How one high-schooler leveraged Twitter to land an internship (and how your kid can, too!)

Happy Friday!

In case you’re new here, Prequel is the free, twice-weekly newsletter for parents who want their kids to succeed. We give you weekly insights on how your children can get ahead ― in school and in life.

For this week’s newsletter, we connected with Grace Price, an exceptional high schooler whose passion for cancer prevention has led her to amass thousands of followers on Twitter in just a few months. She recently participated in one of Prequel’s workshops, all about building a social media presence. There are so many great takeaways from our conversation, so let’s dive in.

P.S. We’d love to hear your feedback on this newsletter - once you’re done reading, feel free to reply to this email with any suggestions or comments.

💡How one high-schooler leveraged Twitter to land an internship (and how your kid can, too!)

Grace Price is a teen with a mission. Her goal? Flatten the curve of cancer incidents by 2040.

Her passion for educating people about health started when she realized that the medical research papers she was reading (for fun!) contained valuable insights that could help people prevent cancer — but they were written in a way that wasn’t accessible for most people.

So she decided to get on Twitter and start sharing what she was learning in an approachable way, so she could help people make the lifestyle changes necessary to avoid cancer. With the help of a few AI tools, she was able to hyper-grow her Twitter followers.

Through Prequel, she was able to connect with mentors who had real-world experience growing Twitter accounts, and she learned how to really excel at the platform. 

Four months later, she has gained over 2,000 followers, gotten the attention of Andrew Huberman (one of the biggest names in the wellness industry), and even been offered a summer internship with an exciting new nonprofit.

In a matter of months, she turned a social media app into a powerful network that’s giving her access to exciting real-world opportunities. Here’s how your kids can do the same:

5 ways to help your kids build a powerful network on social media:

1. Seek out mentorship from someone who has done it before.

No matter what your kids want to accomplish, whether that’s growing a brand on social media, starting a business, or getting into their dream school, Grace’s top advice is to get a mentor who’s done it before.

“Mentors give the best insights on how to grow because they’ve actually done it themselves,” says Grace. “They’re giving advice from a place of what has genuinely worked for them.”

2. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

“A lot of the things you’ll have to do to grow on Twitter are uncomfortable,” says Grace. “You’ll have to cold DM people, write long threads on topics you might not be fully confident about, and be ready to receive comments from others that could point out how you’re wrong.”

Putting yourself out there in any capacity can be intimidating. But if your kids are only seeking out opportunities that are firmly within their comfort zone, they’ll never get a chance to grow.

3. Don’t let perfectionism hold you back.

Your kids might be excited about the idea of starting a Twitter account, building a business, or launching a project, but they might also feel like they need to wait to get started until they have every little thing figured out. 

Grace says to simply jump right in.

“I was really scared to start tweeting — I’m not an expert!” Grace says. “But it was holding me back.”

The best way to learn is to simply start and learn as you go.

4. Compress your timelines.

Goals are like water — they expand to fill the shape of the container that you give them. Give yourself endless time to reach your goal, and it’ll take endless time to get there.

“It could’ve easily taken me a year to get to 1,000 followers,” says Grace, “but the super short timeline got me there in 7 weeks.”

Encourage your kids to give themselves a real challenge with their timelines. When a goal feels thrilling and even a little scary, that’s a good sign that it’s ambitious enough.

5. Have a clear mission.

Grace didn’t just want to grow a Twitter account for growth’s sake. She wanted to share insights about health with the world. Her passion has connected her to a deeper purpose that she can build a career around.

“A lot of people think about passions as something they love to do after school,” says Grace. “But that could be eating cake or watching TV. Something you love doesn’t necessarily add value to others.”

Her passion, she realized, was something that was bigger than herself, something that she could commit to. And given how successful her Twitter account has been already, it’s something that others are clearly excited about, too.

You can find Grace on Twitter and follow her mission to prevent cancer here.

⚡️ 2 Tutorials

1. 3 Ways to Help Kids Grow Their Emotional Intelligence (link)

2. How to teach kids about the power of conflict resolution (link)  

🚀 3 Tools To Boost Your Family’s Productivity

1. Glasp AI — take notes, find new ideas, and make unexpected connections to boost your creativity

2. Job Interview Coach — do mock interviews and get tailored feedback to improve your skills

3. Recap — summarize any portion of any webpage in seconds

Thanks for reading!

Did you find this issue helpful? Let me know what you thought of today’s issue and what you’d like to see from us next time - just hit reply to this email.

Until next time,

Ivy
CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo
Follow my journey on LinkedIn