inspiring minds

Using Media to Uplift and Inspire: When to Tune In, Not Out.

December 20, 2011 by Amy Jussel 2 Comments

Dec. 20, 2011 True confessions, it’s been a heckuva challenging year, and it got me thinking about what different people do to bootstrap themselves out of adversity in its many forms whether it’s “first world” stress, third world crisis, health, home or holiday blues. I turned to our SY advisory board child development specialist, Dr. Robyn Silverman and pointed the ‘whatcha … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Cheer for the cheerless, child slavery, CNN Heroes, coping skills, Do Good, Do Something, Facebook suicide reporting tool, GEMSGIRLS, Gen Y, Gen Z, Holiday blues, human trafficking, Inspire Foundation, inspiring minds, intervention, ISIS Advocates for Youth, Kids Are Heroes, Kids health, kids role models, Love146, Media-Influence-Kids, mental health, philanthropy, positive media, resilience, sexual health, social media activism, student stress, teen-suicide-prevention, teens depression, Tune In Not Out, tweens, youth angst, youth outreach, youth resources, youth support

Harry Potter Alliance: Using Pop Culture Pervasiveness Positively

July 17, 2011 by Amy Jussel 1 Comment

July 17, 2011 No, I haven’t seen the Harry Potter grand finale yet.Yes, it’s been covered from every angle, dominating Twitter streams, Facebook status lines and yielding the largest weekend box office on record with one out of four tickets sold going ka-ching for the wizard boy.And maybe it'll be worthy of the 3D hyped up media zeal, but like the Twilight series or any other … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Counter-marketing, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Amy-Jussel, Andrew Slack, blockbuster movies, change agents, changing the channel of influence, Climate Crisis Horcrux, Darkness of Darfur, digital activism, Dumbledore's Army, fandom, Gen Y, Harry and the Potters, Harry Potter Alliance, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have fun do good, Helping Haiti Heal, HP Alliance.org, HPA, HPAlliance, human rights, inspiring minds, JK Rowling, JK Rowling's Radiohead moment, kids-media, largest weekend boxoffice, Leaky Con 2011, make a difference, Media-Influence-Kids, media-literacy, Mobilizing Youth, Pottermore, Quidditch, reach and teach, send out a howler, social change, social justice, social media activism, social media mobilization, spark change, summer hit movies, teaching moments, The weapon we have is love, Twilight saga, world changing

Happy 15th B-day: TEDxTeen & CEO of Lil’ MDGs Dylan Mahalingam!

August 2, 2010 by Amy Jussel 4 Comments

Aug 2, 2010 As I opened my Facebook to check messages from GWLN's Global Leaders for Justice organizers who I’ll be working with tomorrow and Thursday at SCU mentoring inspiring projects from all over the world, I scanned the 'birthdays' sidebar. Keeping with the global theme, I was alerted to change agent Dylan Mahalingam’s 15th birthday today…I KNEW I had to give a huge … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Changemakers, Dylan Mahalingam, ensemble cast, GenV, Global Leaders for Justice, GWLN, inspiring minds, Inspiring-Teens, justice, Kids Are Heroes, leadership, Lil' MDGs, LilMDGs, Millenials Changing America, Millenium Development Goals, MTV Think, Nestle, New Hampshire, philanthropy, positive social change, reality shows, Ripple Effect, Santa Clara University, storytelling, Ted Talks, TEDxTeen, Transmedia, Very best in youth, WLW, Women Leaders for the world, Young-People-Who-Rock, youth service america, YPWR

Blame Drew’s Cancer For My Attitude of Gratitude

August 8, 2009 by Amy Jussel 15 Comments

August 8, 2009 Who IS this hipster? Meet Drew Olanoff. Media geek. Mobile guru. Inspiration. Yesterday I wrote about kids' propensity to get their yucks at someone else's expense fostering an 'ouch, I can relate to that' empathy to bring humor to each life lesson... Today I want to focus on one of my favorite themes of 'turning a negative into a positive' and using new … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Nutrition & Wellness, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: #BlameDrewsCancer, 23 and me, 23andme.com, 9-9-09, ACS, American Cancer Society, battling cancer, Blame Drew's Cancer, Blame everything on cancer, Blame-a-thon, BlameAThon, camraderie, Cancer, cancer support, cause marketing, CauseCast, chemo, coping skills, diagnosis, digital activism, disease, DNA, Drew Olanoff, FML, fundraising, genetics, hashtag, Health 2.0, Hodgkin's Lymphoma, HopeLab, inspiring minds, Lance Armstrong, Live Strong, LiveStrong, net2thinktank, nonprofit, PA, Pittsburgh, positive attitude, positive thinking, ReMission, resilience, social-media, The Big C, Twitter, UGC, user generated content, virtual friends

This Video Sings Volumes About Snap Judgment in Media

April 14, 2009 by Amy Jussel 7 Comments

April 14, 2009 Our appearance-based culture has become increasingly coarse, cynical and stereotyped, judging people in rapidfire profiling more often than any mindful Malcolm Gladwell style ‘Blink’ of rapid cognition. Such was the case when 48 year old Susan Boyle took the stage as the audience of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ rolled their eyes in ‘puhleeeeze’ mockery with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Emerging trends & STEM, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Nutrition & Wellness, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: a star is born, appearance, body-positive, Britains Got Talent, bullying, can't judge a book by its cover, chanteuse, cynics, heroes, I Dream a Dream, inspiring minds, judgment, Kids, Les Mis, Les Miserables, Les Miz, media heroes, Pop-Culture, role models, Simon Cowell, singers, skeptics, Susan Boyle, Viral Videos, voice talent, West Lothian, youth