ReThink Citizens Youth Squad

A powerful youth movement to support digital caregivers

What Is The Youth Squad?

The ReThink Citizens Youth Squad is a nationwide group of young digital safety leaders (ages 15–25) trained to deliver ReThink Citizens’ “ReThinking Digital Parenting” workshops. A first-of-its-kind initiative, the Youth Squad was created in response to today’s parents’ interest in a fresh, youth-led perspective on the digital world; a real, comprehensive look at the opportunities and dangers that social media can present.

Through completion of our Youth Squad training and participation in ongoing Youth Squad educational programming, Youth Squad members are equipped to provide parents and caregivers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to help their children stay safe and thrive online. By bringing youth voices to the forefront, ReThink Citizens is fostering intergenerational dialogue and building a safer, more informed internet.

What We Offer

Our Youth Squad delivers free ReThinking Digital Parenting Workshops. Each workshop is an interactive 60–90 minute session designed for parents and caregivers and led directly by a trained Youth Squad member. This evidence-based workshop draws on research, insights, and guidance from leading digital safety experts and was developed in consultation with members of our Advisory Coalition (learn more below). The workshop covers:

  • Insights into how young people are currently using social media
  • An overview of the digital harms and challenges youth may face online
  • Practical strategies to support safe, healthy, and balanced digital habits

The workshop is offered both virtually and in-person when a Youth Squad member is located nearby (learn more about our Squad below). It is designed for parents and caregivers of children of all ages, with a particular focus on helping them understand digital harms. By the end of the session, participants leave with knowledge and tools to feel more confident guiding their children in navigating today’s online world.

Youth Squad Members

Amias Collins

Hi, I’m Amias Collins, a 10th grader at Miramonte High School and a competitive rock climber working toward qualifying for Nationals. I am an avid public speaker and love to use my voice to make the world a better place. Last year, I was part of NoFiltr’s Digital Safety Youth Innovation Council, where I helped promote safer online spaces.

Kennesaw, GA

Hello my name is Ryan. I like to play soccer and help people out. My biggest achievement is joining youth squad and also getting into a soccer team.

Chyanne Swain

I’m Chyanne Swain an incoming freshman at Mount Holyoke College. I’m looking to study cognitive science and sociology, and am specifically interested in digital and social determinants of an array of physical and mental health problems. I like to code, but in my free time I love to paint, draw and write poetry. My favorite social media app is TikTok.

Arnav Nagpal

Hi my name is Arnav Nagpal and I am going to be a senior in high school in the fall. I play soccer and am on my school’s robotics team. I like listening to music, playing golf and video games. My favorite social media app is instagram.

Cayleigh Sitchon

I'm a second-year chemical engineering major from Fresno, CA with an interest in environmental science and public health. I'm the incoming president of Clovis Community College's Valley Health and Science Club and enjoy creating science outreach programs for youths. Fun fact about me: I enjoy learning how to play different racket sports on the weekends.

Siyam Seid

I’m a second-year college student studying Information Science. I’ve been actively involved in humanitarian organizations supporting refugees across different countries. I enjoy connecting with friends on Instagram, and a fun fact about me is that I can solve a Rubik’s Cube!

Guiying (Angel) Zhong

Guiying (Angel) Zhong (she/they) is a youth mental health advocate and scholar-activist. Since graduating in 2023 from the University of the Pacific, they have served as a Research Analyst at the UW-Madison Center for Health Disparities Research, working on an NIH-funded study examining the impact of where people live on their brain health across the lifespan. They are an alumnus of the NationSwell Fellows Program for young social impact leaders and Inseparable Mental Health Policy Fellowship, past NAMI NextGen Youth Advisor, and Board member of Youth MOVE National. Angel is currently a post-bacc Junior Professional Researcher at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, where she is aiding with Promoting Community Conversations About Research for Effective Solutions (PC CARES), a project focused on developing community-led, research-informed community health education programs in remote Alaska and Michigan.

Lotanna Akukwe

Lotanna holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and is passionate about building solutions in the current digital space, particularly in the field of data science and AI. She has mentored others inside and outside the classroom, including connecting young students to volunteer opportunities to help them engage with their communities. Outside of her interest in tech, Lotanna enjoys crocheting, reading, and seeking new ways to learn and grow.

Emmy Chavez

Hello everyone, my name is Emmy! I'm a third-year computer science student at Thomas Edison State University, passionate about technology, mental health, and community building. I was selected as one of 25 members of the national Girls Who Code Alumni Advisory Council and awarded a $2,500 grant to develop and teach a STEM program on AI ethics, aimed at helping students build healthier relationships with technology. Fun Facts: I love making earrings, playing drums in a jazz band, dancing to K-pop music, and rock climbing.

Kobe Huynh

Kobe (he/him) is a first-year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at Arizona State University. Prior to attending ASU, he earned a BA in Psychology at the University of San Diego. He is interested in supporting parents in developing effective parenting skills, with a particular focus on helping them navigate the challenges of raising teens and fostering healthy parent-teen relationships. In his free time, he enjoys taking spin classes and trying new coffee shops.

Advisory Coalition Members

Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health

Social media use starts during childhood and can play a significant role in the relationships and experiences that impact children and teens’ growth, development and mental health. The Center works to improve the mental health of children and teens by reducing the risks and leveraging the benefits of social media. We focus on providing parents and teens with practical solutions for navigating social media that avoids a focus on fear. We provide families with new language and strategies to discuss media that reduces the fear and increases the understanding that can happen in family conversations.

Cori Stott

Cori Stott is the Executive Director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she leads strategy, partnerships, and programs that advance youth mental health and wellbeing in the digital world. She brings more than 15 years of experience at the intersection of education, youth development, and organizational leadership. Her background includes strategic roles in large K-12 school systems, as well as executive leadership at Transforming Education, a nonprofit focused on integrating social-emotional learning into schools.

Laura Marquez-Garrett

Laura Marquez-Garrett is a 2002 Harvard Law School graduate and spent the first twenty-years of their career in Big Law, overseeing complex litigation matters and specializing in electronic evidence and forensic investigation. In January of 2022, Laura left a predominantly defense-oriented practice to join the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) to contribute to the Center’s mission of change and holding social media companies accountable for the harms they are causing to children and families. Laura has since filed more than 1,200 complaints against tech companies in state and federal courts across the country.

Alanna Powers

Alanna is the Research & Program Specialist for the Family Online Safety Institute. She leads FOSI's Good Digital Parenting programming and manages FOSI's research projects. She is passionate about creating safer experiences for kids and families online. Alanna has created several resources and managed research projects that focus on informing parents, educators and other stakeholders about concepts such as digital literacy, wellbeing and AI. Alanna has a master’s degree in Media Studies from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She also holds undergraduate degrees in both Public Relations and English from Penn State University, and is a Fulbright alumna.

Emma Lembke

Emma Lembke is a 22 year-old youth digital advocate. As a senior in high school, Lembke founded LOG OFF, a youth-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to helping kids, teens, and young people build healthy relationships with social media and online platforms. Along with her role at LOG OFF, Emma also is a core team member of Design It For Us and a member of the Gen Z Board for the Sustainable Media Center. In February 2023, Emma became one of the first young people to testify before Congress regarding tech policy. Her efforts have been covered by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, 60 Minutes, CBS, MTV, npr, The Hill, and Bloomberg.

Ellen Selkie, MD, MPH

Dr. Selkie is an Assistant Professor in Adolescent Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and leads the Learning More From Adolescents Online lab. Dr. Selkie’s clinical work involves preventative and specialized care for adolescents and young adults. As a researcher, Dr. Selkie hopes to decrease negative social media activities and amplify positive social media activities with a goal of enhancing social and emotional well-being, especially for at-risk youth.

Workshop Request Form

Workshop Request Form

Contact Information

Workshop Details

Note: All tentative information for planning purposes.

Additional Information

Leadership

Lydia Bliss

(she/her); 24 years old; Location: Madison, Wisconsin

Lydia Bliss serves as the Youth Squad Program Manager at ReThink Citizens. She has a background in psychology, health humanities, and public policy and is currently a researcher studying adolescent health, well-being, and social media use. Her work focuses on promoting adolescent well-being in digital spaces through a positive youth development lens. Passionate about centering youth in conversations about their health and online experiences, Lydia works to empower youth to lead responsible technology efforts. She believes mentorship and education drive positive digital change and is excited to help youth build the skills to shape the future of online spaces.

"With the digital world evolving so quickly, youth perspectives are key to bridging the divide between their experiences and their parents' ability to support them. By empowering young people to lead conversations on digital well-being, we also equip parents with the insights and tools they need to better support their children in the online world."

Flynn Begor

(she/her); 24 years old; Location: San Francisco, California

Flynn Begor serves as the Youth Squad Program Assistant at ReThink Citizens. With a multidisciplinary background in the arts and humanities space, Flynn is invested in the impact of social technologies on culture, politics, and the self. Growing up online and experiencing firsthand the connective and creative possibilities of social media, as well as its equal and opposite destructive capacity, she spent much of her academic life developing different means of understanding and communicating the act of developing a version of oneself to act as one’s digital mediary. She believes that by bridging gaps in understanding between young technology users and the adults in their lives, there is a better opportunity to interrupt potential harms that can stem from particular digital habits. Outside of ReThink Citizens, Flynn works with a non-profit in San Francisco tutoring elementary school students on their writing skills.

“Once we commit to multifaceted understanding of how technology can impact youth socially, physically, economically, environmentally, and politically we can better attend to building and maintaining a digital landscape that can better serve us all.”

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