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Friends focus on mental health in "Teenager Therapy" podcast

Teens come together to create podcast during pandemic
Teenagers come together to create podcast during pandemic 01:34

It's a public sharing of their most private struggles: insecurity, sexuality, friendship. Once a week, four California friends from high school sit in Thomas Pham's bedroom and record their podcast "Teenager Therapy."

"We're kind of just giving them our experience and our situation just so they can get some context," said Gael Aitor.

The idea came to Aitor, 17, after hearing a relationship therapy podcast for adults.

When CBS News told the group that listening to the podcast almost felt like it was intruding on a private friend group, the teenagers laughed.

"That's good; it makes us know that we're doing it right," said Kayla Suarez.

"That's when you know we're hitting real issues and real emotions," Aitor added.

The free-flowing format and focus on mental health draws more than 100,000 downloads per episode, and recently caught the attention of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

"Every single one of us needs to prioritize our emotional well-being," Prince Harry said in the podcast.

"We all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt," Meghan Markle added.

When told that past generations didn't really talk about these subject matters, Suarez replied, "It really just takes that one conversation to step out of your comfort zone with each other."

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