Youth Minds Matter

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Inspiration

Youth Minds Matter is a project created around teens’ struggle around mental health. The mission of this website is to raise awareness and provide information about mental health in the learning environment both to teens and the people that surround them, in order to better support them. Mental health is a complex issue to deal with even as adults, but for teens it’s even harder, having to navigate through new territory while battling within themselves. This project is an attempt to make the journey easier and more informed.

What it does

This website is a static page that is meant to educate teenagers and those around them about mental health and the struggles that teenagers with mental health go through. The website has detailed articles for both parents and teens to relate to.

How we built it

I used HTML to build the skeleton of the website and structure where the information would go. After researching and writing articles on different cub-divisions of mental health, I input the information into the HTML structure. After that, I started formatting the text, and designing the webpage using CSS.

Challenges we ran into

I had quite a few different challenges. My first challenge was designing the navigation bar at the top of the webpage. It was difficult for me to space the tabs out evenly, and format everything. I solved this by looking at the source code for a similar feature online. That helped me figure out what to do next. Another challenge I ran into was writing the articles in a short amount fo time. Originally, my plan was to write out 3 full articles that were news style. However, as the second day came, I was still working on the code and I hadn’t fully finished my structure. That’s when I decided that I wouldn’t have time to write full articles, so I decided on writing mini ones instead. I modeled it off of real articles but with less information.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I’m proud of the information in all the articles. I think they are really informative, and if I’d had that when I was struggling with my mental health, I know it would’ve helped me. On the coding side, I’m proud of the website layout. I was confused of how to lay out the website, when I decided to draw it out. It helped me conceptualize everything, and I got it to almost exactly what I wanted.

What we learned

From this experience I’ve learned that it takes time to get everything right. At first, I felt lost because I didn’t know how to start the website. I was getting frustrated because I felt so lost, and I ended up not doing anything productive. However, the day right after, I made a plan and started to follow it, doing the best that I can. It felt hard and like I didn’t know anything, but as time went on, it started to feel easier. So now, I know that it takes time to be familiar with things, and not everyone is good at everything right off the bat.

What's next for Youth Minds Matter

This website is just the beginning for Youth Minds Matter. Right now, it's a static site that provides information and resources. In the future, we plan to add an AI chatbot. This AI will listen to the user’s symptoms and give them an initial idea of what might be going on. It can suggest counseling or recommend exercises. If the user wants counseling, the AI will help you find the contact information to set up an appointment.