We set out to award $1.4M to nonprofits helping young people navigate AI with confidence and agency.
More than 200 organizations applied.
Today, we’re proud to introduce the 16 selected for our first AI-dedicated cohort: Oops!... AI Did It Again.
AI is already reshaping how young people learn, create, relate, and understand themselves. But too often, they’re asked to navigate it without support, context, or power.
This cohort is changing that.
From youth-powered AI and creative learning to mental health, relationships, and intergenerational guidance — these leaders aren’t just preparing young people for an AI-shaped world.
They’re building it with them.
Meet the newest YF Innovators and learn more at the link in bio.
#OopsAIDidItAgain #YFInnovators #YoungFutures #AI #YouthWellbeing
Introducing the inaugural 2026 Young Futures Awardees, powered by @hopelab_org !🌟
This year’s awardees are researchers, technologists, storytellers, activists, entrepreneurs and youth champions helping young people thrive in a tech-filled world.
Swipe through to meet the leaders building a future rooted in agency, safety, belonging and possibility, and head to the link in bio to learn more about their work.
#YFBlockParty2026 #YoungFutures
The Express Yourself Challenge Series is our new $1.5M funding challenge supporting solutions helping pre-teens and teens navigate gendered digital pressures with more confidence, belonging, and safety online and off.
The challenge includes 3 tracks:
Girl On Fire 🔥 - For solutions supporting girls
In My Dreams 💭 - For solutions supporting boys
Just The Way You Are ✨ - For solutions supporting trans and gender-expansive young people
We’re proud to be partnering with @kidcudi and the @bigbrofoundation on this challenge, with a special focus on In My Dreams, the track supporting boys’ belonging and emotional wellbeing.
📅 Apply by May 19, 2026 📍 Info session: April 30 at 10 a.m. PT 🔗 Learn more and apply at youngfutures.org
Night One of YF Block Party! 🤠✨
We kicked things off at the Welcome Party at Arlyn Studios with cowboy boots, hats, great music, performances and the best community. It was so special to bring together our YF Innovators, awardees, partners, funders, friends, and the people helping shape the future of youth wellbeing all in one room.
A little bit country, a lot of joy, and the perfect start to our first-ever YF Block Party! 💚
#YFBlockParty2026
For many transgender and nonbinary young people, online spaces are not separate from real life. They are where language gets found, identity gets explored, and, sometimes, where survival begins.
“A Digital Friend, A Transgender Journey,” written in collaboration with @hopelab_org , explores how digital spaces can help transgender and nonbinary young people find language, community, and pride.
Through the Just The Way You Are Challenge, we’re funding programs, tools, and approaches that help gender-expansive young people build a sense of self that is valued — fostering safety, visibility, authentic self-expression, and supportive community.
Think you have a solution? Apply now at youngfutures.org.
What does it mean for boys to come of age online in a world that so often confuses isolation with strength?
In “Dylan, Are We Cooked?”, @dylankeith__ , reflects on what boys are telling us through the language they have — and what it would look like to build something better.
That’s why we launched the In My Dreams Challenge: to fund programs, tools, and approaches that help adolescent boys build a sense of self beyond rigid gender expectations, expand definitions of masculinity, and strengthen healthy belonging and relationships.
Think you have a solution? Apply now at youngfutures.org.
Meet the inaugural 2026 Young Futures Awardees, powered by Hopelab! ✨
These leaders are shaping what it looks like for young people to grow up with more agency, safety, belonging and possibility in a tech-filled world.
Across research, technology, storytelling, activism, entrepreneurship and youth advocacy, they’re building tools, communities, policies, stories and systems that center young people not as an afterthought, but as the future already leading us forward.
We’re so proud to welcome them into the Young Futures community and celebrate them at the first-ever YF Block Party in Austin.
Learn more about the 2026 Young Futures Awardees at the link in bio.
#YFBlockParty2026
For girls, the internet has never just been the internet.
It has also been a mirror, a stage, a group chat, a popularity contest, a beauty standard, and sometimes a battlefield.
In “Girlhood Was Never Meant to Be an Algorithm,” Young Futures Communications Associate, @brooke.messaye , reflects on what it really means to grow up online — and why girls deserve better than a digital world built to perform for.
Through the Girl On Fire Challenge, we’re funding programs, tools, and approaches that help adolescent girls thrive on and offline by building confidence, fostering belonging, and promoting digital literacy.
Think you have a solution? Apply now at youngfutures.org.
Thinking about applying to the Express Yourself Challenge Series?
Join us for our Applicant Info Session on April 30, 2026 at 1 PM ET and learn more about our challenge funding solutions that help girls, boys, and trans and gender-expansive young people navigate gendered digital pressures with more confidence, belonging and safety.
We’ll walk through the funding tracks, eligibility requirements, what we’re looking for, and answer your questions live.
If you already have questions, you can submit them in advance when you register!
Register at the link in our bio or at bit.ly/ExpressYourselfInfo.
💥 My Founder Life Hack: I write 10 emails every morning without even looking at a screen and cleaning at the same time @meetgranola
#digitalwellness #founderlife #granolaai #productivityhabits
Young Futures is proud to launch the Express Yourself Challenge in partnership with Kid Cudi, an artist whose openness about mental health helped redefine what strength looks like.
As part of this $1.5M+ funding opportunity, we’re introducing the In My Dreams Track, focused on funding non-profit organizations that help boys build confidence, emotional fluency and belonging in a digital world.
Because boys deserve spaces where they can feel deeply, speak honestly and show up fully.
Let’s fund the future boys deserve. Applications are open now at youngfutures.org (/).
Tomorrow, we open one of our biggest funding opportunities yet.
Because gender, identity, and algorithms are colliding in ways we can’t ignore.
The Express Yourself Challenge will fund in youth-centered solutions helping girls, boys, and gender-expansive young people build confidence, belonging, and agency in a digital world.
We’re launching it with an artist who has made vulnerability visible and turned honesty into impact.
Any guesses who our new partner is?
