Digital Charity YouthNet offering free mobile app to help young people cope with exam stress

by Ollie Drackford

Head of Marcoms

Thursday 18th June 2015

Young people feeling the pressure as exam time peaks can download Stressheads a clever new mobile app to help them cope with stress – launched by digital charity, YouthNet.

Of course, it’s not just exam time when young people can feel overwhelmed. Stress is a consistent factor in young people’s lives. It was recently reported that more than one in ten of young people in the UK often feel too anxious to leave the house, while more than a third often feel anxious about everyday situations*.

Stressheads, which is free to download, has been designed as a fun-to-use distraction tool for 16-25 year olds to turn to when they are feeling under pressure. What’s unique about the app is that it lets young people personify their stress, helping them to better understand how they can deal with it.

Stressheads has been co-created by a group of young volunteers, YouthNet and Neon Tribe, supported by Capital One.

The idea for Stressheads was hatched after YouthNet’s research with young people revealed that they often turn to their mobile phones when feeling stressed. Playing games, curating favourite pictures and music and checking social media updates were all behaviours that could distract them from stressful situations.

In fact, many of the young people we interviewed said they had actually destroyed their phones while under stress, so they loved the idea of something that could help them cope without shattering their prized possession into a million pieces.

Stressheads has been developed to provide:                                        

Distraction – Stressheads gives you something else to take your stress out on – without the danger of taking it out on your phone or those around you.

Stress management – helping you to take control of the situation and get the better of the stresses in your life – before they can grow into something worse.

Understanding – one of the best ways to deal with stress, is to understand what causes it.  Stressheads helps you explore both the causes and symptoms of stress.

Stress-perts in your hand – Stressheads is part of TheSite.org – the UK’s trusted information and support site for young people and experts on all things stressful, run by YouthNet.

How Stressheads works: once you’ve downloaded Stressheads free for iPhone, iPads and Android devices, you’ll be ready to turn your screen into a stress-relief tool.

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stressheads/id981856668?mt=8

Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.youthnet.stressheads

• Tap your screen to lay a stress-egg
• These eggs need to be hatched, so bash away at them to spawn a Stresshead
• Take your frustrations out on your Stresshead by roughing them up, flicking and tossing them about the screen.
• Keep bashing at them to get useful tips on how to deal with stress
• Help manage your stress by noting your feelings down in the personal stress journal
• Customise and create your own Stresshead by changing how they look and the type of stress you’re tackling
• When you’re ready, throw your Stresshead at the wall of spikes to destroy it.

YouthNet Chief Executive, Chris Martin, says: “Exam time is extraordinarily stressful for many thousands of young people. Our aim was to create a fun-to-use app to help young people to cope when they’re feeling under pressure. Already more than a 1,000 people have downloaded it and we hope that many more will benefit from using it over the coming weeks.

“We’re very grateful to the young volunteers who collaborated with YouthNet to create Stressheads, to Neon Tribe for their enthusiasm and creativity and to Capital One for supporting the project.”

For more information and advice on how to cope with exam stress visit TheSite.org

YouthNet media contact: [email protected] or call: 07766 660 755

 Note to editors:

*Source: Princes Trust Youth Index 2015

*Source: Supporting young people through mobile technology, YouthNet and Nominet Trust, 2012. http://mobilesupport.youthnet.org/insight/

 YouthNet is the charity behind online guide to life, TheSite which supports around 1 million 16 to 25 year olds in the UK each year.

The UK’s first exclusively online charity, YouthNet creates digital solutions to ease young people’s isolation and to make their lives better.