🚀 Applications Open: New $1M Challenge for Youth Digital Play!
Young Futures Community,
We’re back with another funding challenge—and this one’s all about bringing more joy, connection, and creativity to young people's digital lives.
At home, I see it firsthand: my son in Minecraft, my daughter in Animal Crossing—both building worlds, laughing with friends (over Zoom and shoulder to shoulder), and finding real connection through digital play. It’s powerful. But like many parents, I also see the potential tradeoffs: toxic communities, disrupted sleep, games with no natural endpoints that can make it so hard to transition.
The truth is: digital play can be a powerful force for good—if we build it that way, and if we help young people find their way there.
Research shows that well-designed digital experiences can help teens reduce stress, build friendships, and explore their identities. Yet most conversations about gaming focus only on harm—not possibility.
That’s why we’re thrilled to launch the Here Comes the Fun Challenge: A $1 million funding initiative (in partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, and supported by Niantic, Pivotal Ventures, and Susan Crown Exchange) to scale solutions that help pre-teens and teens thrive through playful, wellbeing-centered digital experiences.
Why Now?
Today’s teens are growing up lonelier, more pressured, and with less freedom. And although play is just as developmentally important for pre-teens and teens as it is for little kids, it is often deprioritized in the busy lives of adolescents. Digital play offers them something rare: a space to experiment, connect, and just be—something we heard firsthand from teens during our Youth Listening Tour.
Well-designed digital experiences can:
🎮 Boost mental health
🌍 Promote social connection and build inclusive communities
💡 Spark creativity and innovation
But these benefits should be intentional, not accidental.
What We’re Funding
We’re looking for youth-led, research-backed ideas like:
🕹️ Games that prioritize belonging and agency
📚 Toolkits that help developers build for wellbeing
👥 Programs that foster positive online communities
⏰ Tools that help teens balance screen time without sacrificing fun
👉 Applications are OPEN NOW! [Read the full RFP here]
Know someone building a better digital world? Send our challenge page their way!
Let’s reimagine digital play—not just as fun, but as a critical piece of the youth wellbeing puzzle.
Warmly,
Katya Hancock
CEO, Young Futures
P.S. Join our applicant info session on May 1 — [Register here!]
Young Futures in the News
April 21, LinkedIn Article, YF’s Co-Founder & COO, Dr. Kristine Gloria, shares her unique journey into the tech and mental health space, blending her expertise in research, advocacy, and systemic change. As a Filipino immigrant who grew up navigating the intersections of technology and culture, she reflects on how her unconventional path—from journalism to AI ethics—shaped her mission to create equitable digital spaces. Drawing from personal experiences, including witnessing 9/11 unfold online as a high schooler, Kristine highlights the dual power of technology to connect and overwhelm, emphasizing the need for intentional design and boundaries. Now a mother of two, she brings both professional insight and parental perspective to her work at Young Futures, where she leads partnerships, research, and operations to empower youth in shaping healthier tech futures. Her vision? A world where young people have agency over their digital lives, starting with tools like a "digital mute button" to pause algorithmic pressures.
April 10, LinkedIn Article, YF’s Director of Programs, Sierra Fox-Woods, shares her journey from a small coffee-farming town to leading initiatives that empower youth in the digital age. Represented by her chosen emojis 🌺💡🌱, Sierra embodies resilience, innovation, and growth—values shaped by her Native Hawaiian community and early experiences with technology as both a bridge and a barrier. Reflecting on her teen years, she recalls the social divides created by early devices and the creative workarounds she and her peers devised—a testament to young people’s adaptability. Now at Young Futures, Sierra channels that ingenuity into building equitable solutions, from amplifying grassroots innovators to curating resources for teens and parents. Her approach to tech balance? Honest self-awareness (yes, she loves to scroll!) and open dialogue. For parents, she advises curiosity over control; for teens, she champions agency: "Tech is a tool, not an extension of who you are." Offline, you’ll find her walking outdoors or chasing her toddler—proof that the next generation might just rewrite the rules of digital engagement.
Young Futures Innovators in the News
Lonely Hearts Cohort YF Innovator Tony Weaver Jr. of Weird Enough continues to revolutionize media literacy through storytelling, empowering young people to challenge stereotypes and embrace self-love. His organization creates inclusive comic books and digital content that combine geek culture with social-emotional learning, helping youth develop confidence and critical thinking skills. By merging pop culture with advocacy, Weaver fosters a new generation of creators who use their voices to reshape narratives in media.
Lonely Hearts Cohort YF Innovators Diana Turner and Alex Owens of BeLoud Studios are creating transformative platforms for New Orleans youth to share their stories and shape their community’s future. Through their media initiatives, young voices take center stage, blending journalism, advocacy, and creative expression to address pressing social issues. Turner and Owens’ work empowers the next generation to be heard, fostering both personal growth and meaningful civic engagement.
Under Pressure Cohort YF Innovator Maddie Freeman of NoSo is redefining mentorship through her powerful co-mentorship journey with Hopelab’s Jaspal Singh. Their reciprocal partnership—where wisdom flows both ways—showcases how intergenerational collaboration can fuel growth and innovation. By sharing her lived experience as both mentor and mentee, Freeman highlights the transformative potential of relationships built on mutual respect, vulnerability, and shared purpose.
Spotlight on Youth Voices
When will tech innovators realize that young people aren't just users—they're the most creative problem-solvers in the room? The recent TYDE Hackathon Challenge proved this powerfully, as over 100 students transformed from digital consumers into visionary designers of healthier online spaces. Computer science majors teamed up with cognitive science researchers to prototype AI tools that combat misinformation, while first-years developed social media interfaces that actually prioritize wellbeing over engagement metrics. These weren't just theoretical exercises—projects like a "digital oxygen mask" emergency feature and algorithmic transparency dashboards showed how student-led tech design could revolutionize platforms overnight. The most striking takeaway? Every breakthrough solution shared one common ingredient: deep respect for how Gen Z actually experiences (and wants to improve) their digital lives.
What We’re Reading (& Watching)
New Report Explores Evolving Landscape of Digital Youth Wellbeing (Stanford, Apr 22)
Nearly half of teens say social media is bad for youth mental health, report finds (CNN, Apr 22)
The Alarm Over Social Media Is Getting Through to Teens (The New York Times, Apr 22)
No More Cellphones in Virginia Classrooms (The Wall Street Journal, Apr 20)
New Jersey Sues Discord for Allegedly Failing to Protect Children (Wired, Apr 17)
OpenAI Unveils Technology That Can ‘Reason’ With Images (The New York Times, Apr 16)
What History Can Teach Us About Breaking Up Giant Companies (The New York Times, Apr 15)
Will end to federal Office of Ed Tech mean an end to equity? (K-12 Dive, Apr 11)
Teens are embracing AI — but largely not for cheating, survey finds (K-12 Dive, Apr 9)
These tech companies are building healthier social media habits for kids (Fast Company, Mar 23)
Talking to Teens
Sumathi Reddy tackles one of modern parenting's toughest dilemmas in her recent piece for The Wall Street Journal: when to give your child their first smartphone. Drawing on expert insights and her own experience as a hesitant mother, she explores how smartphones impact children's developing brains while offering practical strategies for delaying the transition. Key takeaway? There's no perfect age, but setting clear boundaries and prioritizing analog childhood experiences can help families navigate this milestone more mindfully. Read now for a thoughtful approach to one of parenting's most debated tech decisions!
Friends of YF
Our partners at Pinterest are stepping up as leaders in responsible tech innovation! Their new school-hours prompts—a thoughtful feature encouraging minors to focus during study time—demonstrate how platforms can actively support healthier digital habits. This isn’t just a small design tweak; it’s a meaningful shift toward putting wellbeing at the core of user experience. While so many companies talk about youth safety, Pinterest is building it into their product, proving that tech can be both engaging and intentional. Let’s hope this inspires other platforms to follow suit—because young people (and honestly, all of us!) deserve tools that help us thrive online, not just scroll mindlessly.
Our friends at the Foundation for Social Connection are launching an important opportunity to explore how Generative AI is reshaping social relationships across generations! They're hosting virtual focus groups to facilitate open dialogue between young people (ages 10-22) and the adults in their lives (parents, educators, mentors) about AI's growing role in our social worlds. No technical expertise is required - they welcome perspectives ranging from daily AI users to complete beginners. Through these conversations, participants will examine generational assumptions about AI, discuss its impacts on relationships, and identify best practices for meaningful intergenerational dialogue about technology. Selected participants will join one age-specific session and one intergenerational discussion between May 6-16, with a total time commitment of about 4 hours. As a thank you, all fully participating members will receive a $150 honorarium. The application deadline is April 25 at 11:59 PM ET, so don't miss your chance to help shape healthier conversations about technology and connection! Learn more and apply here!
Upcoming Events
Register now! Our YF Innovators, Josh Thompson and Abby Binder from Civics Unplugged, are partnering with Mobile Voting to host an unforgettable evening challenging society's scarcity mindset on Thursday, May 8th (6:30-8:00 PM) in Soho. Join special guests, including philanthropist Alice Johnson Cain, Mobile Voting founder Bradley Tusk, and Rodney McKenzie, Jr. of The Fetzer Institute, for dynamic conversations about creating abundance in voting, housing, healthcare, and beyond. You'll hear directly from Civics Unplugged Fellows about how they're rewriting the rules of governance and innovation, plus get an exclusive look at Mobile Voting's groundbreaking technology. Spaces are limited—RSVP now to secure your spot!