🌱 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Why working overseas for 20 years didn't prepare me for the crisis in my own home: I could build hospitals and put tens of thousands of girls through Girl Power Project, but nothing prepared me for watching my own son struggle with the mental health crisis that's gripping kids in the US. The enemy just looks different here—it's not malaria or forced marriage, it's screens, isolation, and a system that's hijacking our kids' dopamine receptors starting at age 2.

• The Serenity Prayer is not just for addicts—it's the guiding light for parenting the anxious generation: God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change (the entire broken system), the courage to change what I can (my own attitudes, behavior, and belief systems), and the wisdom to know the difference (what's my business and what's my kid's business). When I started changing myself, my kids started getting better. 100%.

• Here's the truth about why you feel like a bad mom: You're not failing—you're a badass in a broken system. Every parent I talk to has that moment of "Am I doing enough? What did I do wrong?" But isolation is the number one detriment to mental health, and they've designed this whole setup to keep us alone, scrolling, and second-guessing ourselves instead of connecting with other parents who are in the same trenches.

• What your 2-year-old really needs when you hand them an iPad: Nothing good, I can tell you that. When you give a toddler access to that device, you start hijacking their dopamine receptors, creating cycles of addiction that continue into substance abuse. This is why we're seeing such a crisis around addiction—because we're human, and if you're human, you're an addict somewhere. The question is: what are you addicted to, and is it serving you?

• The Project Grit toolkit exists because information without wisdom is useless: There's so much content out there about parenting, but what we're lacking is the wisdom to know what we can actually change. Project Grit is about taking everything I learned supporting adolescents in the developing world and bringing it home—the real toolkits, the expert conversations, the pillars of mental health (brain development, nutrition, sleep, community), and the truth about what we're up against.

• Do this tomorrow: Stop trying to control what's happening out there and start with yourself. You can't get on some chat and change anybody else's mind about anything—not about politics, not about parenting, not about your kid's choices. You can only change yourself. Pull your own mask down first. That's the next right thing.