A teen has found a new way to help others, and it’s making a significant impact across the country. A Louisiana high school student has created a mobile app called Saplings to help her peers manage mental health challenges.
The app, which provides tools and resources specifically for teenagers, is now being utilized in more than 30 schools across the country. Vaishnavi Kumbala, an 11th grader at Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies in Metairie, near New Orleans, developed the app. Saplings offers strategies to help teens deal with anxiety, loneliness, and sadness, among other concerns.
“A lot of mental health resources out there are geared toward adults or younger kids,” Kumbala said. “I wanted to create something that was by a teen for teens.” One notable feature of the app is the “boredom buster,” which provides simple suggestions to address specific feelings. For instance, it recommends making a list of anxiety triggers or watching a favorite TV show to combat sadness.
The prompts in the guided journal are targeted toward teens specifically,” Kumbala said.
Kumbala started working on Saplings in 2021 after Hurricane Ida caused her school to shut down for more than a month. She used this time to learn how to build a website. “There was definitely a rise in stress levels in my community, especially among youth,” she said, noting that teens often hesitate to seek help due to fear of judgment. While emphasizing that the app is not a replacement for professional help, Kumbala highlights its accessibility for teens in need.
Saplings won the 2021 Congressional App Challenge in Louisiana’s First District, a competition facilitated by the U.S. government. It became a free mobile app a year later. Saplings offers a journey of mental wellness through meditation, journaling, and various resources. “The idea is to give people tools to use and let them decide what works best for their situation,” Kumbala explained. “You can pick and choose which features are right for you.”
Vaishnavi Kumbala, an 11th-grader from New Orleans, LA., created an app to help teenagers cope with depression. Photo by Sophia Germer
The app includes a meditation studio with a variety of music and guided sessions like mindful breathing exercises, morning meditation, and a relaxing walk through a forest. Additionally, it features a mindfulness game designed to improve concentration. “Meditation can be intimidating and seem so inaccessible, so this breaks it down step-by-step,” Kumbala said. “It’s all linked within the app, so you don’t have to go to YouTube and then find yourself going down a rabbit hole and losing your focus.”
The journaling feature allows users to record their thoughts, with options for editing or removing entries. It also offers inspirational quotes from notable figures like Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King Jr. The resources section provides links to the National Alliance on Mental Health, reading materials on mental health, and suggestions for stress-relief activities.
The app’s reach has grown through partnerships with schools and presentations at student assemblies. Megan Bella, coordinator for the Louisiana Senate’s Legislative Youth Advisory Council, praised the app’s accessibility and its variety of resources. “I like how the app has a choose-your-own-adventure-type feel,” Bella said. “The meditation music is the best, and there’s so much more to it with the journaling and all kinds of professional links and resources.”
For Kumbala, the most important part is that she has helped others. “It has been really fulfilling to help other people and it’s been a fantastic journey so far, but I still have a long way to go,” she said. For more on ways this app, as well as others that have been created, can help kids and teens, watch below.
Sources: NOLA | NewsNation
