Touch Grass: Helping Kids Connect IRL
Launching May 20, 2025
A wellbeing app designed to help kids with social-emotional growth while providing built-in safety and transparency for parents.
Designed for real-world agency. We spoke with parents, kids, and developmental psychologists to get to the root of what’s missing in today’s digital childhood.
As Co-founder and Head of Product, I led the concept, research, UX, and GTM strategy.
ROLE
Co-founder and Head of Product
RELEASE DATE
May 2025
Problem
In May 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health crisis.
Kids are spending more time online, often at the expense of real-world interactions. Parents want safety. Kids want freedom. We aimed to create a solution that encourages kids to engage in offline activities while providing parents with the reassurance of safety and oversight.
Solution
Touch Grass is a platform designed to help kids and teens step away from screens and into real-world friendships. Built with empathy, research, and a touch of Gen Alpha humor, it empowers young people to create and join in-person meetups—like park hangs, game nights, and weekend adventures—while keeping parents in the loop.
Core Features
Mood Logging: Quick emotional check-ins that feed into optional parent dashboards.
Event Creation: Plan meetups tagged by mood and interest (e.g., food, movement, study).
Parental Approval: Lightweight, opt-in approval and notifications for transparency.
In-App Messaging: Secure chats with built-in content moderation.
Post-Event Feedback: Optional check-ins and reflection moments to improve connection quality.
Impact
An MVP that secured seed funding and enabled app launch – May 20, 2025
Research & Approach
We conducted interviews with parents, kids (ages 9–14), counselors, and behavioral health experts. From this, I developed two core personas: the shy, disconnected tween and the involved, safety-conscious parent. I mapped user journeys for both roles, balancing frictionless UX with essential safety.
Execution & Timeline
We ran the MVP process in six lean phases:
Discovery & Research
Solution Ideation
Information Architecture
Prototyping & Testing
Visual Design & Feedback
Final MVP Specification
Each sprint prioritized both speed and intentionality—shipping with focus while keeping space for critical emotional and safety considerations.
I am very eager for Touchgrass to launch. As a clinical psychologist and a mother of young children in our current digitized times, I am more mindful than ever about our youth’s increase in screen time use and decrease in personal interactions, as well as the effects it is having on their health. Children, and parents, need meaningful connections through personal, face-to-face interactions, so the mission of Touch Grass to encourage and facilitate this, is promising. Touchgrass will be a useful tool in helping our kids experience childhood through the cultivating interactions parents also had, which will not only foster their social skills but enhance their emotional development.
— Claudia R, Child Clinical Psychologist
Outcomes & Success Metrics
By launch, we aim to track:
Event creation and attendance rates
Mood check-in streaks and emotional trend improvements
Parental engagement without friction
Growth in peer-to-peer supportive actions (tagging, replies, event invites)