luna is the UK’s first app dedicated to teen health & wellbeing, which launched on November 15th.

luna acts as an older sister, demystifying teen issues that historically may be seen as embarrassing and can make teens feel alienated. The app is primarily aimed at young people aged 11 – 17 experiencing things like menstruation and hormonal acne, as well as their parents, guardians and teachers. And it’s free! 

Built by medical professionals, adolescence experts and teens across the UK, luna covers different topics such as skincare, body positivity, gender, sexuality, mental health and much more with videos, articles and shared experiences. Since day one, the luna team have gathered feedback from their network of teens (self named ‘the luminaries’) to curate topics they are curious about and included them at all stages of the process from content creation to design. luna’s users provide regular feedback on the platform and have even completed weekly missions throughout the co-design of the app. 

Taking the role of agony aunt digital, luna also offers a submission section allowing users to pose their queries anonymously for luna’s group of professionals and medical experts to answer. By seeing what others are asking via the app, it enables the community to feel more connected and less isolated by their problems. Users can also track their periods, moods and feelings, all whilst keeping on top of what’s trending on the app. 

luna is the brain child of ex Deloitte consultants and MBA Oxford business school graduates Jo Goodall and Jas Schembri. The idea originated on one of their MBA projects, where students came up with a business concept to pitch to investors. Their idea had such apositive reception that the investor panel wanted to know who was taking the business forward post MBA. This led the duo to take the leap, saying goodbye to their corporate careers to start on luna full-time. Jo and Jas soon raised 600K pre-seed from the likes of Maria Ro and Kirsten Connell of Octopus Ventures and Miruna Girtu of Syndicate Room. It is estimated that the women’s health market will reach £90bn by 2027 with a forecast CAGR of 16.2% through 2021- 2025. Whilst luna identified that there has been an increase in Femtech progress in recent years, no one is targeting just adolescents, arguably the most formative years of our lives and the consumers of the future. 

The concept was born when co-founders Jas & Jo got to their late 20s and early 30s realising that they hardly knew anything about their bodies. When asking their friends, they all agreed that had they known more, they could have raised red flags earlier on about dilemmas facing them today such as hormonal issues, skin problems and mental health queries they had been too embarrassed to discuss as teens. They soon discovered that 86% of girls & non-binary teens worry about whether they are normal, impacting their confidence. It is this mission of providing a welcoming and educational space for adolescents that has allowed luna to pull such a diverse network of experts together. 

As teenagers, the only access Jas & Jo had to teen health education was either through PSHE lessons at school and turning to the pages of Shout & Bliss’s agony aunt sections to see if anyone else was going through the issues they were. Fast forward to 2022, PSHE is largely the same. When asked, a 3/10 is how teens rate school education on adolescence and teen health topics. The government sets out the curriculum and schools can interpret it as they wish depending on their resources. This means the level of education on health & wellbeing is incredibly varied across the board, something Jo and Jas have witnessed when visiting a range of schools and in Jas’s role as a School Governor. Parents also have a massive role to play but there are still topics that teens don’t want to open up to them about. Generation Alpha is the first fully digital generation; 88% of teens today use online sources like Google & social media to fill in the gaps, bypassing their parents and teachers. They are going online to educate themselves, self-diagnosing with content that is not tailored to their age group which can be very harmful and dangerous. The role of social media throughout their lives can encourage unhealthy levels of comparison or self doubt and doesn’t feel like a ‘safe space’. 

It is this lack of space for proper education and open conversation for teens that makes Jo & Jas so passionate that an inclusive community to support teens is a must to help avoid alienation and the spread of false information in relation to adolescence. This is where real progress can be made and where luna comes in. 

The free app launched on November 15th on the App Store and Google Play. As well as in-app content, users will have access to offline community events throughout the year. 

For more information or imagery please email Emily Bryant on [email protected]