Euphoria rushes over me as my eyes dart across the screen.
It’s the same feeling I had when I first brought my dog home or when I took a sip of the best bubble tea I’ve ever had. I grip my hands in excitement and rush out to the parking lot to call my mom. My words, my message, and my passion for teens’ digital health are no longer confined to a Google Doc.
My first portal response I helped work on for the Center of Excellence has been published on the official American Academy of Pediatrics website!
My name is Junnie Kim (she/her), and I am a rising junior in college and a research intern at SMAHRT. The team has played a significant role in helping me discover my passion for adolescent health, to the extent that I created my own major in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. Now, I plan on dedicating my college years to understanding how children transition physically, mentally, and socially into full-fledged adults.
Before joining SMAHRT, I had a completely different understanding of social media’s impact on adolescent health. Initially, I wanted to pursue social media research because I was concerned about the negative effects of social media on adolescent mental health. Now that I’ve spent almost half a year here, I’ve learned about the effects of social media I would never have imagined – including potential benefits to adolescent health.
Being at SMAHRT has opened many doors for me. I am now researching for the Center of Excellence of the American Academy of Pediatrics, coding social media data to identify how adolescents post about health behaviors, and pursuing an independent research project examining period pain content in social media.
In addition to the professional opportunities, I am incredibly grateful for the SMAHRT community. All the mentors at SMAHRT are here to build you up and support you. When I’ve hit a wall in my work, I know I can turn to someone from the team and find support, like bouncing ideas off one another. I feel supported at SMAHRT, both professionally and personally.
If you’re considering getting involved in research, I cannot recommend it enough. There will be growing pains – your research question ideas won’t work out, your bacteria won’t grow (or things you didn’t want will grow on it), or you will find yourself in a place where you don’t see how your research project can continue. Surprisingly, it’s through these moments that you see the fruit of your labor – you find a new angle to approach the question, you try the experiment again and identify exciting findings, or you see your work on the website of your dream organization. Your mentors and teammates hoist you up, motivating you to try again.
My journey at SMAHRT has been transformative, shaping my understanding of social media’s role in adolescent health. The journey is just as important as the destination. I look forward to being challenged, deepening my understanding of digital health, and continuing to facilitate my friendships with team members.