MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

GenZen - Say No To Stress

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

A social app that improves teen mental health by teaching and promoting stress coping mechanisms with fun tools for time management, breathing exercises, sleep improvement, meditation, yoga and more.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

PROBLEM I’M TRYING TO SOLVE:

*Please note that my elevator pitch video discussing these issues will be on my website www.genzen.org

I’m trying to solve the crisis of teen mental health by helping teens learn how to effectively cope with, and reduce, stress. According to the American Institute of Stress, even before Covid, GenZ had higher levels of stress compared to other age groups. (https://www.stress.org/teens). Many teens in the U.S. and globally do not have access to mental health resources and price can also be a factor. This is such an important problem that Unicef recently created the Adolescent Data Portal to track the well-being of adolescents globally. (https://data.unicef.org/adp/).

SCALE OF THE PROBLEM:

According to the National Institute of Health, even from before Covid, nearly 1 in 3 of all adolescents ages 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder. (https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder#part_155096). These numbers have been rising.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE AFFECTED:

According to Unicef, 16% of the global population, or 1.3 billion people, are adolescents. (https://data.unicef.org/topic/adolescents/overview/). In the U.S., 13% of the population (43 million people) are adolescents (ages 10-19), though the number of actual teens will be smaller. However, many more people are affected by teen stress as teen violence, bullying, and school shootings have been an issue, and families are affected by teen stress. Simply having to be on a school campus can be stressful.

WHAT FACTORS ARE CONTRIBUTING:

Our generation has had to deal with the following new stressors:

Covid isolation and deaths
Higher expectations for teens than in past generations
School shootings and lockdowns

According to the American Institute of Stress, the following factors are some of the biggest sources of stress for teens.

For American middle schoolers:

61% of teens feel a lot of pressure to get good grades.
29% feel pressured to look good

Finals and midterms were the top source of stress for 31% of U.S. students.
Class and workload were third at 23%.
Homework was fourth at 13%.

28% need to fit in socially
21% feel the pressure to involve themselves in extracurricular activities and be good at sports.

For College Students:

36.5% of U.S. college students claimed stress was the biggest reason why their academic performance suffered negatively for the past 12 months.
An additional 29.5 % listed anxiety as a factor.

In addition, the transition to being a teen comes with a lot of changes.

WHAT CONSEQUENCES RESULT FROM THE PROBLEM?

Teen stress can lead to many serious outcomes, including anxiety, withdrawal, aggression, illness, or even drug and/or alcohol use. (https://www.aacap.org/AACAP). However, it can also lead to more silent minor issues affecting everyday life such as poor academic performance, unhappiness, and sleep problems. These issues can cause more stress.

What is your solution?

My solution is a fun app that improves teen mental health by teaching and promoting stress coping mechanisms with fun tools for time management, breathing exercises, sleep improvement, meditation, yoga and more. The app will have both free and paid options.

The app will ask teens questions about their stress, and will then offer tailored solutions to them. It will include content created directly by GenZen. It will eventually also include limited social aspects such as video content (and non-video content) that can be created by mental health professionals and teen members. Examples of contributed content can include time management checklists, morning routines, sleep tips, yoga routines, guided meditation, inspirational quotes, and more.

In order to encourage teens to do the recommended activities that will help them cope with stress, members will earn "ZenDrops" each time they do an activity. Those ZenDrops can be spent on special features that might otherwise be offered only to paying members, such as yoga videos, anti-stress games, or live events.

GenZen will promote the following stress-reducing behaviors and techniques, influenced by recommendations on AACAP.ORG:

Exercise a moderate amount
Do yoga and meditation.
Don’t let yourself go hungry.
Get enough sleep & have an effective sleep routine.
Avoid caffeine, illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
Practice relaxation exercises and breathing exercises.
Develop assertiveness training skills.
Rehearse and practice situations which cause stress.
Learn practical coping skills. For example, break a large task into smaller, more attainable tasks.
Decrease negative self-talk and challenge negative thoughts.
Work on avoiding perfectionism.
Take a break from stressful situations.
Try stress-reducing activities such as listening to music, talking to a friend, drawing, writing, or spending time with a pet.
Build a network of positive friends and attend healthy social activities.

*Please note that my elevator pitch video discussing these issues will be on my website www.genzen.org

Below are some screenshots of my app prototype:

*Please see www.genzen.org for my elevator pitch and more information.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

WHO DOES YOUR SOLUTION SERVE?

GenZen will serve teens (ages 13-19) globally via the app. While teens in different places might have different stressors, everyone can benefit from learning coping measures for stress.

IN WHAT WAYS ARE THEY UNDERSERVED?

Many teens in the U.S. and globally do not have access to resources to help them effectively deal with stress. Or even if they do, they may not want to use them or may not feel they have the time. This solution is a fun, quick and easy way to consistently learn more coping techniques for dealing with and reducing stress.

IN WHAT WAYS WILL THE SOLUTION IMPACT THEIR LIVES?

If teens can learn how to effectively manage and cope with stress, that will help them as they grow and live their lives as life stressors are unlikely to decrease. They can learn how to be happier, reach their full potential, and can contribute more to society with less stress. They can also avoid the serious problems that stress can cause. They can continue to use these skills throughout college and their career and lives.

The solution can also affect the lives of those around teens who experience stress. My hope is that this app can reduce or eliminate things like violence in schools and make schools safer again.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

I have been working on developing this concept for a couple months (though I just found out about the contest a week before the deadline) as stress is a common issue discussed among my peers. I have started working on a prototype of the app.

Regarding technical skills, I have the design skills to design an app that appeals to my generation. I have taken courses in Adobe Photoshop and design, and I am also proficient in Canva. I can design websites and I am developing the coding skills to code the app, as well. I am currently taking courses in C# coding and AI, and I plan to learn Swift/X Code next. (In the past I have coded with Thunkable, Scratch and Vex and am familiar with coding). I recently learned about MIT App Inventor while working on this challenge. I intend to use MIT App Inventor to create the first version of my app. I will use X Code to create later versions. I will be learning more about coding while building my app. I love both engineering and design, so creating this app will be a perfect mix of my skills.

I am a young teen myself and hear a lot about stress from my peers, so I am representative of those my app serves. I also have signed up to volunteer for a teen volunteer organization that helps teens with special needs, and will continue to get feedback on the issues affecting teens today, and the effectiveness of my app.

If I win a grant, I will use it for the following purposes:
1. To market my app.

2. To hire a part time programmer to support the app.

3. I also may hire a mental health professional consultant to review the content in the app. In the meantime, I have done my own research online regarding helpful solutions. I also will allow mental health professionals to submit helpful content to the app.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

I am a teen, so I understand the common stressors of teens today, and the fact that most teens do not seek out ways to learn how to cope with stress. Expectations for teens are high and most teens do not want to do or learn less. Therefore, it would be very beneficial for them to learn how to cope with stress.

In addition, I have done online research about teens and stress for this app. I have also asked friends and peers for feedback on my app as I developed and designed the solutions.

I recently joined a teen volunteer organization that helps other teens with special needs, and will be learning more about helping others with stress through that organization, as well. I will continue to gather information from peers about what would be helpful, and what does and does not work about the app.

I will continue to ask friends and peers for feedback, and to test my app as I develop it.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team located?

Seattle, WA, USA

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Avery Saliba