Lay theories of adolescence see this period as a vulnerable time of risk-taking and susceptibility peer influence. A more novel perspective views adolescence as a stage optimized for exploration, including of new motivations and emerging identities in ways that foster both autonomy and connectedness. While the dominant neurodevelopmental approaches have relied on dual-systems and imbalance models to explain adolescent behavior, I will argue that motivated behavior during adolescence can be modeled by a general value-based decision-making process centered around value accumulation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Interestingly, neuroimaging studies of self-related processes demonstrate enhanced engagement of the vmPFC in adolescence, which may both facilitate and reflect the development of identity by integrating the value of potential actions and choices. This approach advances models of adolescent neurodevelopment that focus on reward sensitivity and cognitive control by considering more diverse value inputs, including contributions of developing social processes related to self and identity. It also considers adolescent decision making and behavior from adolescents' point of view rather than adults' perspectives on what adolescents should value or how they should behave.