Magnify Wellness

Our current budget involves over $1,200 being used for:

•Maintaining Magnify Wellness on the app store

•Logistics for future virtual mental health conferences

•Merchandize  such as hoodies and stickers to promote positivity to low income students

•Donations to another mental health charities

We will use our prize funds to distribute mental health care packages to the chapter program, our hard working staff, homeless youth, and updated software to make Magnify feel more human and realistic.

A few years ago, I battled constantly with suicidal thoughts. After moving from Poulsbo, Washington to Hilo, Hawai’i in November 2017, my life seemed incredibly different. When my mother became completely apathetic and depressed over her decision to move to Hilo, I panicked. After many failed attempts at finding a genuine, supportive community, I eventually decided to give up trying. Both my own mother’s life and mine just didn’t seem to matter that much to other people. 

Fortunately, my salvation came from an old friend whom I have not heard from in years called me and asked me how I’ve been. Without hesitation, this one phrase changed my entire perspective on living:  “I care about you, how can I help?” 

If I never received that phone call, I wouldn’t have executed my goal of publishing my own mental health app to reach the hearts of thousands worldwide.

Magnify Wellness’s primary target audiences are Teens or Adults who need a place to vent. Through publishing Magnify Wellness from the ground up, I turned my past pain into future power, so that no one has to feel unloved, unsupported, and completely alone ever again.

We live in tumultuous times of fear, division, and grief. In March 2020, the CDC sent out a survey in which there was a 30% increase in anxiety disorder reports. In our survey, 59% responded with their own personal wellbeing getting worse since COVID-19 began. 22% felt that they were able to make new friends and 50% struggled with finding affordable resources. This is a legit problem.

We coded & published a free iOS app whose 10+ features are powered by stories of resilience of our youth and artificial intelligence. Each in-app feature is research-backed and coded based on other’s personal, unique experiences. We understand that everyone is different and therefore, our way of getting help is also different. The CBT-based chatbot enables people to talk anonymously. In contrast, we have a real counselor you can connect with through the app. We use machine-learning to match the many resources to the right user to mitigate the issue of finding the right, personalized support. Hence, the diversity of our in-app’s many features reflect the diversity of our user’s stories.

We live in a world with people from all unique backgrounds. As such, the way we perceive access and view mental health support is also different. We accommodate the user’s diverse backgrounds through its 10+, free in-app features powered by community stories and research-backed features. We also use machine learning in Maggie the chatbot, whose responses are reviewed by mentor Dr. Cynthia Nguyen from Stanford Medicine. Our CEO’s call-to-action stemmed from loneliness and loss led her to build a mental health app that targets everyone in an affordable manner. 

Additionally, We are youth-driven, AI-powered, Completely free of all majority of our products and resources, and utilize the power of storytelling to build a unique community where mental health is celebrated rather than just normalized.

Magnify Wellness’s iOS app helped bridge the gap between struggling communities and accessible mental health support through its free services. Because Magnify Wellness is completely free with no hidden costs, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds won’t be prevented from utilizing its in-app features. To quantify the individual experiences of each user, I conducted a user feedback survey on Magnify Wellness’s most useful components for improving someone’s mental wellbeing. More than half of Magnify Wellness’s users enjoyed the mood check-in the most. Everyone who took the survey has recorded feeling a little more happier and encouraged than before using the in-app features. 

The Mental Health Forever campaign, exists to help students in high school and beyond find helpful wellness resources conveniently and quickly. The Mental Health Forever resource shell has helped empower hundreds of people worldwide to take action in taking better care of their mental wellbeing. The database has over 1800 resources. From BIPOC articles to community groups, everyone has the opportunity to easily locate the support they need. People who struggled alone and felt lost in searching for accessible mental health resources can find warmth and support through both Magnify Wellness’s iOS app and the Mental Health Forever website.