Redwood student starts organization to help spark change

By: Ayla Ozturk

Chloe Sills, ’24 is a student at Redwood High School. She is passionate about giving students opportunities to use their voices.

She recently founded an organization called ‘Within Teens’. The organization’s main focus is giving the teenagers of Tulare County opportunities to use their voices to create change.

Sills is pushing for mental health advocacy. Many teenagers struggle with their mental health, especially in the modern high school climate.

She says, “‘Within Teens’ was inspired through a foundation that I’m in called Tulare County Youth Council where we are volunteers for TCOE [Tulare County Office of Education] who usually hosts events where speakers go out.”

She continues, “Every time that we’ve had speakers go out to schools ever since I was in like, middle school, elementary, I’ve wanted to be one of those speakers.”

Compared to past generations, Generation Z has alarming rates of mental health issues and addiction, considering their ages.

According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 82% of teenagers know somebody who smokes, drinks, or does drugs during the school day.

The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs [a federal youth agency] reports that 49.5% of teenagers meet the criteria for a mental health disorder.

With these statistics, it’s very important that teenagers have the ability to start the conversation of how much these issues affect them and their peers.

“I think it’s good for teens our age to finally start getting involved, especially through how much we’ve gone through and how much needs to be talked about,” Sills says.

Sills’s goal for ‘Within Teens’ is to make sure teenagers have the ability to start these conversations and make their voices heard.

“We’ve [the organization] talked a lot about getting our voices heard because a lot of the things we focus on is like mental health, bullying, and we kind of want to get our stories heard because I feel like there’s so much that teens go through,” Sills explains.

Sills feels that adult motivational speakers can’t appeal to teenagers and their experiences because the modern teenage experience is a lot different than it was in the past.

She says, “We have assemblies and there’s a 28-year-old guy talking about how he lived in the streets, or his football career, and you’ve probably zoned out because you’re like ‘This guy is like 15 years older than me why am I listening to him?'”

Sills wants students to know that there are other people their age who have these issues and that they aren’t alone.

The organization is dedicated to showing students that they aren’t alone in their struggles with their personal experiences.

“I personally have gone through anxiety, and we have found ways that can help,” Sills expresses.

She adds, “I know other people in our group that go through different things that can get their voices heard. We want to just let everyone know that they’re not alone.”

Students can better relate to speakers their own age and Sills is determined to make that happen.

“They [the students] recognize them as their friends, their classmates, their students, and people that they know and can actually relate to because they’ve been through times that we can relate to more than a 40-year-old man,” Sills says.

In addition to working with TCOE, the group is writing their stories to be put on the organization’s upcoming website.

COVID-19 has been an obstacle, but the group is reaching out to schools and hosting Zoom meetings in the meanwhile.

Teenagers have a lot of responsibilities- whether it be sports, getting into college, keeping their grades up, or even a job, they have to balance it out.

With colleges getting more and more competitive every year, students need to make sure that they have a chance to get into a good college or university.

This can be very stressful and has a big impact on the mental health of high school students.

Sills wants to make sure that students know it’s okay to not be okay, especially in the modern school climate where there is a lot of pressure to get a college education.

In all, Sills hopes to make an impact on students’ mental health and to get their voices out there.

You can find the organization on Instagram @within_teens and on their upcoming website.

Tags: ayla ozturk, chloe sills, gopo, government and politics, mental health, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, rhs, tcoe, tulare county office of education, visalia ca, within teens