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Social activist and nonprofit entrepreneur, Maddie Freeman lands on the "Forbes 30 Under 30" list for helping young people strike a healthy tech-life balance.

In her first year at ����������, as the pandemic struck, Maddie Freeman, BBA ’24, saw the mental health struggles of some of her former high school classmates intensify. “I lost 10 friends to suicide throughout high school and into my freshman year of college, and it was obviously very difficult to deal with. It was like this repeated blow, and my whole community just felt shattered,” she said. “So I knew that something had to change.”

In the wake of those staggering losses, Freeman approached her former school district about launching a petition focused on mental health resources for students. Those intiatives included creating safe spaces where students could go for help, and to strengthen connections and build community. “The petition blew up really quickly and spread through the whole community like wildfire," Freeman said. "We got 14,000 signatures in two days."�� Freeman and the school district ultimately implemented new programs including one that encouraged students to swap social media time with other activities.

Soon after, Freeman founded the Boulder-based nonprofit, NoSo November (short for “No Social [Media] November”), specifically to educate and empower young people around potential impacts of social media on mental health. Freeman, who became active on social media in sixth grade, said it "profoundly impacted my social world and the way I viewed myself.” She found herself spending 10 hours per day online, largely on social media, negatively impacting her mental health. Now, Freeman shares her story with others and offers a different route.

NoSo November’s three-pronged approach encourages and empowers young people, aged 10 to 19, to invest in their own mental health. “We try to equip students with the tools they need to form healthy relationships with technology,” said Freeman. First, the company’s in-school, digital literacy education program teaches participants about the “attention for profit” business models of social media apps. The second prong offers young people tools to participate in a “digital detox” in which they intentionally step away from social media for a chosen period of time. The third prong revolves around “implementing healthy coping mechanisms,” said Freeman, including in-person, mindfulness-based community events for young people wanting to connect with others.

An “awesome way” to get support

During her first year at ����������, Freeman dove headfirst into various innovation and entrepreneurship programs on campus. Initially with a hair-tie venture, and then with NoSo November, Freeman took part in Get Seed Funding, a micro-funding opportunity, and in the New Venture Challenge (NVC). She also participated twice in the NVC Women Founders Competition, presented in collaboration with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. This year, teams with at least one woman founding member are competing for a share of $15,000.

A signature program of ����������'s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative, NVC connects ���������� with the wider community to help innovators develop and fund their ideas. The program culminates in an annual pitch-fest where judges award $325,000 to aspiring entrepreneurs.

For Freeman, pitching at NVC “linked the two worlds for me–this social cause I really cared about and the entrepreneurship I was so passionate about.” During that formative experience, she and others got feedback from mentors, judges and other participants. “I had no idea what I was doing at first, and I was so nervous, but it was really an awesome way to start getting support.”��

NVC participants network and collaborate during year-round events, giving students an “entrepreneurial mindset,” said Stan Hickory, director of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative and of NVC. Whether or not participants go on to start a company, there is value in understanding and learning how to identify and solve problems facing companies—and the world, explained Hickory, who also serves on NoSo November’s board of directors.

Betsy Klein, program manager at the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, sees NVC as an opportunity to get “pushed out of your comfort zone” and build a toolkit that allows anyone to “craft a path forward by being resilient, persistent, adaptable and very curious about people in the world around them.” When asked about Freeman and NoSo, Klein said, “Maddie knew her mission, and she kept at it…we just couldn’t be more proud of her and her accomplishments.”

Making an impact, near and far

NoSo November has now worked with upwards of 40 schools and reached tens of thousands of students. Freeman speaks regularly at conferences and the company has won several awards in the digital wellbeing space. NoSo November is now expanding internationally–to Canada, in partnership with McGill University, and with an international school in Switzerland. “It was genuinely a passion project,” said Freeman. “I honestly never could have envisioned it getting to this stage, and I'm so grateful that it has.”

As NoSo November continues to build momentum, Freeman hears regularly from program participants about its positive impacts. Instead of getting “bogged down in their feeds,” she said, they’re able to “take control of their time and focus on healthier activities, offline habits and invest in relationships so they can really improve wellbeing and mental health.” Freeman said that, once they disconnect, more than 60 percent of digital detox participants choose to extend their “NoSo” time.��

Because of the company’s growing impact, Freeman was recently named to “Forbes 30 Under 30” which “recognizes innovative and promising people” making an impact on the world around them. The honor took Freeman by surprise but she is thrilled. “My dream was to always be an entrepreneur and be my own boss,” she said. “And then being able to build something that could catch their attention is just mind blowing and really exciting.”

Freeman also recently received a $100,000 award from Young Futures, an organization giving grants to the “heroes on the front lines…working tirelessly to create a better world for youth and families in the digital age.” The grant will allow NoSo November to sharpen its strategy, strengthen communication and scale impact.