Rewiring Emotional Intelligence, Deeper Than Skin

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

HerCampus’ 2025 survey of 500+ Gen Z reveals a generation under chronic pressure: 95% say mental health impacts their ability to function, yet only 36% see a therapist. Meanwhile, 53% turn to skincare for emotional support—second only to friendship—but just 2% say it actually helps, on par with eating, alcohol, and drugs. This reflects an absence of care. Gen Z are left coping without tools that enable real change. Most resources are intervention-based, white-centered, clinical, or behaviorally misaligned. We bridge that gap by integrating behavioral science and psychodermatology, embedding AI-guided co-regulation into what youth already do. Daily skincare becomes an accessible moment of interoceptive awareness, nervous system support, and cognitive rewiring.

Following successful internal pilots with three Junior Advisory Board (JAB) cohorts and insights from our 2023 Emotional Wellbeing Report, this grant will support the public expansion of our hybrid emotional care model—bridging digital tools with physical self-care—to meet the needs of Gen Z in LA County. The initiative includes four integrated components:

1. Care Integration: We embed voice-guided exercises and visualization prompts into physical routines to support nervous system co-regulation. Ex. Secure Attachment Comfort Serum+ with guided skincare ritual for healthier attachment patterns. Participants create “emotional archives” that strengthen self-awareness and regulation through daily use.

2. 2025/2026 Emotional Wellbeing Report: We’ll conduct our hallmark research measuring emotional shifts and identity markers. Our data shows those who feel self-worth are 6x more likely to see themselves as beautiful—affirming our psychodermatology research.

3. Co-Creation with LA2050 Volunteers: Volunteers join expanded JAB cohorts with mental health experts to co-develop tools and train prompts for trauma-informed Ai. Past alumni now lead wellness initiatives in their local communities.

4. Community Activation: We’ll take our multisensory pop-up experiences that blend music, skincare, and emotional education for psychosomatic activation on the road, gathering real-time feedback that shapes and personalizes the system.

If our work is successful, youth across Los Angeles County will build emotional decision-making, pattern recognition, and body-based self-awareness through daily care routines. They’ll learn to interpret what shows up on their skin as a signal of deeper emotional needs—connecting mental health, stress, and physical wellbeing. This fosters a healthier relationship between body and self-worth. On the systemic side, anonymized behavioral data will fuel faster, more relevant resource innovation and emotional support tools tailored to Gen Z and Gen Alpha replacing outdated, large-scale surveys. The result: real-time insights into the drivers shaping youth identity, and a shift toward preventative care and early detection of psychological and physiological health for families, practitioners, schools, and policymakers.