When Syosset sisters Rachel and Jillian Roth started the organization Inspire Bright, the main objective was to use their fellow teens’ proclivity for social media as a means to raise awareness for various causes. Now, more than a year after its launch, Inspire Bright is mobilizing against a force that is especially harmful to teens and young adults.
“We are currently working with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to promote HPV vaccinations for teenagers and young adults,” said Jillian. “Rachel told me about an email she received from a local physician asking if we would be interested in partnering up on a project. He thought that our connection with the teenage audience would be perfect because that is whom they were trying to educate and Rachel and I agreed.”
Rachel was in the car with her mother when she received an email from Dr. Shetal Shah of the AAP asking if they could set up a call. The doctor said that he had a project in mind, but needed teens to front it.
“I instantly knew this was a project that Jillian and I could really dig our fingers into,” said Rachel. “The long story short about our latest project is to educate people our age, younger and a little older, about the dangers of HPV and how important it is to get vaccinated.”
Shah said that the AAP always wants to work with community partners to improve the health and welfare of children and that physicians talk about ways to combat human papollomavirus (HPV) every day. But for a public health campaign via social media, Shetal said young adults are highly influenced by other young adults.
“Inspire Bright was a perfect match for this project because it is run by enterprising, energetic and community-based young adults with a large social media outreach who have a history of working well with other organizations in our area,” said Shah. “Rates of HPV immunization lag far behind those of other vaccinations, which put kids at risk. Locally, pediatricians requested the local Academy chapter work to educate our community about the dangers of refusing or delaying HPV vaccination.”
According to Shah, nationally about 40 percent of eligible boys and 60 percent of eligible girls are vaccinated against HPV. Many parents may be reluctant to discuss immunization against a sexually transmitted virus, particularly when children are younger, said Shah, but parents and young adults may also not perceive the immediate risk of HPV infection.
Meanwhile, there is a misconception that receiving HPV vaccination may even encourage riskier sexual behaviors, which has been debunked by several well-regarded scientific studies, Shah said.
Rachel said the various meetings and brainstorming sessions with Shah has opened her eyes to the importance of HPV vaccinations.
“This is without a doubt our longest and most time consuming project to date, but it’s also one that I feel really passionately about,” said Rachel. “I’ve been vaccinated and most of my friends have as well, but after getting involved with AAP, I’ve learned so much about the sheer importance of this vaccination and I’m happy to be able to educate others my age.”
The Roth sisters and Shah brainstormed the messaging for the HPV campaign and discussed how to best reach out to younger adults through existing social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, traditional web pages and blogs. The goal of the campaign is to help parents, teens and young adults understand that HPV vaccine is safe and effective at preventing cervical cancer and genital warts.
“They need to reach out to their pediatrician to discuss the importance of HPV immunization,” said Shah. “Physicians have a medical tool that can prevent certain cancers and we need to ensure that kid are protected.”
“From an initial meeting at Starbucks to now a social media campaign, there has been so much work put into this,” said Jillian, adding that the HPV effort is just one of the many causes Inspire Bright has promoted in the last year. “I think that working on multiple projects simultaneously got overwhelming at times in addition to school work and every day life, but I love the impact we are making on others, which makes it all worth it.”
For Rachel, who is finishing up her sophomore year at Syracuse University, her biggest challenge has been keeping high standards in regards to both her school work and her Inspire Bright work.
“I have a lot of expectations on me with regard to my academics and equally as many expectations on me with regard to my participation and dedication to Inspire Bright,” said Rachel. “I think since starting Inspire Bright we’ve both realized that if you’re not passionate about something, you’ll never fully be able to excel at it or ‘get into it.’ With that being said, our mission moving forward is definitely to get involved with organizations and various endeavors that we’re really, fully invested and interested in and to just run with it.”
In the fall, Jillian will join her sister at Syracuse, giving the pair an opportunity to utilize Inspire Bright in many more causes aimed at helping young people remain safe and always inspired.
“The impact we have made is truly surreal,” said Jillian. “When Rachel and I first came up with the idea for Inspire Bright, I never envisioned, nor really understood, how much of a difference we could actually make within our community and amongst teenagers. I love having the opportunity to educate and help others and Inspire Bright has allowed me to do that.”
“For me, the goal of Inspire Bright is to encourage people to do something other than sit behind a computer screen or a phone screen,” said Rachel. “Do something. Educate someone, help a good cause, share your passion. I think that’s what we’re doing and I hope that other people are able to grab a hold of that as well.”
To learn more about Inspire Bright and its HPV vaccination initiative, visit www.inspirebright.org.
