The mental health issues faced by Gen Z are a heavy weight to bear. From an ongoing climate crisis to the resurgence of monkeypox, financial insecurity, and unprecedented political unrest, there’s no denying the pressure that many of those transitioning into adulthood may feel about their futures. In fact, according to the American Psychology Association, “more than nine in 10 Gen Z adults said they have experienced at least one physical or emotional symptom because of stress, with only half of Gen Zs feeling like they do enough to manage their stress.” But, that’s where we step in.
Insert Glia - TikTok’s first wellbeing publication made for Gen Z, by Gen Z.
A virtual safe space for the most stressed out generation, Glia leverages the power of psychology to produce educational content through the approachable lens of pop culture to an audience devoted to self-care and healing.
This Mental Health Month, we overhauled our channel with content that helps:
pour into the minds and hearts of the next-generation of parents, entrepreneurs, creators, and leaders,
destigmatize taboo topics that have been deemed inappropriate in public forums,
infuse mental health conversations with facts,
foster an online community for guidance and peer support, and
offer the proper tools for young adults to build resilience, life skills, and encourage help-seeking
At Kyra Originals, our small but mighty editorial team has built a strong ecosystem of content that is influencing a generation of young adults, establishing authority in the realms of beauty, fashion, interiors, and wellness. For Glia, they source key topics that are increasingly popular among Gen Z audiences to strike critically important conversations about mind and body wellness. For Mental Health Awareness Month, these core videos are centered around: the connection between physical and mental health, the power of being outside, and decoding the differences between anxiety or panic – the former of which Gen Zs are more likely to report experiencing than any other generation – according to the American Psychological Association.
The name Glia derives from the connective tissue between our nervous systems and our brains -- the literal cells that keep us pumping on a daily basis. And so we too want to act as that connective tissue for Gen Z -- one that's combining the power of your emotional, physical, spiritual and medical wellbeing.
Born in the midst of a technological boom, Gen Z is the first generation to become digitally-native, making it imperative for safe online communities to exist. And while the pandemic has displayed the innate human need for connectedness, Gen Zers are leading the front showing us how to establish meaningful connections in virtual settings. And what better platform in 2022 than TikTok? According to Digital Info World, TikTok is now the #1 most downloaded app in the world, and more time is now spent on TikTok than Facebook and Instagram combined. Among android users, TikTok is leading the front with nearly 29 hours spent on the app each month.
Through visually captivating and digestible content, Glia set the stage for conversations to ensue, effectively bringing awareness to the importance of young adult mental health and eliminating the stigma around such topics.
The videos were pulsed out throughout the month of May, fortunately coinciding with the start of summer where younger adults and teenagers are out of school and away from their peers, counselors, and support groups. With timeless and serviceable information that applies to all TikTok users, Glia’s mental health content continues making its way onto users’ ‘for you’ pages with increased engagement across all videos.
The Mental Health Month content on Glia accumulated nearly 800K organic views across 7 videos with an average engagement rate of 13%--more than double the average on TikTok. With editorially led content, Glia secured the highest engagement rate among Kyra Originals’ channels (Rag Report and 4Walls)who boast high follower counts as longer established TikTok publications. Since then, impressions continue to climb and followers have skyrocketed, as more Gen Z TikTok users prioritize making space for wellness content on their feeds. Since May, Glia’s follower count has increased by 20% with monthly views skyrocketing with a 272% increase…a testament for the growing demand for feel-good, snackable content.
