.

9. If they were not raised in a home that encouraged the exploration of their gifts, many indigos will feel “crazy,” or find themselves struggling with other forms of mental illness.

10. Indigos are so intensely empathetic that while all of their peers are going through a period of uncertainty and becoming, they will instinctively adopt those energy patterns as well.

11. Indigos very rarely follow a “typical” career, and often find themselves most lost in terms of what they want to do for work. They have yet to see that their gifts will be able to sustain them financially.

12. This is the time in which most people go through a series of breakups in order to find their ideal life partner. Indigos respond to rejection and loss almost violently; they are never in as much pain as when they are heartbroken.

13. This is the time during which indigos both know that they are talented, and yet have not logged enough hours to become true masters of their crafts.

14. It’s not so much that indigos struggle with imposter syndrome in their early 20s as they are eager to show the world that they are more capable than anyone would assume.

15. The early 20s is most often when crisis presents itself for the indigo. They know at once that they are destined for something beyond what they’re currently doing, and yet don’t quite feel capable or qualified enough to get there.

16. This begins the period of an indigo’s life in which they will begin deep self-exploration. Rather than just being gifted, they will start to become masters of their minds and selves.

17. Your early 20s are a time to make big, lifelong decisions, like what you want to study or who you want to marry. Indigos shy away from those questions because their answers are so rarely like anyone else’s.

18. Indigos don’t typically find interest in the “young, wild and free” party lifestyle that’s characteristic of one’s early 20s. They often feel left out, or as though they’re not keeping up.

19. At this point, indigos find it difficult to connect with many people their own age.

20. Indigos know instinctively that they are here to do something important, but in their early 20s, they’re in between feeling it and being able to actually begin. It’s a holding period, one that is challenging for anyone, but them more than many others.