Meghan Markle Partners with Oprah Winfrey and Melinda French Gates to Back Digital Wellness Initiative for Young Girls

Mar. 15, 2025

Meghan Markle celebrating International Day of the Girl 2024.Photo:Eric Charbonneau

Eric Charbonneau

According toThe Archewell Foundation, the nonprofit Meghan shares with husbandPrince Harry, Meghan visited Girls Inc. in Santa Barbara, California in celebration of International Day of the Girl, which is marked annually on Oct. 11. In addition to Meghan’s visit, The Archewell Foundation,Melinda French Gates’ company Pivotal Ventures and theOprah WinfreyCharitable Foundation are supporting a partnership between Girls Inc. and #HalfTheStory, aimed at providing digital wellness programming for young girls in underserved communities across America through a program called Social Media U.

“This new educational initiative will equip girls with the essential tools to thrive in the digital age while fostering healthier, more balanced relationships with technology,” according to a statement from The Archewell Foundation.

Meghan Markle at Girls Inc. in Santa Barbara, California.Eric Charbonneau

#HalfTheStory will address issues like body image, friendships, healthy digital habits and safety from sexual predators, and programming will emphasize online safety education, responsible social media engagement and mental health support, “equipping girls with the tools to navigate their environment confidently and resiliently,” the statement continued.

#HalfTheStory is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the next generation’s relationship with technology. The new partnership between Girls Inc. and #HalfTheStory fits in with the work of The Archewell Foundation, which has taken up digital wellness — especially for young people — as a key cause of its work. The Archewell Foundation named #HalfTheStory to its Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund in 2023.

Meghan Markle at Girls Inc. in Santa Barbara, California celebrating International Day of the Girl 2024.Eric Charbonneau

According to a press releasesurrounding the new effort, compared to girls from middle- and higher-income households, teens from lower-income households (with less than $50,000 annual family income) are more likely to use all social media platforms, especially TikTok and Facebook, and girls from lower socioeconomic status households may also be exposed to even more harmful effects of social media.

Meghan Markle celebrating International Day of the Girl 2024 at Girls Inc. in Santa Barbara, California.Eric Charbonneau

The Duchess of Sussex has memorably marked International Day of the Girl over the years since marrying Prince Harry, 40. In 2019, she shared a special #FlashbackFriday clip of herself at 11 years old, whenshe wrote to Procter & Gambleand successfully campaigned to change a sexist commercial. The 45-second video celebrates how every girl has the “right to be heard.”

The next year, in 2020, Meghan and Harrypartnered with Malala Yousafzaito discuss the importance of women’s education and discussed “the barriers preventing 130 million girls from going to school and why it’s essential that we champion every girl’s right to learn.”

During the conversation, Meghan said, “What I had realized very early on was that when women have a seat at the table, conversations in terms of policy change, conversations in terms of legislation and the dynamics of the community are all shifted.”

She added, “And when you have to see how you get a woman to embrace her voice, you have to start with where she is a young girl.”

Meghan Markle marking International Day of the Girl 2024 in Santa Barbara, California.Eric Charbonneau

“When you’ve been through any level of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey — certainly part of mine — is being able to be really open about it,” Meghan said. “I really scraped the surface on my experience, but I do think that I would never want someone else to feel that way and I would never want someone else to be making those sort of plans and I would never want someone else to not be believed.”

The Duchess of Sussex added, “If me voicing what I have overcome will save someone or encourage someone in their life to really, genuinely check in on them and not assume that the appearance is good so everything is okay, then that’s worth it. I’ll take a hit for that.”

Meghan Markle celebrating International Day of the Girl 2024.Eric Charbonneau

As parents themselves, Meghan spoke about her desire to protect their two children from harmful online content.

“Our kids are young — they’re 3 and 5. They’re amazing,” she said with a smile. “But all you want to do as parents is protect them.”

“So as we can see what’s happening in the online space, we know that there’s a lot of work to be done there, and we’re just happy to be able to be a part of change for good,” Meghan continued.

Pauley said, “You hope that when your children ask for help, someone, you know, is there to give it.”

Prince Harry chimed in, “If you know how to help.”

“At this point, we’ve got to the stage where almost every parent needs to be a first responder,” he continued. “And even the best first responders in the world wouldn’t be able to tell the signs of possible suicide. That is the terrifying piece of this.”

Meghan encouraged everyone to “look at it through the lens of ‘What if it was my daughter? What if it was my son?’ "

“If you look at it through the lens as a parent, there’s no way to see that any other way than to try to find a solution,” she said.

The Parents Network and its “No Child Lost to Social Media” campaign ties into the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s ongoing work through their nonprofit organization to provide a support network for parents dealing with grief or who have children managing mental health conditions resulting from their exposure to harmful online content.

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On 2024’s World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Prince Harry — who had spoken about the dangers of young people and social media while in New York City in September duringa speech at The Clinton Foundation— saidin conversation with Jonathan Haidtthat smartphones are “stealing young people’s childhood.”

source: people.com