5 takeaways from our work collaborating with young influencers
By Kaitlyn LaBonte, LMSW
August 15, 2024
The youth experience is always changing, but one thing that stays consistent is the need for youth-supporting professionals to meet young people where they are. In pursuit of this goal, Healthy Teen Network and Baltimore City Health Department partnered to create a youth-led sexual health influencer campaign that normalizes sexual health conversations and promotes Title X clinics through the project, Y-SURGE. The project’s overarching goal is to enhance use of and satisfaction with Baltimore City clinic services among all young people.
My role in the project is to build the capacity of the youth sexual health influencers. By capacity, we mean providing a foundation of support for these young people to develop their content. This includes influencer briefs with suggested prompts to get them started, tips on integrating recent trends into their posts, and consistent celebration of their creative efforts, and being there to answer questions when they feel stuck.These campaigns not only promote local Baltimore clinics but are also an effort to destigmatize sexual health conversations among young people, increase the youth friendliness of these clinics, and provide young people with skills they can use far beyond their time of collaboration.
Online spaces are highly frequented by young people, with young people today being the first generation to truly grow up with social media. Research supports that social media is the first stop for news for many young people: Deloitte released research in 2022 that revealed that 51% of teens (age 14-18) get their information from social media. A recent article on Generation Z, Values & Media further details that, when exploring social media outlets, young people value authentic, peer-driven news sources—such as influencers—in a media community that is overrun by “fake news.”
In a reality where social media is such a consistent news source in day-to-day life, it is imperative we meet young people where they are to provide sexual health education and destigmatize conversations around sexual health—and what better way to do so than collaborating with young influencers themselves?
In a reality where social media is such a consistent news source in day-to-day life, it is imperative we meet young people where they are to provide sexual health education and destigmatize conversations around sexual health—and what better way to do so than collaborating with young influencers themselves? Check out these key takeaways I’ve learned over the past 2 years working with sexual health influencers to foster a vibrant online space for young people to create.
Creativity takes safety.
Safety isn’t achieved overnight; it’s built through rapport. Youth-supporting professionals must establish a foundation of creative partnerships by prioritizing the privacy of young people, respecting the confidentiality of LGBTQ+ youth, and fostering an environment that encourages open and comfortable discussions about sexual health—even if this means delaying discussions on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) topics until trust is established.
At the outset of our influencer campaigns, we delved into sexual health topics. However, we soon realized it was more effective to first develop their influencer skills and ensure they felt comfortable posting about a variety of subjects before tackling the more vulnerable task of destigmatizing sexual health. Transparency guides all our communications: influencers are allowed to remove posts if they no longer wish to feature them, and we encourage them to share only what they are comfortable with.
Creativity takes trust.
When working in online spaces, it takes time for young people to understand you are a trusted adult. Throughout our time working with sexual health influencers, we have explored various methods to establish trust with young people. Some things we’ve learned along the way are to promptly and fairly compensate them for their contributions (and I’m talking, immediately after they make those posts!), promote creative freedom without censorship, and adapt communication styles to meet the preferences of young people. Something as simple as texting updates and celebrating an innovative post can go a long way.
Creativity takes knowledge.
The information shared is important, but it is equally important to share knowledge in a youth-friendly manner. We’ve worked hard to make sure our information is fun, friendly, and full of plain language while also actively researching the most up-to-date techniques in the influencer space. Sometimes, you may try to make clever influencer brief and quickly realize a young person’s suggestion of “get your safe freak on” is better than anything you could dream up—a beautiful part of the collaboration journey.
Creativity takes community.
It is important to foster community among young people you partner with. Part of this is welcoming youth partners into your organizational and project communities. Working with our larger project team, we are very intentional about integrating the influencers feedback beyond their role as an influencer. These young people have provided feedback on the youth friendliness of our advertising campaigns, clinic environments, social media, and websites; engaged in focus groups; and completed mystery shopper phone calls. We also commit to checking in with our influencers, allowing them space to give feedback on the prompts that we provide. This feedback is currently being integrated into our training design and plan for our final project year.
Creativity takes commitment.
When partnering with young people, we recognize we are supporting the next generation of change-makers. We learn a LOT from them, and we want them to be in the best position possible for success beyond our collaboration. This is why it’s important to teach young people lasting skills, so they can continue to find success long after our initial support.
As we approach the last year of our project, we are intentionally shaping our influencer brief and influencer tips to support these young people in developing their own brand and solidifying influencer techniques, so they can continue to a bright future of influencing—wherever that might be.
All of this to say, the experts on the experiences of young people are young people themselves. These points above are simply starting points in figuring out how to best cultivate creative spaces when collaborating with young people.
All of this to say, the experts on the experiences of young people are young people themselves. These points above are simply starting points in figuring out how to best cultivate creative spaces when collaborating with young people.
Would you or someone you know be a good candidate for our next cycle of sexual health influencers? Follow our Instagram to know when the application re-opens!
Learn more about the Baltimore City Health Clinics our sexual health influencers promote:
Kaitlyn finds purpose in collaborating with, connecting, and encouraging like-minded people towards shared goals. From community level, youth-focused development to cross-cultural sexual health education, Kaitlyn applies an ecological lens to her work and can be heard saying, “research-informed practice scratches my brain just right.” Read more about Kaitlyn.
