The Child Mind Institute, a children’s mental health resource, has partnered with the California Department of Healthcare Services to launch Mirror, an intuitive mental health journaling app for teens.
Free of charge, Mirror aims to enhance emotional processing and offer a supportive environment for self-reflection.
The Mirror app allows users to self-express and understand patterns in their mental health through daily mood tracking, guided prompts and voice, image, text or video entries.
The initiative is backed by Child Mind Institute’s clinical expertise and is available in English and Spanish.
The company said that Mirror is not a replacement for therapy but rather a tool to empower youth to take an active role in their mental healthcare.
Key features of Mirror include:
- Multi-modal journaling that allows for self-expression via text, voice, image or video entries
- Mood check-in, which tracks daily emotions in the app
- Guided journaling prompts aimed at encouraging self-reflection, emotional processing and creative expression
- Insights that provide visualizations of mood patterns over a period of time and summaries of entries to provide clarity
- Crisis detection and support with quick access to emergency contacts and helplines.
“The youth mental health crisis is ongoing and there’s a clear need for accessible mental health support for teens,” Dr. Harold Koplewicz, president and medical director of the Child Mind Institute, said in a statement.
“We understand that journaling can serve as a tool for self-expression, emotional regulation and personal growth, especially when paired with mood tracking. With Mirror, teens have an accessible and private space to express themselves freely in writing, videos or voice recordings to explore their emotions and develop self-awareness without fear of external judgment.”
THE LARGER TREND
Other companies in the children’s mental health space include Woebot Health, maker of an AI-powered mental health chatbot.
In 2024, the company signed a three-year agreement with Ohio-based nonprofit pediatric healthcare system Akron Children’s Hospital to provide pediatric mental health support to adolescents 13 to 17 years.
Woebot’s non-prescription digital mental health tool includes content specific to teens, including media literacy, bullying in school settings, and body image and psychoeducation.
That same year, Momentum launched a digital health mental health program for young people in Australia without relying on the convenience of artificial intelligence.
Momentum, backed by the Australian government’s Medical Research Future Fund, gives free access to tools, techniques and treatment that address common mental health problems experienced by Australians 7 to 17 years of age.
It assesses the user’s situation to determine their need for help and then builds a personalized program with sessions targeting topics relevant to their condition.
The platform allows users and their families to track progress, check how their feelings change each session and use the program to practice real-world skills.
In 2022, pediatric teletherapy company DotCom Therapy acquired Wolf+Friends, a support app for parents of children with special needs, mental health concerns and learning disabilities.
The acquisition marked DotCom’s first acquisition since it was founded in 2015. As part of the deal, Wolf+Friends’ community app included support groups facilitated by DotCom’s mental health professionals as well as educational content and expert Q&As.
