SMILE - About Us

We are Cadette Girl Scouts from Troop 1798, and we care deeply about mental health, especially for teens like us. Each of us has faced our own challenges, and we’ve seen our friends struggle too. We know how hard it can be to find the right help, and how overwhelming it feels when you don’t know where to turn.

Globally, one in seven teens experiences a mental health disorder. That’s not just a statistic—it’s real people, real pain, and too often, not enough support. Many teens don’t yet have the skills to handle these challenges alone, and the resources that do exist are often hard to find or understand.

That’s why we created SMILE: Supportive Materials for Improving Life Experiences—a website filled with trusted, teen-friendly tools and information on topics like anxiety, depression, ADHD, and stress. We’ve organized everything in a way that’s easy to explore, judgment-free, and built with care.

As part of our Silver Award project, we’re also creating printed folders with quick-access tools and QR codes to this site, so supportive adults like teachers, counselors, or Scout leaders can put help directly in teens’ hands when it matters most.

We’re not doctors or therapists, we’re just teens who care, helping other teens feel a little less alone.

Hi, my name is Zoey. I’m 14 years old, and like many others, I’ve struggled with mental health. Throughout my life, I’ve dealt with anxiety. It’s had a big impact on me, mostly making things harder, but using tools like the ones listed on this website has made a real difference. Anxiety doesn’t just disappear, but having resources, strategies, or even just a better understanding of what it is can really help you manage it.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. At first, I didn’t fully understand what that meant. I knew the definition, but I didn’t really get the “why.” As I worked more on this project, I started to connect the dots. I still don’t understand everything, but it feels like a step in the right direction.

When we first came up with the idea to build a mental health website for teens, it sounded amazing, and it was. I’ve learned so much about myself, and I hope this helps others too. Life isn’t always easy, but I truly believe it can get easier.

Hi! My name is Alisha and I'm 14 years old. Like many others out there, I sometimes struggle with my mental health. Anxiety and stress can be overwhelming, especially when I can't find a way to help contain it. That’s why SMILE has helped me along the journey of creating it. Instead of letting my emotions get the best of me, I find myself coming to this website to help focus and be able to understand how i feel.

It’s especially hard for me to understand and talk about my problems from experiences when I’ve tried to and been disregarded. With this project I felt seen and it made me realize that even if I feel uncomfortable talking to people close to me about these things, there are resources to help me understand and appreciate myself more.

SMILE is more than just a project for me. It’s a way for me to reflect and understand myself and try to help all teens understand that they’re not alone in what they feel.

Hi! My name is Lydia and I'm 14 years old. Like many others, sometimes I struggle with my mental health. Anxiety has been the biggest struggle for me and it can feel really overwhelming sometimes, it can be the most overwhelming when I don't have something to distract myself or use to cope. That's how SMILE can be helpful, it has links to websites that can help me wind down and distract myself from whatever is making me anxious.

It is really hard for me to talk about what is going on, I typically find myself bottling up my emotions and ignoring them. With SMILE I have resources I can use to cope and talk about what's going on. This website can help me take time to think about what's going on and help me feel heard and, acknowledged.

When we first thought about creating SMILE I was a little bit skeptical, but the more I've worked on this the more I realize how this website can help me and many others with their mental health. I now love the idea we had and I'm so glad we followed through and created SMILE.

Hi. My name is Sarina, and I’m 14 years old. As a teenager, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by just how close adulthood is. Never feeling prepared or good enough to handle the future has been a recurring struggle for me – one that I felt I had to work through alone. The resources on SMILE, especially mindfulness, helped me learn to live in the present instead of catastrophizing for the future. Life is tough, but it doesn’t have to be lonely; hopefully, SMILE will help others understand more about what they’re going through and be a catalyst for people to begin improving their lives.