Background: Efficacious mental health and wellbeing interventions for LGBTQ+ youth have had limited reach given their delivery as time-intensive, in-person sessions. Digital interventions may facilitate reach, yet there is little research examining their efficacy, and few have been codesigned with LGBTQ+ youth of color, who face multiple intersecting forms of discrimination. 

Aims: What does it look like to co-create and test a digital wellbeing tool with and for diverse LGBTQ+ teens? In collaboration with UPenn researchers, Hopelab connected with hundreds of LGBTQ+ youth to create imi, a free, online wellbeing tool to support LGBTQ+ identity affirmation, grounded in minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003) and the transactional model of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). In this session, we’ll share our process and learnings. 

Method: In the discovery and design phase of our work, Hopelab engaged in a co-creation process with over 300 LGBTQ+ youth, 61% of whom were youth of color. We then tested imi’s initial acceptability and efficacy in a randomized controlled pilot with 270 LGBTQ+ youth, of whom 78% identified as racial/ethnic minorities.  Finally, we launched imi publicly, testing outreach strategies, and tracking usage statistics to assess tool adoption and retention.

Results: Our co-creation sessions highlighted the importance of centering intersectional identities and designing interactive ways to consume information and learn coping techniques. The product ultimately included direct contributions from LGBTQ+ youth, including videos, personal stories, and artwork.  Our pilot demonstrated that LGBTQ+ teens randomly assigned to receive imi showed significantly greater improvement in positive coping skills and adaptive stress appraisals than those assigned to a resource-list control.  Data since our launch underscores the importance of targeted Instagram ads for reaching LGBTQ+ teens.

Conclusion Our research suggests that free, digital tools like imi appeal to and are widely used by LGBTQ+ youth.  Our research provides a guide to co-creation best practices, how to build a digital wellbeing solution evidence-base, and how to put equity goals in practice.