Q&A with Betty Cohen of Hearts & Minds Media, LLC

We live in a time of rising public alarm about an epidemic of anxiety and depression among teen girls, starting as early as the tween years of ten to fourteen.

Even before the pandemic, one in five teenage girls had experienced at least one major depressive episode over the past year. (Pew Research).

But the problem was greatly exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Stressors, like social distancing, increased screen time, the toxic distortions of social media, and parental and social pressures, combined to form a perfect storm.

• Pediatric admissions for psychological diagnoses, like panic and anxiety, jumped 31 percent for adolescents in the pandemic year of 2020, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• A study of 1500 teens by Mission Behavioral Health, a recovery community in Santa Barbara, California, found that 61% of teens said the pandemic had increased their feelings of loneliness.

Sharon Young, a therapist in Hendersonville, North Carolina recently told The New York Times: ""‘Everything that used to be familiar and give structure to their lives, and predictability, and normalcy, is gone.’ Kids need all these things even more than adults do, and it’s hard for them to feel emotionally safe when they’re no longer there.’"

SEL is the science-based process by which people learn empathy, a growth mindset, self-advocacy, conflict resolution and skills that build self-confidence for life. We will engage girls with authentic stories from inside their social emotional world. And we will do this by weaving Interactive experiential learning into our programming on many platforms --reaching girls wherever they are. As a result, we will build a community of girls with a sense of empowerment and belonging.

Our team knows how to deftly leverage aspects of both traditional and interactive storytelling best suited for teaching SEL skills, using a multi-disciplinary team of experts and the latest creation, delivery and community- building technologies. These will include:

• Modeling Behavior: “How do those I admire handle difficult situations or decisions?”
• Branching Narratives: “How do I safely experience the consequences of my choices?”
• Character Point of View: “How do I have empathy for those who might not share my views?

Our goal is to have a critical impact on teens today, much as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers impacted young children a generation ago.
While SEL has become mainstream among educators (K-12 districts will be spending more than $21 billion per year on SEL), entertainment has not caught the SEL wave. It is time for a dedicated media brand to drive home this learning into the entire tween girl experience, on screens and off.

There have been hit shows produced for this market with SEL themes, but no company is focused on it. In essence, we have an open lane.

In a number of ways. Tween girls in the US have $100 billion in buying power. We will be attractive to sponsors who spend an annual $25 billion in the United States to reach tween girls. These companies struggle to find socially positive entertainment environments in which they can engage our target audience.

Over time, we will generate multiple revenue streams. These will include:
• Brand integration and sponsorships
• Advertising sales
• Premium subscription revenues from members of the community we build
• Producer and format fees from streaming services
• Licensing revenues from hit series, characters and personalities