Soluna

Connecting with content: writing for a groundbreaking mental health initiative

Kooth Digital Health has been a UK leader in mental health support for more than 20 years. When the company expanded into the U.S. with the Soluna app, I helped shape its foundational content and voice — defining how the product would connect with the young people who needed it most.

Skills & Specialties
Copywriting · Content Strategy · Voice & Tone Development

Shifting the narrative on youth mental health

Opportunity

Soluna launched in California through Governor Newsom’s $4.7B Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, a statewide effort to break down barriers and expand early mental health support for all young people.

The app offered a rare combination of features in one product: 1:1 coaching, peer support, and interactive self-guided tools. Together, they created a safe place to build real-life skills and improve overall wellbeing.

But none of that would matter if the content didn’t feel real to young people. It needed to be warm, culturally aware, and written in a voice they could actually trust.

Work

Soluna required content that could meet young people in different moments, from quick check-ins to deeper reflection.

I pitched, wrote, and edited 50+ in-app pieces across formats, including:

  • interactive quizzes

  • text chats

  • swipeable articles

  • audio scripts

These were all designed to support engagement across needs and attention levels.

We tackled both micro and macro mental health topics — from body image and relationships to identity and mental health disorders — balancing clinical credibility with a warm, non-clinical voice that sounded like an older, wiser friend.

Inclusivity was core to the mission. Content wasn’t just meant to inform, but to validate and support, especially for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, and immigrant youth.

  • Anxiety or intuition? 3 questions to tell them apart

    Calling out self-stigma

    Emotional flooding 101

    Grief before goodbye

    Healthy vs. unhealthy risk-taking

    Indigenous mental health: underserved and unspoken

    Myth or Fact: Generational trauma

    Myth or Fact: Self-care

    POV: Coming out to immigrant parents (parent + youth perspectives)

    Rising tides: coping with eco-anxiety

    Stop the spiral: your panic attack playbook

    The art of asking sensitive questions

    This or that: OCD, not just "neat"

    Zarak’s texts: Grief doesn’t follow a calendar

Impact

Soluna reached the young people it was built for, including many who had been excluded from traditional mental health systems.

By establishing a clear, credible, and youth-appropriate voice, the content helped make the app feel trustworthy and usable from first contact:

  • 51% of users had never received mental-health support before Soluna

  • 1 in 3 said they wouldn’t have access to care without the app

  • 97% would recommend Soluna to a friend

That early trust translated into strong adoption. More importantly, it positioned Soluna as an accessible entry point to early mental health support for young people.

That content framework continues to support the company’s growth, enabling expansion across the U.S. and the launch of new pilot programs.

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Ruth Braunstein