When Nicole Pires, 23, came to the U.S. from Brazil to study neuroscience and psychology at Columbia University five years ago, she saw some of the high achievers around her struggle amid the pressures of academic life and being away from home.

“I saw many of my friends develop disorders, like eating disorders, burnout and depression,” she says. One of her close friends committed suicide in 2023, which affected her deeply.

When she wrote a book called The Strong Brain: How Neuroscience Explains Addiction, Depression, and the Roots of Psychiatric Disorders , friends and colleagues told her they wished there was a way to track their own mental health, so they caught problems early, before they accelerated.

In response, she launched her own business, Soul Health , based New York City. Targeting high achievers and entrepreneurs, it offers consumers a monthly subscription that allows them to keep tabs on their own mental health, with offerings such as weekly quizzes that can identify triggers for burnout, for $97 a month, as well a four-week "Mental Fitness Program” for $197.

The site doesn’t offer diagnostic tools but focuses on “self-understanding,” says Pires. Users can get referrals to partner providers, such as MDs and licensed psychologists. “Our goal is to reduce burnout, or at least be able to acknowledge when it’s coming, and acknowledge what to do and how to get out of that situation, so you can live your life to the fullest,” she says.

The company, which she started in February 2026 and re-launched in its current form in July 2026, has 61 subscribers. Pires, a solo entrepreneur, has self-funded it and developed the software it runs on.

Fighting the youth mental health crisis

Mental health tech took off during the pandemic, with 250 companies formed in 2020 alone, according to data from Flier Bi , a business intelligence company. The mental health tech ecosystem now includes 2,158 companies, according to Fliar Bi. There were more than 497 venture-backed mental health startups in 2026, according to VCBacked , another data intelligence firm, with average funding of $11.2 million.

A small but avid cohort of young entrepreneurs are launching mental health startups, looking to help their peers. Investors are paying attention to the youth mental health crisis. Rock Health found that 34% of venture capital investments in digital behavioral health went to youth mental health startups in 2023, compared to 15% in 2018.

The struggles of young people with depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges has generated concern around the world. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that 33% of high school students suffer from persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2025, and 14% seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months, numbers that improved somewhat since 2023. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization found that one in seven adolescents from ages 10 to 19 experiencing a mental health condition. The WHO says digital media, schools, healthcare settings and community programs can potentially play an important role in mental health promotion and prevention.

Multiple pressures converge

Why are so many young people in crisis? There isn’t one cause, according to Farah Downs, Ed.S., NCSP, Licensed School Psychologist and owner of Maitland Mental Health Co., where she provides counseling and evaluations for children, teens, and families, and support to parents.

“Teens are navigating school pressure, friendships, family stress, questions about who they are, and uncertainty about their future,” she said in a written statement. “Social media can add comparisons and make it harder to get a break from peer conflict. Sleep, loneliness, and the disruptions of the pandemic matter, too. These pressures can pile up, and getting appropriate help isn’t always easy.”

Even when young people ask for help, they may face obstacles to care, like cost, transportation, scheduling, and waiting lists, she noted. Affordable, easy-to-access options that feel relevant to their lives can make reaching out feel more manageable, she said.

“I can understand why a young person would want to create something for their peers,” she said. “They may know what it feels like to struggle or to worry about a friend and have no idea how to help. They may also see something missing in the resources available to them. Creating a service gives them a way to do something about it, and their perspective can help adults understand what teens are actually looking for.”

However, Downs added, it is essential to make sure that young people get help from professionals for serious health concerns. “What I’d want to know about any of these services is who is helping guide it, what it promises, and what happens when someone needs more help than it can provide,” she said. “Qualified mental health professionals should be involved in developing the content and deciding how safety concerns are handled.”

Tailoring a mental health app to teens

Charley Wolf and Theo Kertesz, both 18, teamed up at StayMindful , maker of a teen mental health app, in May 2024, as fellow students at Scarsdale High School. Their goal was to help teens with widespread challenges like insomnia and procrastination.

“There are large apps related to breathing, but we believe that they serve users whose needs are already met, and that we have this unique gap in the market, which is teens who find this content not relatable to them, not targeted towards them,” said Kertesz. “As an app, we try to make this content relatable to teens by building from teens, by teens, for teens and with teens through focus groups.”

They also wanted to make it accessible. When Wolf looked into apps to help teens with procrastination, he says, “It was either behind paywalls through certain apps, or I had to read lengthy books or listen to lengthy podcasts--and there wasn’t really just one place to go to for the resources that I as a teenager could access for free, read and understand easily and take action points from.”

They were onto something. StayMindful now has more than 9,000 downloads in 32 countries. The app offers breathing exercises, daily motivational quotes and as well as actionable content written by teens that is vetted by mental health professionals. Wolf, who learned to code from YouTube tutorials, coded the app. Kertesz knew Transcendental Meditation, in which he was certified at age 15. Harry Wolf, Charley’s brother and a student at the University of Texas at Austin, is CFO and a co-founder as well.

The founders tested the app in focus groups at schools with more than 250 teens, who rated the app a four out of five in “calming effect.” Along the way, they got advice from school psychologists and health teachers from their school.

StayMindful is operating according to a “freemium model,” meaning it is available to teens for free, but the co-founders are looking to sell licenses to schools and after-school programs to install the app on student devices.

Breaking isolation and building connection

Some young entrepreneurs are raising awareness of the importance of mental health through e-commerce brands.

That is the case for Alyssa Ostroff, 34, a graphic designer and the founder of Self-Care Shirts, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Ostroff, a University of Florida graduate, spent five years as a senior graphic designer at the Centers for Disease Control, where she created public health campaigns for COVID, mpox, cancer awareness, and antibiotic resistance.

She was laid off in April 2025, as part of the federal reduction in force. Within a month, she launched Self-Care Shirts — a mental health awareness apparel brand where she hand-draws every design on an iPad using the app Procreate. Her stickers, shirts and hoodies have phrases like “My therapist knows all your names” and “Overthinking is my superpower.”

“Every phrase started as something I personally needed to hear,” says Ostroff.

Last year, Ostroff said she brought in $104,000 from the business. It has had more than 1,600 customers and is profitable, she said. She sells the shirts through her online store, promoting them on Instagram and Facebook, and more recently through partnerships with brands such as Modcloth .

“There’s definitely demand for my products, and I get messages all the time about how my shirts have helped people feel seen and less alone in the world,” she says.

Like other entrepreneurs in the mental health space, Ostroff’s goal is to raise awareness and build community. “The more we talk about it, the more we connect with each other, the more that we can shine light on the issues, have community and come together,” she said.