It's been a long time since Covid-TV was on the Springboard blog! Since that time, we have been working to expand Covid-TV to cover more aspects of Social Justice and Tikkun Olam than just the pandemic. We are so excited to introduce Empower Teen! 

Covid-TV is now just a branch of our bigger website, Empower Teen. Empower Teen’s mission is to educate our teen readers on social action, change, and entrepreneurship.

Right now, Empower Teen has 4 main channels. The first, of course, is Covid-TV, which connects teens from 10 different countries around the world and has raised over $15,000 for at-risk communities in the pandemic. 

However, the other three channels are brand new. We just launched Resist-TV, which has two main parts: BLM-TV and Pay Gap-TV. Both these channels contain resources to learn about the issue and take action to make social progress. If you visit BLM-TV, you can find almost 20 different resources to learn about Black Lives Matter, petitions to sign, and ways to influence the movement in your own school or community. Pay Gap-TV links readers to statistics about the wage gap, sexual harrasment and gender/race inequalities in the workplace, and ways to try and close the gap, like petitions and scripts to call one’s representatives or senators. 

Our second newest channel is called Mental Health-TV, which aims to end the stigma around mental health and provide resources and self-care tips for improving emotional well-being. This page has two parts. The first is called “Learn,” and includes definitions of mental health and creates the distinct difference between “good” and “poor” mental health. The second part, “Resources,” links readers to emergency hotlines, articles on warning signs of poor mental health and how to reach out for help, and self-care tips to encourage readers to take care of themselves and take the first step towards recovery. We have already hosted events for Mental Health-TV, and plan to hold more zoom workshops in the future centered around mental health and self-care. 

The last new channel, and probably the one we are most excited to launch is Entrepreneurship-TV, or E-TV. Because of our journey of starting this blog as teenagers, we understand how challenging it is for teens to start their own blogs or businesses. Through E-TV, we plan to connect teens interested in business or those who have started their own companies to adult entrepreneurs and business owners. Similar to a mentorship program, we want teens who are just like us to have more experienced people to reach out to and get advice from to expand their business. We will also be hosting E-TV talks with entrepreneurs so that readers can have a chance to ask questions and learn more about the process of starting a business.

We are so excited to start hosting events for Empower Teen and ignite teen-advocacy in all of our readers. You can check us out here: empower-teen.com, and subscribe to stay updated on blog posts, events, and E-Talks. We hope that by expanding to Empower-Teen we will continue to do our part in Tikkun Olam and encourage other teens to become activists and leaders in their communities. 

Lauren Tapper is a sophomore at the University of Chicago Laboratory schools. She started Covid-TV because she wanted create a platform for teens who were experiencing the pandemic all around the world to connect with each other. As Covid-TV grew, she wanted to expand the site to cover other aspects of social justice, hence the creation of Empower Teen. She loves to read, play with her dog, and is an avid Chai Tea drinker. 

Krishita (Kia) Dutta is a sophomore at the University of Chicago Laboratory schools. She created this platform so that people who feel alone know that we're all in this together. Some of her hobbies are reading, painting, and constellation reading!