Social media and young people: Live Q&A

Social media is an important outlet for young people and is often the place they go to for support around their mental health, but it can go too far. Where is that line, and how best can you approach conversations around it with young people? Join us for a panel discussion on Tuesday 19 April at 8pm where we will hear from young people and experts about their experiences and provide you with some top tips to reinforce healthy social media habits.

We’re delighted to be joined by the following panellists:

  • Louisa Rose

Louisa Rose is CEO of Beyond and the founder of Now and Beyond, the UK’s only mental health and wellbeing festival for the educational community. She has worked as a social media consultant over the last decade and is particularly interested in reinforcing healthy social media habits for young people. Louisa is diagnosed with depression, anxiety, Tourette’s and OCD and publicly reflects on her personal mental health journey. Louisa is married and a mother of two young boys.

  • Gabriella Spillman (age 14)

At the age of 8, Gabriella sadly lost her aunt to suicide. Since this, she has experienced anxiety at school and while performing on stage. Due to feeling severely anxious in Year 7, Gabriella missed three months of school. From her experience with anxiety, she now helps those who feel similar to her as she understands what it’s like and can empathise with them. Aside from this, she also loves playing sports including football as it helps her cope with any hardships.

  • Muhammad (Abz) Abby (age 26)

Abz is a podcaster and presenter from Manchester and is currently in his third year studying journalism at University Academy 92.  At his university Abz is part of the Wellbeing Champions, supporting students who may need someone to talk to. Abz has anxiety and depression, ADHD, bipolar, autism and Tourette’s and uses his experiences to try and help educate and support people. He often says “It’s ok to be different – that’s what makes people unique”. 

This session will be hosted by Charlotte Tidbury, Programme Support Officer at Mental Health UK.

To tune into the session, you’ll first need to create an account on the Parenting Hub, then simply log in on Tuesday 19 April at 8pm and go to the event page for the Q&A.

If you have a question you’d like to put to our experts, you can either submit one in advance or ask it in the live chat function while the event is happening.