Research shows that teens are faced with unrealistic messages around body image, wellness and nutrition.  Faced with pressure to fit in, to be unique, to have the right clothes and to use the right gadgets, it’s no surprise that the rate of depression among teen girls has doubled since 2000 to 2010.

So where are all these emotions channeled? In recent years teens have turned to social media as an unfiltered, unmonitored, emotional outlet- sharing their moods, their feelings and…well, everything. In fact, some of the girls we spoke with had tweeted so much that they occasionally found themselves in ‘Twitter Jail’- a form of internet purgatory that Twitter users are thrown into if they tweet 100 times an hour or 1000 times a day!

This summer we partnered with Bodimojo to help build confidence among teen girls, harness their increased use of social media and give them access to tools that allow them to understand themselves and their environments.

What better way to do that than through mood tracking? Enter, MapMyMojo- an app designed by the Beacon team at Hill Holliday and Bodimojo, that encourages mood sharing and mood tracking in an organic and nonintrusive way.

The MapMyMojo app (in development now) is an idea rooted in months of social media research, focus groups and academic studies, and is a wonderful example of how technology can play a positive role in health and wellness among teenagers.

-Kelsey Graham & Clarissa Hillen