Understanding how adolescents who wear hearing aids (HA) experience high school is vital to help construct a holistic view of how to work alongside this age group to produce the best possible academic and social outcomes for them. There are approximately 180-200 children every year in New Zealand who are diagnosed with hearing loss (Digby, 2021). These children then have to navigate hearing loss at the same time as they experience complex social and educational changes. This study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators experienced by young people who use HAs in a social and educational context. This also included understanding the role that HAs are having in supporting these experiences. Six adolescents took part in semi-structured interviews discussing and reflecting on their experiences and perceptions of this period of their lives. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and then thematically analysed (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Four overall themes emerged from the data; (1) “Practical Usefulness and Convenience”, (2) “Impact on school and learning”, (3) “Impact on identity,” and (4) “Normality and sociability”. Audiologists and Education staff involved in supporting adolescents who use assistive hearing technology should be aware of these experiences to understand the features of hearing technology and services can be barriers and facilitators for young people. This study also sheds light on how young people feel about growing up with hearing loss.