Character is vital force for positive development and societal well-being. Character strengths play important roles in positive youth development, not only as broad-protective factors, preventing or mitigating psychopathology and problems, but also as enabling conditions that promote thriving and flourishing. Recent research findings show that character strengths are related to academic success, life satisfaction, and well-being for children and youth. These findings have four significant implications for educators, parents, mental health professionals, and policy makers who concern themselves with promoting positive youth development. First, schools and youth programs should start to measure children's assets, such as character strengths, as much as deficits. Second, educators and policy makers concerned with educating happy, healthy, and successful children and youth will want to pay explicit attention to character strengths. Third, the Values in Action (VIA) classification of strengths provides a vocabulary for people to talk about character strengths in an appropriately sophisticated way. Fourth, given the importance of character to the psychological good life, questions arise about how good character might be cultivated. (Contains 1 table.)