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This week is full, once again. No zero days. By full, I mean thinking time and collaboration time. The world of Brighton5 is evolving rapidly- alongside some amazing local collaborators. And my time is taken up thinking, mapping, scheming and dreaming with these wonderful people.

Some question how I will be able to make a telly programme that is entertaining enough to keep teens and adults watching, when covering difficult issues like self harm or peer pressure. Sure we can pull on heart strings, but actually I have a theory that if we give our kids enough playtime, an amazing physical space and the tools to create and craft, some mad and wonderful things will happen. Couple that with some brilliant direction, animation and editing, and I know we can create magic.

For years I worked in brand experience, creating emotionally-driven physical spaces whose sole ambition was quite simply to make our audience gasp…”Ooooh! Ahhhhh!” (these two words were once our only brief from Imagination founder Gary Withers!)

Netflix have placed documentary storytelling in a new league… think Making a Murderer, The Keepers, Strong Island… whether a Netflix original or not – they are placing these astonishing bodies of work directly into our homes. Entertaining? they certainly are.

Tonight I listened to Sally Wainwright’s interview on the BBC writers room podcast where she says on the subject of authenticity… “the truth is more interesting than any old shit I can make up” (don’t you just love her!)

So we will have have truths, but we will also have dramatic well thought-out storytelling, which will multiply and layer through social media, because that’s where our teens live.

One thing I do know is I won’t be chasing ratings.

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For any working parent, half term can be difficult to juggle. My half terms seem to combine random teenage demands with me moaning myself into a stupor about about the state of their bedrooms. For years I have told myself to book the time off. To down tools and be there for the kids. But that never quite happens. I might get a day or two – but that usually ends up with me tackling jobs in the house I wouldn’t normally have time or inclination to do, not properly interacting with the kids at all. So, here we are again, at the end of the half term week and I am in exactly the same place as I always am – slightly defeated, spun out of my routine, wondering if my teens will ever clear up their rooms.

Brighton5 is about challenging norms that don’t work – using the energy of teens and experience of adults to make (good) trouble. My half terms don’t work – unless we are lucky enough to go away on holiday somewhere – but these days my teens aren’t too keen on that unless their entourage of mates can come too, which of course my purse and psyche won’t stretch to! The school system doesn’t work either – well not for everyone.

So, what exactly did I learn this week? I am learning that ordering my teens around (or trying to instruct a clear line of daily duties) in half term is futile. Their brains aren’t developed to cope with or care about adult priorities and instructions. Maybe I should completely rewrite my half term playbook, and think more laterally – even if I do think things are starting to grow in my teenagers’ floordrobes. Oh and am I allowed to say – roll on Monday?!

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What a day! This morning I attended a podcasting course hosted by Social Brighton (huge thanks to Kerry), with brilliant trainer Cat Rose – The Creative Introvert. In just 3 hours I pretty much had all the tools and knowledge I need to get on with the job of creating our Brighton5 audio experience! I am going on a long train journey with my mum over the weekend so I plan to mic her up and get her talking about the heady days when I was a teenager and she was the punch bag – all in the name of research you understand.

This afternoon, we had confirmation that Radio Reverb is our official broadcast media partner for Brighton5. I am over the moon. The Brighton5 radio show will mix interviews with parents/ carers, experts and teens, sharing stories to help bridge the gap between adults and teens in a digital age. (Comedic hindsight is on its way!) I’ll be popping down to the Reverbathon on the 3rd March with more information. Please to let us know if you want to get involved in the Brighton5 radio show and podcast – we would love to hear your stories.

And what news of our crowdfunder? Last night we had some of the Brighton5 teenage girls over to the house to discuss the plan, script, and schedule. Today, we have just 30 days to make it happen – on the 100 year anniversary since (most) women were first granted the right to vote. Seems like a bloody good omen to me.

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Welcome to Brighton5. Today we launch this blog, and on March 8th 2018, International Women’s Day, we will launch our crowd-funder video for Brighton5. There is nothing like a deadline to make things happen (hence the countdown clock at the top of this website!), even though I feel terrified at the time of writing. What could possibly go wrong? (Never work with kids and animals? Oh dear!).

I am a mum of two teenage girls. I’m also the co-founder – along with my sister Tayler, of a small social media agency, Liberty842, that works for clients in the Media and Entertainments sector. Think BBC One’s Holby City and Channel 4’s The Last Leg.
As a result of the UK voting to leave the EU and Donald Trump becoming the President of the United States and the political and economic ramifications, I became increasingly concerned about my children’s future.

The gender pay gap (finally) became front page news, highlighted by the BBC having to publish staff salaries, and more and more stats were being released about how social media was negatively affecting teenagers. My teens are ‘digitally dependent’ – and my youngest was becoming increasingly distant. Skip to International Women’s Day, 2017, and I had a WTF? moment.

I thought: I work in social media. I have two teenage girls. If I can’t do something about this, who can?

I was a trouble-maker when I was a kid. Teenagers have an enormous amount of energy and adults have an enormous amount of experience, but technology seems to have driven a gap between teens and adults. So I wondered how we could bring that energy and experience together – and importantly use tech as a vehicle for positive change.

Teenagers don’t care about the future. Their brains aren’t developed that way. My teens are still full of energy. But how soon will our kids start to feel beaten down by the system?

My eldest daughter (17) is already starting to worry about affording a house and finding the right job in an increasingly automated world – Amazon Go is just the beginning. Why are we teaching them to worry at all? And what do today’s value systems mean to future generations? Not very much?

We want to make (good) trouble – to create a movement that aims to shake things up. Brighton5 is about MAKING things; like getting teens up and out whilst being mentored by experienced adults. It’s about building bridges between generations, using tech for good purpose.

It has been said, if there are seven forms of wealth, why do we only chase one? We aim to create a cooperative so that everyone involved gains from their hard work. We live in a world where wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few and the so-called “trickle down” to the rest of society just isn’t happening. One percent of the world’s richest people own half of the world’s wealth – and that number has increased in the past 10 years. We want to create a new kind of economy – one with a moral compass with productivity at its heart. Watch this space. Brighton5 is coming. And we’re going to make (good) trouble.