This policy brief is part of a cross-country series designed to share emerging findings in real time from qualitative interviews with adolescents in the context of covid-19. The young people involved are part of the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) programme’s longitudinal research in the Middle East, East Africa and South Asia. To inform the pandemic response and contribute to efforts aimed at ensuring that gender- and age-specific experiences are taken into account alongside other social characteristics (including disability, refugee status, marital status), this brief draws on data from 100 phone conversations with vulnerable Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian adolescents aged 11–19 years held in April 2020.