Meghan Markle Partners With Oprah Winfrey and Melinda French Gates to Back Digital Wellness Initiative for Young Girls

The partnership was announced Oct. 11, which doubles as International Day of the Girl

Meghan Markle honored International Day of the Girl by chatting to young girls “about their experience growing up in the digital age” — and partnering in a new initiative to help them thrive.

According to The Archewell Foundation, the nonprofit Meghan shares with husband Prince Harry, Meghan visited Girls Inc. in Santa Barbara, California in celebration of International Day of the Girl, which is marked annually on Oct. 11. In addition to Meghan’s visit, The Archewell Foundation, Melinda French Gates’ company Pivotal Ventures and the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation are supporting a partnership between Girls Inc. and #HalfTheStory, aimed at providing digital wellness programming for young girls in underserved communities across America.

“This new educational initiative will equip girls with the essential tools to thrive in the digital age while fostering healthier, more balanced relationships with technology,” according to a statement from The Archewell Foundation.

#HalfTheStory will address issues like body image, friendships, healthy digital habits and safety from sexual predators, and programming will emphasize online safety education, responsible social media engagement and mental health support, “equipping girls with the tools to navigate their environment confidently and resiliently,” the statement continued.

Meghan’s visit to Girls Inc. nearby her home in Montecito came ahead of the Oct. 11 announcement. The Archewell Foundation has partnered with Girls Inc. since 2021, the same year Meghan and Harry’s own daughter, Princess Lilibet, 3, was born. (The two are also parents to son Prince Archie, 5.)

#HalfTheStory is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the next generation’s relationship with technology. The new partnership between Girls Inc. and #HalfTheStory fits in with the work of The Archewell Foundation, which has taken up digital wellness — especially for young people — as a key cause of its work. The Archewell Foundation named #HalfTheStory to its Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund in 2023.

According to a press release surrounding the new effort, compared to girls from middle- and higher-income households, teens from lower-income households (with less than $50,000 annual family income) are more likely to use all social media platforms, especially TikTok and Facebook, and girls from lower socioeconomic status households may also be exposed to even more harmful effects of social media.

“As a young girl who nearly lost my life to social media, it’s a dream come true to bring #HalfTheStory's work to the masses through Girls Inc.,” Larissa May, founder and CEO of #HalfTheStory, said in the release. “As #HalfTheStory celebrates its 10th anniversary this month, this partnership marks a pivotal moment in our mission to reach 1 million youth by 2030 and improve the next generation's relationship with technology. We can't save the world through fear — only through solutions.”

International Day of the Girl was started to support more opportunities for girls and increase awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based upon their gender. Since its launch in 2012, each year has had a theme, with 2024’s being “Girls’ Vision for the Future.”

Related: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Have Something Special Planned for International Day of the Girl

The Duchess of Sussex has memorably marked International Day of the Girl over the years since marrying Prince Harry, 40. In 2019, she shared a special #FlashbackFriday clip of herself at 11 years old, when she wrote to Procter & Gamble and successfully campaigned to change a sexist commercial. The 45-second video celebrates how every girl has the “right to be heard.”

Narrating a short voiceover for the video, Meghan said, “Every girl has potential. She has promise. She has the right to learn, the right to be heard, the right to play and to discover. The right to be exactly who she is.” She concluded by saying, “Keep shining brightly. Know your worth and know that we are behind you every step of the way.”

The next year, in 2020, Meghan and Harry partnered with Malala Yousafzai to discuss the importance of women’s education and discussed “the barriers preventing 130 million girls from going to school and why it's essential that we champion every girl's right to learn.”

During the conversation, Meghan said, “What I had realized very early on was that when women have a seat at the table, conversations in terms of policy change, conversations in terms of legislation and the dynamics of the community are all shifted.”

She added, “And when you have to see how you get a woman to embrace her voice, you have to start with where she is a young girl.”

Related: Meghan Markle Opens Up About Revealing Suicidal Thoughts: If Telling Story 'Will Save Someone...That's Worth It'

In addition to women’s rights and empowerment being a cause she’s long championed, both Meghan and Harry appeared on CBS This Morning with Jane Pauley on Aug. 4 — Meghan’s 43rd birthday — to discuss a new program called The Parents Network through their Archewell Foundation to support parents whose children have been impacted by traumas related to social media use. Following a two-year pilot program, the initiative is now available for parents in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Meghan, who has previously spoken about "bullying and abuse that I was experiencing on social media and online," told Pauley that she recognized the "through-line" between her experience and that of children affected by harmful situations they encounter on the internet.

"When you've been through any level of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey — certainly part of mine — is being able to be really open about it," Meghan said. "I really scraped the surface on my experience, but I do think that I would never want someone else to feel that way and I would never want someone else to be making those sort of plans and I would never want someone else to not be believed."

The Duchess of Sussex added, "If me voicing what I have overcome will save someone or encourage someone in their life to really, genuinely check in on them and not assume that the appearance is good so everything is okay, then that's worth it. I'll take a hit for that."

As parents themselves, Meghan spoke about her desire to protect their two children from harmful online content.

"Our kids are young — they're 3 and 5. They're amazing," she said with a smile. "But all you want to do as parents is protect them."

"So as we can see what's happening in the online space, we know that there's a lot of work to be done there, and we're just happy to be able to be a part of change for good," Meghan continued.

Pauley said, "You hope that when your children ask for help, someone, you know, is there to give it."

Prince Harry chimed in, "If you know how to help."

"At this point, we've got to the stage where almost every parent needs to be a first responder," he continued. "And even the best first responders in the world wouldn't be able to tell the signs of possible suicide. That is the terrifying piece of this."

Meghan encouraged everyone to "look at it through the lens of 'What if it was my daughter? What if it was my son?' "

"If you look at it through the lens as a parent, there's no way to see that any other way than to try to find a solution," she said.

The Parents Network and its "No Child Lost to Social Media" campaign ties into the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's ongoing work through their nonprofit organization to provide a support network for parents dealing with grief or who have children managing mental health conditions resulting from their exposure to harmful online content.

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The subject was the focus of the Archewell Foundation's first in-person event in October 2023, where the couple spoke at a panel in New York City. The event, which took place on World Mental Health Day, brought together families affected by loss connected to a child’s social media use to discuss the urgency of greater online safety.

On 2024's World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Prince Harry — who had spoken about the dangers of young people and social media while in New York City in September during a speech at The Clinton Foundation — said in conversation with Jonathan Haidt that smartphones are “stealing young people’s childhood.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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