Connecting Teen Parents to Community
Designing a two-sided event discovery and planning platform that helps Texas teen parents find community and gives social workers the tools to build it, grounded in empathy-driven research and a commitment to making complex tasks simple.
Role:
UX Designer
Duration:
Jan. 2025 - Apr. 2025
Guided By:
Collin Cole
Team:
Grace Vargas, Haley Haas, Luke Rathbun
I led user research and discussion, and visually represented our findings and data through the initial research section of our project. Post the research, my deliverables for the IXD class (led by Collin Cole) were two app concepts that further explored potential solutions to our key findings from the first section, the later of the two dived into community and resource building solutions and is in focus here.
WAYU2 was designed to help teen parents find social and educational events near them, while helping social workers plan those events with ease. Our mission was to build an informed community around teens after they’ve given birth, focusing on adolescents in Texas facing dire need for community and resources. In our team of 4, we conducted 4 weeks of research and inquiry into pain points for our teen parents and secondary users. This research was backed by real feedback and interviews held with teen parents, nurse practitioners, childcare program leaders and more.
Opportunity
Teen parents are among the most vulnerable first-time parents, yet they rarely receive the same support.
The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate among high-income countries, at 13.2 births per 1,000 females in 2023. Only 22% of teen mothers reported being ready for a child, 53% earn a high school diploma, 17% miss prenatal care in the first trimester, and teens experience postpartum depression twice as often as parents 25 and older. Stigma compounds every challenge, leaving many too ashamed to ask for help.
The resources exist, but the community that connects teens to them does not.
How might we empower non-traditional event planners to create, curate, and implement events for teen parents, so a community can grow around shared information, ideas, and values, and teens feel a real sense of belonging?
Research
We learned directly from the people closest to teen parents. Social workers, medical experts, childcare professionals know the areas for improvement.
Who we spoke to: Judith, a nurse practitioner who wishes teens had more resources for self-sufficiency, like child care, transportation, and financial services. Kelly, who oversees a childcare program at an Austin-area high school and sees teens struggle to know which resources exist or what questions to ask.
Key Insights:
A support system is a teen’s first contact.
Teens turn to friends, family, and other new parents before institutions, so resources land best when shared socially.
Teens don’t always know what to ask about their emotional health.
Prenatal care is often their only touchpoint, and many struggle to voice emotional difficulties.
Child care is a skill that needs to be taught.
Free day care is rare, which can make finishing school or working impossible.
Teen parents want to succeed but lack accommodations.
They need flexible scheduling, online education, time off, and affordable child care.
This shaped our direction: Keep resources front and center, never buried in links and screens. Build an environment of dignity, respect, and support that combats stigma.
Solution
A discovery experience for teen parents by surfacing relevant social and educational events nearby, an easy way into advice, activities, friendships, and trust.
And, a planning experience for social workers who aren’t event planners, bringing only the crucial steps of planning to avoid overwhelm, paired with marketing tools to drive participation and a close-knit community to invite. All in one.
Our research showed social workers underrate a teen’s inner circle, so I made events feel social rather than institutional. I then designed for two contexts of use:
Mobile: quick edits, RSVP list access, event promotion, and chat with teen parents, all on the go.
Web: a step-by-step flow that keeps budget, attendee list, and other major details organized.
Prototype + Result
WAYU2 is a two-sided platform: a mobile app for managing events on the go and a web experience for planning them end to end. Social workers can create, publish, edit, and review events for teen parents in their area, while teen parents discover events that connect them to community and resources.
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