Zach Gottlieb - My Spark - Gen Z Wellness

Hi, I'm Zach Gottlieb. I'm 16 years old. I'm a rising junior. I'm the founder of Talk with Zach, and this is my Spark. So Talk with Zach came about because I actually lost my grandfather at the beginning of COVID It was the second week, and it really affected me, but the message that I was getting was be strong, you can get through this. And I noticed that that's not how you should deal with grief. And I noticed that it was really hard for people my age, and honestly all ages, to talk about what we feel and our emotions and what we go through. And I know that teens go through so much, and I really wanted to change that. So I— that was one of my main inspirations for starting Talk with Zach. It's a place for teens to connect and talk about things that we're feeling and thinking experiencing but not necessarily talking about. And it's just a place where they could feel that they could be vulnerable and feel like they're not going to be judged and feel like they're going to be supported and know that they're not alone in whatever they're going through. I think connection is really important, and building this community will really help teens find others like them and then also alleviate their problems by knowing that they're not the only ones going through what they're going through and also educating them and giving them strategies to get through it. Finding your passion is really the most important thing, and one way to really do that is by exploring different things, going outside of your comfort zone. I went out of my comfort zone when starting Talk with Zach. Mental health and emotional wellness is so stigmatized, and I had no idea how not only my friends but everyone in the world, anyone seeing it would react. And I was really surprised that I got a very positive response. And I think that all of you should really take that message to heart, and it's just that if you take a risk, there's a chance that it could be really successful, and if you don't take it, you'll never know what could have been.