Freshman business administration major Thomas Pham, and freshman finance major Kayla Suarez are two of the five hosts of a podcast entitled Teenager Therapy, that has garnered almost 60,000 followers on Instagram and over 4 million likes on Tik Tok.
The podcast they started in 2018 is their “coming of age story, in podcast form,” according to Suarez.
“It’s [Teenager Therapy] everything that comes along with it; romance, mental health, school,” Suarez said.
“We’re just trying to show our experience and hope that someone else takes something from it,” Pham said.
The idea of the podcast was developed by one of their co-hosts, Gael Aitor, a freshman at Cypress College, when he was listening to couples therapy by Casey Neistat.
“He wanted one for teenagers. There were ones for couples, adults, and everything else, but there wasn’t really any podcast targeted towards teenagers,” Pham said. “He wanted to make one so he gathered us.”
Although this friend group met as early as the fourth grade, Pham and Suarez both said that it was hard to open up.
“I wasn’t really close with Gael or even as close as I am now with Thomas now. I didn’t really know Issac and Mark, so it was definitely hard for me to establish vulnerability throughout because it wasn’t with people,” Suarez said. “I had a hard time opening up, and especially to do it with people I don’t know.”
Their fellow co-hosts, freshman Cypress College student Mark Hugo and freshman University of California- Berkeley student Issac Churtado, have also been on this podcast journey since the beginning. Because of the positive reaction to the podcast, the group was asked by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, to do a segment with them.
“Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been pretty active in their efforts to show the impact of mental health and really advocate for professional help,” Pham said. “We arranged this event at a beach house in Montecito. I was star-struck because it’s literally Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.”
Pham and Suarez said that in those moments, it makes you realize that there is a need for the podcast. The following they have amassed on social media just motivates and lets them know that the audience finally feels like they are being understood.
“I think [since] all of our parents are immigrants and they have risked everything, they have put their own lives on hold and left their home country to provide a better life for us,” Pham said. “[There’s] some pressure there so that’s why we’ve worked so hard to get into good schools and [work hard] throughout our accomplishments. I feel like it’s very tough to see them not get the same opportunities or privileges.”
“We learned a lot from our parents. We are willing to put ourselves out there and strive for what we want instead of settling,” Suarez said. “I know in their case they didn’t have much of an option, but I am just grateful we’re able to express interest because of what they sacrifice.”
They are very grateful for how the Teenager Therapy podcast not only allowed them to grow as individuals but also how the segments had a positive impact on their global audience.
“We were in shock that people were listening to the full episode and actually taking in what we are saying. It’s crazy to think because when we are recording an episode, it’s just our conversation with a microphone,” Suarez said. “They send us so many nice, heartwarming messages, it just makes it easier to continue doing the podcast.”