BodiMojo Blog

Splash. After over a year of planning, meetings, and collaboration – and so much brain-grinding that you can possibly see the smoke in San Fran – BodiMojo is testing the waters for the first time publically at the Health 2.0 conference this week, including making its debut at the “Launch!” session on Oct. 7.

What is BodiMojo? Simply put, it is an interactive, Web-based program for teens ages 14-18, to promote healthy eating, exercise, and positive body image. It is intended as an online destination for all teens who want to improve health habits or get motivated, without necessarily posting their intentions to their 643 Facebook friends.  There are 18 million teens out there, and 80% have body image concerns, not to mention the roughly 16 percent who are overweight or obese.  We hear it all the time as if it is sacrosanct, “Teens don’t care about their health.”  But actually they do – they care about their body, looks, and feeling in control. Call it “mojo” if you will – that personal charm or essence that makes you feel confident in your own skin.

As part of a project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, we are launching at four Boston-area high schools for our NIH randomized-controlled field study; building a virtual community; looping in parents and teachers, and building the architecture and content to make a difference in kids’ lives. We have relied on the insights and input of a class of urban high schoolers and group of teen interns, who weren’t too shy to tell us when, basically, something wasn’t sick.

Yes, there are some teen resources out there already. But Health 2.0 is all about mobility, and a new way of thinking about healthcare, and BodiMojo is unique because it offers technology platform for tracking health habits and fitness,  on-the-go motivation and incentives, as well as social networking tools and aggregated health search just for teens. One of our teen interns said it best: BodiMojo makes health  cool.

It’s been said Health 2.0 isn’t a noun; it’s a verb and a movement. Which is our philosophy exactly. Check us out and jump onboard. For a sneak preview of BodiMojo, visit BodiMojo.com or http://www.bodimojo.com/pdf/bmojo_sample2.pdf.