Meet the Fifteen-Year-Old Founder Who Wants to Help You Stop Scrolling
It was Ruth Geller’s last day of ninth grade. Geller and her friends wanted to do something fun to celebrate the end of Freshman year and the start of summer. However, the Athens teens ran into a problem.
“We were trying to hang out, but we noticed that everywhere we wanted to go was either really expensive or places didn't let teenagers in anymore,” explained Geller.
The experience pushed her to wonder how she could help other teens find inexpensive activities that did not require scrolling on social media. This past summer, Geller sought out a solution and created Vivaly, an app meant to get Gen Z off their phones and “on with life.”
The App That Doesn’t Want Your Attention
The app gives users a catalog of free, real-life experiences they can do solo or with friends. The activities range from watching sunsets to making sweet snacks to hosting sleepovers. The app also has a time and weather-aware “Right Now” feature that gives immediate challenges. Once the user chooses the activity, they are prompted to go out into the world and do it.
After the adventure, the user can post one photo—and only one—to the app to share their experience with friends. Then, friends can react and vote on the challenge, granting the user Aura Points. Unlike other social media platforms, Vivaly's social aspect is limited to real-life friends and experiences, eliminating the highlight-reel nature of other platforms.
OfF Phones
In the past decade, Gen Z’s high screen time has garnered a lot of discussion. In 2017, psychologist and author Jean Twenge published her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” in The Atlantic. The article went viral, causing an eruption of debate about Gen Z’s heightened anxiety, depression, and isolation. Twenge brought this discussion to the mainstream. Since then, countless articles and polls have surfaced stating that Gen Z has reported higher rates of loneliness and depression than previous generations. A 2023 Gallup poll found that young adults aged 19 to 29 have the highest rates of reported loneliness, and teens aged 15 to 18 have the second-highest.
While many factors could contribute to Gen Z’s loneliness, many cite social media and smartphones as the source. In 2024, Jonathan Haidt, psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU Stern School of Business, published his book “The Anxious Generation,” which instantly became a New York Times Bestseller. Haidt analyzes how a lifetime spent online has impacted the development of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. He also advises parents to enforce four ‘norms’ to create a smartphone-free childhood for their kids: no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16, phone-free schools, and more responsibilities in the real world.
This year, the concern moved from parenting groups to the courtroom. In late August, social media giant Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in a settlement for a landmark lawsuit claiming their products endanger children. The settlement also required Meta to change their rules and regulations, including limiting how long children and teens can spend on its platforms. This lawsuit was one of many recent cases in the U.S. claiming Meta and other social media companies are harming children. Similarly, in July, the UK passed a law to ban social media for teens under 16, effective in spring 2027. Both the Meta lawsuit and the UK law signal a shift in public dialogue and regulations around the social media industry.
At fifteen, Geller knows better than anyone how smartphones affect her generation. “I feel like wasting our best years just scrolling on our phones all the time is really damaging. As Gen Z, we hear about our grandparents' childhoods, and it's like they were always doing fun, amazing, crazy things. They were making all these memories. And it seems like we're lacking in that. I wanted to solve that.”
Geller’s experience has shaped her approach. While everyone has been asking how to get Gen Z off of their phones, Geller is asking a different question: how can we get teens excited about real life?
And On With Life
Now in tenth grade, the founder has noticed a change in how she uses her free time since creating Vivaly. “There have been several times when I'm bored, and I'm about to go back to that place where you just start scrolling and waste a bunch of time. But then, I remember my app, and I'm like, wait, I should lowkey just use my app,” said Geller.
Although Vivaly started as a solo project, Geller brought together a group of friends (Hannah Hellems, CPO, Ellie Bartlett, CMO, and Evelynn Shea, COO) to help her test the app. Now, the group of girls runs the startup together.
Currently, Geller and the team are focused on growing the app’s user count and helping more teens live in the moment. “I hope to continue to grow it and continue to get more users. That's definitely the biggest goal, because I love to see people truly living life to the fullest,” said Geller.