TALKING ABOUT...

Chill Pill for teens and young women

There seems to be an app for all our needs these days, and health is no exception.

There are more than

350 000 of them, according to a report from IQVIA. Chill Pill is one of them. This app aims to provide psychological support to young girls and women through discussion groups.

There is often a perception that focus groups are reserved for specific issues – a notion Hayley Caddes hopes to eradicate with her new app.

The idea was to create a safe, welcoming online community for teenage girls and young women to talk about their mental health and support each other.

To create Chill Pill, Caddes drew on her own experience with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), whose meetings she attended aged 16 to 22.

“AA has been around for almost 100 years, is the most successful mental health community in the world, and is run by alcoholics, for alcoholics,” she said in a statement.

“There’s a lot to learn from the AA model.”

The application follows the same pattern: Chill Pill members should only talk about their own experiences, not mock, not criticise and not judge. Nor is there any question of giving advice to other users of the application.

“Being part of this community means feeling welcomed and safe no matter what walk of life you are from or what past traumas you’ve had,” says a 16-year-old member.

The community is made up of adolescent girls and young women, as well as members of Generation Z who identify as non-binary or gender fluid.

These populations have seen their mental health deteriorate with the pandemic, much more than older generations.

The app, available on iOS, now boasts nearly 500 active members.

Caddes and her team hope to reach more than just an English-speaking audience. –