Photo of Cristina Leos with red shapes in the background.

Meet a Fellow: Cristina Leos

Meet a Roddenberry Fellow
Cristina Leos
July 22, 2019

Meet Cristina, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow

Cristina Leos is the co-founder of Real Talk, a mobile app that connects teens with authentic stories and trusted resources on sensitive health topics, like sexual health and mental health. Her expertise centers around using behavioral science and technology innovation to improve adolescent health.

Real Talk helps teens learn about sensitive health topics through stories and resources, helps them know they are not alone in their experiences growing up, and helps to reduce stigma around topics that are traditionally considered taboo, such as sexual health and mental health.

“It is critical, now more than ever, to find innovative ways of delivering health information that is relevant, engaging, and accessible by all. This is why we created Real Talk.”

During the 2019 Fellowship

Grounded in human-centered design, Real Talk is a safe, judgment-free platform for teens to share experiences and know that they are not alone in going through common adolescent issues. We crowdsource and curate anonymous stories on topics like puberty, identity, and mental health. Each story is paired with a high-quality online resource on the subject and teens can share their own stories directly within the app.

In 2019, Cristina and Real Talk are working to generate content on additional topics that are relevant to young teens, gather more robust data to quantify their impact and validate new growth strategies to help bring Real Talk to even more teens.

“Our vision is to make teens healthier by connecting them with authentic content and trusted resources for sensitive topics when and where they need it. While our previous work has focused heavily on sexual health topics, we know our approach can have an impact on many other issues such as bullying, dating violence, consent and assault, and mental health, as well, by reducing stigma and bias around these experiences. Furthermore, through our authentic storytelling, we are amplifying teen voices, purposefully incorporating voices of color, and reshaping the narrative around these topics to be more inclusive with regard to race, socioeconomic status, geography, gender, and sexuality.”