PaperRoad

PaperRoad Empowers Teens To Live Happier, Healthier, And More Meaningful Lives

The U.S. is in the midst of a national emergency when it comes to teen mental health and wellness. 

In December 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, warned of a "devastating" mental health and wellness crisis among adolescents. Dr. Murthy emphasized that mental states such as stress, depression, anxiety, emotional and physical isolation, compulsive behavior, self-harm, and suicide are at record levels, aggravated by the effects of the pandemic. Pressure to achieve academically, social and family pressures, stigma, social media, and overexposure to screens are also rising. To make matters worse, a severe shortage of mental health therapists, treatment options, and access to quality wellness information leaves teens without access to stable and secure mental health support.

When quality wellness information is available, it usually comes with a price - as a subscription model, part of a high-end health plan, or crisis-focused sites built by adults.

Adult wellness habits are shaped during the teenage years. The consequences of failing to address self-discovery, identity formation, and adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, making it difficult to fix, ultimately impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.

PaperRoad combines augmented intelligence (AI), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), data-driven intelligence, and popular Buzzfeed-style quizzes to uncover hidden patterns and insights about teens' well-being and prioritize areas where they need to focus.

Four cards: Mind, Body, Heart, and Soul. 

One Goal: Complete them every day.

The more daily action cards, quizzes, and journal entries completed, the more personalized and detailed a teen's daily science-backed recommendations and "big picture" roadmaps become, helping them start and maintain successful wellness journeys. 

Our 15-minute, science-backed cards, help teens discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to get there.

Body 

Caring for their body and environment can help teens feel better and live longer. Science-backed recommendations on fitness, nutrition, hygiene, and sleep to help teens balance their wellness and care for themselves by staying healthy now and in the future.

Mind

Young people's ability to learn and use knowledge affects their ability to carry out everyday activities, relationships, and overall mental health. PaperRoad tracks and analyzes their experiences and feelings over time using natural language processing (nlp) and live wellness coaches to equip them to handle life's stresses successfully, adapt to change, and thrive in challenging times.

Heart

Scientists are finding that our interactions and relationships with others can drastically affect our health and length of life. PaperRoad helps build positive social habits and peer-led encouragement to gently nudge teens toward their goals and let them make robust support systems and connections that break through isolation and stand the test of time.

Soul

Understanding and making sense of one's life is the core of who teens are and why they do what they do. Daily recommended step-by-step practices using guided prompts and motivational interviewing guide teens into finding their purpose, value, and meaning in life.

How PaperRoad Can Help

PaperRoad instills a lifelong practice of strong daily wellness habits and self-reflection from the teenage years onwards to contribute to a teen's health span and mental health and thereby improve quality and longevity of life.

We do this by:

- Creating Tools that Empower Lifelong Wellness Literacy in Teens 

- Increasing Long-term Confidence, Happiness, and Well-Being Among Teens

- Nurturing and Supporting Teen-Led and Peer-Supported Community 

- Equipping and Educating Teens with High-Quality Wellness Information 

- Promoting Teen Wellness Literacy & Equality through Free and Open Access

PaperRoad is a free and open wellness platform for teens that taps into the power of advanced technologies, behavioral psychology, and community. We encourage a modern, active approach to wellness that helps teens escape the grind, see themselves in entirely new ways, and intervene to make better decisions for lifelong wellness.

PaperRoad is based on the premise and backed up by cutting-edge research that wellness skills can be taught and developed over time. Young people will advocate for themselves and achieve goals when given the opportunity, tools, and resources. 

PaperRoad is explicitly created for teens using teen-led feedback and mentorship because no one understands the teenage mind quite like a teen. We equips teens with personalized practical, emotional, and scientific knowledge across four core pillars of wellness; Mind, Body, Heart, and Soul. 

While the PaperRoad program encourages consistent daily use, it does not penalize or criticize and instead gives teens the necessary information to make the best decision for them. Teens can personalize settings to increase or lower the number of cards accessed daily, although we encourage the four core areas of body, mind, heart, and soul. We understand and acknowledge that some teens may take a more sporadic approach to using the platform. Nevertheless, we will always encourage and support them.

PaperRoad is for Teens

Take a look at what it feels like being a teen in today's world...

Teens feel out of control

We help teens feel more in control of their life by providing personalized tools and guidance that empowers lifelong wellness literacy in teens.

Teens are unhappy

Teens are under tremendous tremendous pressure. We help increase long-term happiness and well-being among teens by helping them build resilience and long-term wellness skills.

Teens are lonely

We help lessen feelings of loneliness by nurturing and supporting teen-led and peer- supported communities that create connections and a sense of belonging.

Teens feel helpless

Teen leadership initiatives include peer mentoring and teen-led moderation to shift teen focus from inner improvement to an outward focus on volunteering and making a difference, furthering their community.

Teens are overwhelmed

We help teens meet their wellness needs by uncovering hidden patterns and insights about teens' well-being and prioritizing areas where they need to focus.

Teens don't have access to quality information

The road to wellness is challenging and full of confusing information, our teen-led wellness library focus and emphasizes the importance of a wellness and how to live well.

Teens don't know where to start

Knowing how to begin is already challenging, and so is consistency when teens need to figure out a plan. We help teens identify and prioritize daily goals.

Most teens don’t struggle to reach their goal; they struggle to understand what their goal is. We help teens escape the grind by identifying and prioritizing daily goals helping them make informed wellness decisions.

PaperRoad uses augmented intelligence to make technology an active partner in teens' lives by supercharging data exploration, enabling teens to make better decisions, and helping them find answers to questions they didn’t even know they should be asking. We take a highly personalized approach to data–gathering by tracking hundreds of wellness points, revealing patterns and interesting correlations without exposing private identifying information. Teens own and control their data, easily opting out of any data points they feel uncomfortable tracking. Research on Apple Health Tracking is clear that people really like tracking their progress and we think teens are no exception.

PaperRoad is here to help!

At PaperRoad we believe well-being shouldn't be a luxury that a lucky few teens can access or afford so we are creating a free and open personal wellness platform. Unless you have a good health plan, spend endless hours researching, or pay for an app membership, most teens have limited access to quality wellness information.

Everything on the PaperRoad platform from our daily action cards and customized books to our worksheets, and method kits, is free to download, allowing teens to continue their wellness journey even when access to phones or the internet is unavailable.

PaperRoad additionally provides a supportive community through teen-led wellness workshops and advises parents and caregivers through teen lead seminars. 

Having just been teens ourselves, our entire team is equipped with recent first hand experience regarding the difficulties and hardships of being a teen in today's world.

PaperRoad evolved out of the covid crisis where our entire team spent our last few years of high school glued to the couch. We found it extremely challenging to stay motivated, work, exercise, or do much of anything except sleep or watch TV. We were completely isolated - and we weren't alone.

Our team at PaperRoad is made up of current undergraduates at Carnegie Mellon. We've seen the continued development of the problems that we have as teenagers continue into college, and sometimes they take a turn for the worse. College not only brings up depression, lack of exercise, motivation, isolation, with a never ending list that only becomes worse -- but when you think about what has gone on within our world within the last four years: social media, societal/family pressure, debt, political influence, Covid, even war. You instantly become completely overwhelmed and troubled by all that one person can go through.

Navigating life as a teen can be incredibly difficult especially if you don't have the proper tools, support, or guidance, and it will only get harder if healthy habits aren't fully developed. 

The last few years have been anything but the best of times and the reality is for teens - things have only gotten worse.

This is exactly why we've created PaperRoad

PaperRoad is a fun and engaging solution that helps teens start and maintain successful wellness journeys, and it's something we all truly wish we had access to earlier in our lives. 

Using the power of advanced technologies to give teens a free, modern, and active approach to wellness that lets them escape the grind, PaperRoad intervenes to help teens make better decisions by organizing and prioritizing daily recommendations and encouraging them to take time for wellness priorities like self-care, reflection, and mindfulness.

PaperRoad’s user testing has been an incredibly positive experience with teens reacting with excitement, even though our interactive design prototype is still in the early stages of development, these reactions and results from teens have been extremely promising. 

Teen Response to PaperRoad:

-Action cards were parts of their day that they realized they “should be doing anyway,” like calling a family member or taking a mindfulness break, but they “kept forgetting” or felt “overwhelmed with things to do like school”. 

- When testing PaperRoad, teens even expressed sentiments such as “wishing [they] had something like this earlier,” “I really love the Three Things  prompts,” and “I love the daily journal, it's so easy and I can do it on the bus to school!” 

The PaperRoad team is working especially hard to develop a thoughtful, safe, barrier-free community where teens can connect, create continuous dialogues, learn helpful strategies, build new support structures, and develop a healthier and more positive view of wellness. 

PaperRoad is a completely new approach to the Health and Wellness industry with nothing like it on the market. PaperRoad combines augmented intelligence (AI), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), data-driven intelligence, popular Buzzfeed-style quizzes, and natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis to continually uncover hidden patterns and insights about teens' well-being and prioritize personalized areas where they need to focus. 

We completely expect PaperRoad to change the market not only because of the platform itself, but because it is completely FREE in an effort to democratize free wellness information for teens.

One Year Later... PaperRoad Team Goals

Strong Prototype for Piloting with a Large Group of Teens

Our team hopes to finalize and perfect PaperRoad, so it can be used as a national digital wellness platform for teens. We are still deep within our prototyping phase making sure that our platform works the way it is intended to. We are continually editing, designing, and revising, but require additional help to bring PaperRoad to its full potential. Within the year, we hope to have a strong first prototype as we intend to pilot it the Boys and Girls Club of New Rochelle and at the Marymount School of New York.

Long-Term Intended Impact of PaperRoad

To Help Teens Escape The Grind By Making Informed Wellness Decisions

PaperRoad helps teens avoid the daily grind by organizing and prioritizing daily recommendations and giving them “permission” to take time for wellness priorities like self-care, reflection, and mindfulness.

To Give Teens Confidence To Help Them Thrive on Their Wellness Journeys

Teens can see their progress in clear easy-to-understand data portraits, including streaks, data correlations, journalling & self-reflection, quiz results, and community connections, that give interesting insight into their well-being. PaperRoad will use these metrics to measure the success of our platform and overall eco system. We will ask selected members through questionnaires and review of usage metrics will themselves serve as proxy; particularly on how much users communicate with their friends on PaperRoad.

To Strengthen Community Connections through Teen-Led Initiatives

As teen participation increases, the stakes and the rewards increase too. Reaching increasingly challenging levels, serving as Teen Ambassadors, or conducting peer-to-peer mentoring can yield access to different levels of communities, monthly workshops, and even recommendations for jobs or college.

To Cross Promote And Share Wellness Resources

We believe in teaching and sharing knowledge, not hoarding it. We seek out and promote science-backed, data-driven opinions from the best and brightest thought leaders and wellness experts  for teens on how to live and what it means to lead a good life. We want to become a central clearinghouse of emergency resources, and contacts promoting existing wellness organizations.

To Host Workshops to Shift Wellness Perceptions Among Teens

Central to the PaperRoad community are workshops and Teen Ambassador programs. The programs facilitates wellness leadership and achievement opportunities, especially among high school teens who need volunteer work to satisfy graduation or college applications. Community-driven campaigns can range from moderating conversation pits, social media campaigns, developing content, hosting workshops (human-centered design toolkit!) or webinars, peer-to-peer mentoring, parent workshops, or any other volunteer opportunities they can imagine. Community-led growth fosters teens' need for connection and provides a sense of belonging and achievement, which brings value and improves well-being.

PaperRoad uses augmented intelligence (AI), popular cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), data-driven intelligence, and Buzzfeed-style quizzes to uncover hidden patterns and insights about teens' well-being and prioritize areas where they need to focus.

Seen within:

Quizzes: PaperRoad uses popular Buzzfeed-style quizzes to capture data and create tools that are active partners in teens’ lives through augmented and data intelligence.

Roadmaps: Personalized roadmaps are guided wellness journeys compiled using answers from quiz results. Roadmaps are designed to share multiple strategies and perspectives with teens, not provide a strict "how to" plan for wellness.

Journal: Allows teenagers to be more in tune with their emotions and mental health on a consistent, daily basis and immediately alerts teens if their journal entries show signs of declining mental health through natural language processing and sentiment analysis. The journal will provide quick and effective daily journaling prompts for teenagers to reflect on their mental health and daily habits as journaling empowers teens to live happier, healthier, and more meaningful lives. 

Data Portraits: PaperRoad combines augmented and data intelligence with cognitive behavioral therapy to uncover hidden patterns and interesting and unusual insights about teens' well-being.

Our solution hasn't launched yet, however our four team members use the app on their own time and find it incredibly helpful as they plan their day. 

Within one year of PaperRoad's launch, we expect to be have a strong first prototype as we intend to pilot PaperRoad at the Boys and Girls Club of New Rochelle and the Marymount School of New York for around 3,500 teens.

Our main goal is for PaperRoad to become a national free wellness platform for teens.

Access to Design, Development & Data Intelligence Support

We need help to create a secure, and scaleable wellness platform and assistance with data-driven intelligence  to identify data insights that would be of most interest to teens. We also need an unconventional registration system for teens that requires no self-identifying information to allow them to save their quiz results.

Access To Others With Similar Impact Goals 

We are very interested in partnering with organizations like HopeLab and GGSC. Access to research and input on best practices to reduce bias in our quizzes and emergency resources for teens, such as hotlines and toolkits, would be invaluable. We would need help navigating permissions for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Merchandise Partners For Rewards Program

Example: Requesting paper and printing services from paper mills, like Mohawk paper, to be used for motivational cards, posters, or printing of personalized books.

Prospective Investors And Implementing Partners

We hope to receive additional funding from federal government and state investment through the National Institute of Health and CDC support community programs in the field of lifestyle behavior and public health.

This will pay for:

1. Hosting and maintenance of the platform to keep it free, open and secure,

2. Technical development costs and scaling to create an app and online presence

3. Salary for teen support team to keep PaperRoad nurturing and active

Girls and Boys Club (New Rochelle, NY and Pittsburgh, PA) - Testing/Piloting PaperRoad

Marymount School of New York - Testing/Piloting PaperRoad

Carnegie Mellon University - Research and building PaperRoad

At PaperRoad we believe well-being shouldn't be a luxury that a lucky few teens can access or afford, so we are creating a free and open personal wellness platform. Unless you have a good health plan, spend endless hours researching, or pay for an app membership, most teens have limited access to quality wellness information.

Everything on the PaperRoad platform from our daily action cards and customized books to our worksheets, and method kits, is free.

In order to achieve this we will generate revenue through the following:

Teen-Led Wellness Workshops

Research shows that peer-to-peer outreach is the best way to reduce the stigma and misinformation that surrounds wellness and mental health and encourages teens to seek help if they need it.

Parent & Caregiver Seminars 

Parents and caregivers are especially interested in the wellbeing of their children as it is difficult to navigate raising a child in tandem with the rapid evolution of technology. Having a seminar that is also led by teens (or recent college admitted students) is helpful to get an insight into how their children think.

Educator and Youth Counseling Training Programs 

Teen Focus Groups & Market Research Services 

Industry, Federal, & State Grants

Federal government and state investment through the National Institute of Health and CDC support community programs in the field of lifestyle behavior, public health, and chronic disease.

Donations

PaperRoad plans to rely on Industry, Federal, & State Grants, donations, and seminars for parents and caregivers.