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The Bad Mom Podcast is where raw parenting stories meet real solutions for raising resilient kids in today’s anxious, digital world. Hosted by humanitarian and Just Like My Child Foundation founder, Vivian Glyck, each episode blends unfiltered conversations, expert insights, and lived experiences to help parents swap guilt for grit—and discover how imperfect parenting can still support and encourage strong, thriving humans.
Vivian Glyck (05:29.556)
Okay, well Priya Patel, I am so excited to have you here. You are one of these...
young adults, Gen Z, whom I admire so much. You're a double major at Wharton. You started your own foundation. You've been acknowledged by the Princess Diana Foundation, I think. And a lot of it is for your focus on your generation and on building confidence and helping to have young people really, really
find out what their own power is. So I want to ask you this question, Priya. What do you think is going on with your generation? What do you think their biggest challenges are right now? And what frustrates you and what excites you?
Priya Patel (06:30.318)
That's a really hard question. thought there's so many different answers. I think something that definitely excites me about our generation is our agency. You can see a lot of young people taking to social media, trying to start their content creation journeys, even though lot of parents are suspicious about what that really means. We see a lot of people trying to build their own companies. People are really trying to break out from what traditional norms means in terms of career, but also in terms of relationships and having fun. think...
A lot of people are very, very focused on how can I build the best life for myself and take that into my own hands. Something I am a little nervous on with that front is just how much we compare ourselves to others because we have grown up with social media as our almost form of entertainment. We don't have to necessarily go outside and play with our friends. We go online and see what other people are doing and see what our friends are up to. And that can sometimes portray a fake image of what everyone else is doing. then...
We compare ourselves to unrealistic standards. And I think that has a lot to do with a lot of mental health crises that are happening. And that's kind of what I built my foundation on, which was mental health. And I'm happy to talk about that more as well.
Vivian Glyck (07:34.354)
Yeah, so tell me about like, what did you see going on? Because you know, this is the Bad Mom podcast and it was really born out of, I just felt like a bad mom watching my kid really struggle with mental health issues, anxiety, depression, et cetera. And so I became really, really curious about having a broader conversation because once I got out of my own head, I realized this isn't just happening for me, it's happening for families.
and parents and kids throughout really the developed world. So what specifically did you see and can you tell me one story where you were so motivated to make a difference and to say, I'm doing something.
Priya Patel (08:21.516)
Yeah, of course. So in my opinion, just to start the conversation with mental health, think it's as someone who studies neuroscience, I think that a lot of conversation of mental health is an invisible thing or the taboo nature of mental health kind of needs to go away just in order to even have a conversation about it, because everyone has mental health. We just have different baselines of what we start out at and what we're at right now. For me personally, I think our generation shines a lot of light on making sure our mental health is in check.
before we go out into the world. And I think that's a really great thing. But I do think sometimes we put ourselves into situations where our mental health isn't going to do the best and we willingly do that. And one of those times is social media. Social media in general has a lot of value and contribute to the world. But when we constantly look at images of people living their best lives and go on doom scrolling tangents, that's also not really gonna be very conducive for our mental health. So think that's one thing to in mind. For me personally, as a teenage girl,
in middle school, that's when all of this, these topics kind of get brought up. I just for context, I was raised in a very Indian, Asian American immigrant community. So we didn't really talk about mental health in the home, which isn't our parents' fault. That's just how they were raised. That's just how I was raised. And in school, I didn't really have any conversations about mental health or suicide. I didn't really know what that meant. And
I noticed that a couple of kids at school started to come to school with bandages on their wrists. And for me, I had no idea what that meant. Again, like we'd never spoken about this. And it was a couple of my friends. And I once asked one of my friends, like, hey, like what's going on? Like, why do you have bandages on your wrist? And she just told me not to worry about it. And I was a very curious person. So I went home and I Googled it and I searched it up. And then I got down on the rabbit hole of figuring out what depression meant and what self harm meant, suicide and all of these things.
Needless say, it felt like the carpet was kind of pulled beneath my feet. I had no idea that people our age were dealing with things like this and how ubiquitous it was. This wasn't just something that I saw one friend come to school with. It was multiple people. And I was just paralyzed with fear in that moment. I just remember thinking, I have no context of what to say to my friend. I don't want to tell an adult because then they're going to hate me forever and they're not going to be my friend anymore. And they begged me not to tell their parents, not to tell counselors. So I just felt really stuck.
Priya Patel (10:39.052)
And then one day one of my friends actually had told me, so this was kind of around the time where 13 Reasons Why was coming out and our school sent a mass email out to the parents saying, don't let your kids read this or watch this show. They also tried to sweep it under the rug. But then one day a friend came to school with, yeah, yes. Yeah, so.
Vivian Glyck (10:56.084)
So did you say 13 reasons why?
Was it 13 reasons why? Yeah.
Priya Patel (11:04.174)
One day actually a friend had come to school with 13 reasons why she wanted to kill herself and this was the same friend who had talked about self-harm before and I think she might have also told us like she was quite serious about wanting to kill herself and I think that point I was like okay like now I have to tell a therapist my friend group and I we ran down to the therapist the school therapist at least and talked to them but the thing is it should never have gotten to that stage because I had seen signs from two years ago and I just didn't say anything because I was a scared little kid like I had no idea what it meant I didn't want to lose my friend I had all these feelings
And I think I just realized that a lot of people go through that and there's a lot of trainings and counsellings for people who are going through mental health disorders and crises and seeking resources. But there's not too much to teach people like me who we might not be going through it ourselves, but we see it in other people. And how do I respond to that? So based on that, that's when I saw the need. During COVID, I saw depression rates spiking. Everyone was isolated again. Like as a kid, that's not the type of environment you thrive in.
And I had a lot of time on my hands. I was like, why don't I build something? This is, I actually saw it happen with two more friends in high school. And I was like, I want to do something. I want to be able to do something about it this time. So I started peer responders and it was the first mental health organization that wielded friendship as a power tool against suicide and depression. And from that, we built a free online certification course. And I'm really proud of it because it wasn't just us interviewing therapists about how to help people. It was an FBI hostage negotiator. So we had Chris Foss come on and talk about.
This is literally a negotiation with your friends of how do I get you to the right source of help when they don't want to go? It was figuring out who the right sources of help were. had Stanford professors talking about behavior and what's going on in their heads. There was a lot of cool professors and cool speakers to make it exciting for young adults. And we started up 50 chapters across America, different schools. We got about 2,000 to 3,000 students enrolled in it. And that's what I won the Princess Diana Award for. And Prince Harry recognized me for that as well. So that was a very proud moment just to show that all the work paid off.
Vivian Glyck (13:01.8)
Wow, that is so cool. Well, let's like double click on that for a second. How did you get the attention of Princess Harry?
Priya Patel (13:12.206)
Yeah, so basically the way this award works is you have to be nominated by someone. So I had a high school teacher. She was my tutor initially and I would just talk to her after our tutoring sessions on what I was working on and how I was building this organization and the way the Princess Diana Award works is you have to be nominated by someone. So she nominated me. I didn't really know about that. And then once I got an email that like I got the award and the way it works is only a couple of people from each country get it.
I think it's the most prestigious award you can get as a young person trying to do humanitarian work. And then out of all the people who win it every year, Prince Harry picks one that's like his favourite or not his favourite, but just one that he would choose to spotlight. it was a really, it was a really special honour because I got to see him on a video spotlight me and recognise the work we'd done and the impact we'd had. And that kind of helped spearhead more. So I got to speak at the DC Embassy.
next year, like the year after about what we'd build and just keep creating more traction that way.
Vivian Glyck (14:13.032)
That's so super impressive. So out of all of that experience, what moment were you most proud of? Because you must have really encountered a number of different stories and some pushback. What did you see work the best?
Priya Patel (14:35.875)
Yeah.
Priya Patel (14:40.502)
Yeah, well, Sarah, the pushback, we definitely got a lot of that. A lot of people were very concerned that a student was trying to help. Actually, my school even called me down and said, I don't think you guys should do this. Like, this doesn't seem ethical because it was like a young teenage girl is trying to help other teenage people. And I'm not a licensed doctor or therapist, but nobody was doing it. So then I was like, I have to step up and build something. And I was also interviewing other people. wasn't like I was giving my advice. So it was a very secure program and I built a whole curriculum. But I guess the proudest moment for me is
Just seeing, so I built the whole course myself. I recorded all the modules, I put it up on a website and I started seeing comments rolling under the videos and just seeing how people were like, I never thought about this or I'm gonna try this on my friend. Like I can relate to this. Just seeing everyone's individual stories pile up at the bottom of the videos made it feel really impactful because yes, I thought this was a cool idea and I used it in my personal life but to be able to see it be used in so many different people's lives and people who I've never known, being able to touch them and the people they love.
was just spectacular. And even if we could save one kid from suicide, that would have made the whole process worth it.
Vivian Glyck (15:46.802)
I'm curious because I think that this is a, I have a belief that some of this behavior and thought process begets itself, right? Like all of a sudden, I know I was reading Jonathan Haidt's book, The Anxious Generation, and he talks about how like,
Nobody has multiple personality disorders. It's like one in a billion, the true multiple personality disorders. there is an online TikTok.
influencer who really did have multiple personalities and was just streaming a lot, a lot, a lot. And then all of a sudden, all around the world, all of these girls were showing up in these emergency rooms with multiple personality disorder and really looking like that's what it is. And so I am curious from your vantage point.
You know, what's going on there? Is there like, there are people who are truly troubled and then it's almost like a virus. Like, you can catch it if you listen to it, if you steep yourself in it, if you step into the thought process.
So I'm curious because you saw these girls coming in who are clearly cutting themselves. What went on in your head where you were like, no way, that's not me. How did you keep your, what do you think of all that? Is it real? Is it something that we just kind of cogitate on and then we're like, okay, I've got that too. What do you think?
Priya Patel (17:26.796)
Yeah. Yeah.
Priya Patel (17:40.888)
Yeah, that's an interesting question. I do think there is a sense of peer pressure in this and you wouldn't think it, but if you see a bunch of your friends doing it and they tell you like, this is my outlet for my stress, like there is a sense of like, you should also try it. Like, let's all do it together. And it seems like some sort of work to group activity, but that does exist because friends talk to each other about this. They're not going to go to their parents, right? So if they see one friend with a solution and it seems to be working for them, then I'm going to do it too.
I think for me, I think a very strong barrier that parents can help build and also young adults or young teenagers can help build to kind of stop that cycle is in my opinion, a lot of this comes from confidence and you build your confidence through your self-worth, your self-identity, understanding that you don't have to compare yourself to everyone at this age and understanding what truly brings you happiness. think that's a very, very strong point. In middle school, at least I remember a lot of people that I was around.
got a lot of their happiness from things that aren't super relevant. Like it was just like boys or like so much stress from your grades and things that really did not matter in the long term. I think my parents always told me this quote of like if it doesn't matter in like five years, don't like lose your mind over it right now. So I think building your confidence through understanding what's important in life, understanding your identity. Yeah.
Vivian Glyck (18:59.22)
That's really good. Wait, let's...
Vivian Glyck (19:04.596)
So I want to put a pin in that also. Your parents said to you, it just projects into the future, is this going to matter in five years? Whatever your current obsession is or what you have to have or what you're angry about or upset about or heartbroken about. If it's not, then don't invest your energy into it.
Is that sort of what you were saying?
Priya Patel (19:35.298)
Yeah, it's not even don't invest your energy, but just make sure the energy you invest is proportional to how important it is. So if it's not that important, put a little time into it, if it's not gonna matter later, cut it off at that point.
Vivian Glyck (19:45.288)
Mm-hmm.
Vivian Glyck (19:52.948)
And how did you gauge that for yourself? Because I think that that's a pretty advanced and mature thought process for a young person.
Priya Patel (20:01.1)
Yeah.
Priya Patel (20:10.37)
Yeah, it is. think, again, this is something I stress a lot and I haven't heard stressed a lot in media, which is your mental diet. You know, your physical, your body reflects what you, the food you eat. And I think your mental health reflects the mental diet you give it. So what content are you watching? Who are you speaking to? Who are your friends? What conversations are you having? And there's just like a self-occurring effect. This is just basic neuroscience. The more you surround yourself with a stimulus, the more your neurons are going to fire and just keep strengthening those connections. So.
Something that I used to do a lot is I would always be focused on what my future was when I was in middle school. was like, want to go to an Ivy League school. I want to build my own career. I want to build a company. And yes, that's not things that a lot of kids my age talked about, but that's what I talked about all the time. That's what I talked about all the time with my parents at home. That's the types of YouTube videos I would watch. And yes, I'd watch fun videos, but I wouldn't watch too many videos talking about depression or like.
Vivian Glyck (20:52.142)
Yeah.
Priya Patel (21:04.268)
the world is a horrible place or like really negative news. I'd read up on it, but I wouldn't stress too much about it just because like I just want to surround. I knew like the type of energy I surround myself with. That's who I'm going to become. And I just didn't want, if I had a choice, I was going to control how I felt.
Vivian Glyck (21:20.532)
Wow, that's really powerful. So like what advice would you give a young person? Remind me how old you are.
Priya Patel (21:32.108)
I'm 20 right now, I'll be 21 next weekend.
Vivian Glyck (21:35.304)
Yeah. So you've kind of been sitting around doing nothing, right? Like double majoring, starting nonprofits, starting companies. I mean, really. So that's so powerful because I do, you know, even to this day, I struggle when I see my son, you know, it's his life.
Priya Patel (21:39.803)
Yeah.
Vivian Glyck (21:57.726)
But just consuming a lot of stuff that creates internal conflict, whether it's thoughtful or intellectual, I think it's a little bit more valuable now what he's investing his time and energy into. really that decision of I'm going to stop consuming this kind of thing because
it is not getting me where I want to go. So I think there's something about stating a clear vision for what you want as a young person. And so tell me about how you did that in your foundation.
Priya Patel (22:42.082)
Yeah, so my foundation was mainly centered around psychological first aid. So it was less about social media, but more so about like, how do you recognize a friend is in pain? How do you listen to them in conversations and how do you guide them to the right source of counsel? So that was one part of it. And then I think what I'm talking about is a separate piece where it's me myself, how do I control my self identity and my confidence and make sure that if I see this in other people, yes, I'm going to help them, but I'm not letting this
dictate how I feel about my life and the gratitude that I have for the chance that I'm given to accomplish my dreams. And I think it's actually very, very straightforward. Like social media is so built on algorithms that if I just search up like things I like, like I'll just search up, I don't know, like I'm very into humanitarian work. I think there's no point in building a big company with a lot of money if you don't help the world become a better place at the end of it. So I searched up like really cool accounts and then start liking those videos. Eventually, like within two days, that's going to be your entire feed.
A trap I also fell into earlier that I'll just quickly mention is I was very into hustle culture before. love ambition, like go, go, go, go, go, work, work, work. And I think that also causes a little bit of mental health problems because it's like now you're comparing yourself to people who are boasting about these Lamborghinis and Miami penthouses when that's really not gonna bring you happiness. It's not the right type of influence. So I'd just be also careful about that. There's two sides of the coin here.
Vivian Glyck (24:05.588)
Yeah, it's really interesting because your Gen Z is so focused on
meaningful work. And I think you talked to my son a little bit who's working with young entrepreneurs and trying to match them with mentors. so much of what they're really interested in is how can I, how can whatever I'm doing be less about consumption and more about contribution? And I, I wonder like how
What about what you've been watching with older generations like Gen X and Boomers and even millennial has you like what triggers you to be like, my gosh, I've got to be a whole lot more conscious than the rest of these people. Like what like just turned your stomach or what have you admired?
Priya Patel (25:10.39)
Yeah, I think so. live for context. I live in a joint family and it's not very common in America. I'll just explain that briefly. It's basically when I have my nuclear family of four. So my mom, I died, me and my brother. Then I have my uncle, my aunt, my two cousins, and then I have my grandparents. All 10 of us have lived in one house since I was born. So I grew up with three generations. I grew up essentially with my cousins and my siblings. So right now,
My grandpa is 83 years old and he works every single day and I get to have daily conversations with him. And I think that just really, really imbued family values into me. Like I don't think there's anything more important than family. There's nothing that I would trade for more time with my family. So that was one part of it. And then number two is also I've been privileged enough to see my parents work really hard and reap the rewards and meet a lot of really, really cool people.
But I truly, I actually read a Harvard study on this, it's an 80 year survey. The number one dictating factor on happiness and longevity is literally the strength of your relationships. And it's not just your relationships with your loved ones, but the relationship you have with strangers that pass you by. So literally the feelings of fulfillment you get, like if I asked you, Vivian, can you look back on your 10 most happiest memories in your life? Like right now, most of them are not going to be like, I bought a new pink G-Wagon. It's going to be like, the birth of my son or like things like that, right? So.
Just looking back, want to make sure that when I look back, I have really strong 10 memories and my 10 memories help ripple other people's happiness in their relationships. And I think that's something that is very important that a lot of young people get across today.
Vivian Glyck (26:45.982)
But I think it's really interesting because with all of the ambition and with all of the kind of like drive and succeed and that we're not really incented to make those moments our most valuable, right? It's like, that you can like keep in your own back pocket. But the world is telling you,
will give you accolades if you get a well-deserved award or if you graduate from an Ivy League school, et cetera. And so I think, how do we balance that and how does your generation turn up the volume on moments? Because that's such a...
important thing for you to know now in your life, as opposed to when you're older and you're like, wow, I'm not going to have this many more memories. They're not abundant forever. I really want to cherish and savor them. So what would you tell or what are you telling?
Priya Patel (27:56.664)
Yeah.
Vivian Glyck (28:04.207)
people as you're studying neurology and psychology and all of that to empower them to focus on what's really meaningful.
Priya Patel (28:09.165)
Yeah.
Priya Patel (28:13.55)
So I actually have one very tangible thing that everyone can do. I have this poster on my wall, which is 80 years in my life. And that's like the average life of an American citizen based on like their current diets and health trends. I don't know what's going to happen, but every week I fill in a box. So right now I think I have over 25 % filled in because I'm 20 years old. And I think every week when I fill a box in, I think about the week that I had and what was my favorite part of the week, what things made me feel good.
And usually the things that made me feel good are not, I got an A on my exam. It's, I got to study with my friend or I got to comfort her in her time of weakness, things like that. So that's one thing. And then I just want to touch on what you said about the accolades. think something really interesting is whenever someone wins an award, right? Like usually in their speech, the best speeches are people thanking their mom, thanking the director. There's always someone to thank. And I think behind every accolade is a relationship. Like you don't get to that stage unless you have relationships with other people. And I think a very dangerous thought.
right now for people in our generation is, I'll put that in my back pocket. I'm young. I've got time. I think that's a very dangerous way of thinking. I think we have far less time than we think. And this is actually the age where you're going to be surrounded around the most possible people to build relationships with. And I think that is something we should take advantage of just as much as the ambition of building companies and new entrepreneurial ventures.
Vivian Glyck (29:33.214)
Wow, that's super powerful. Really, really powerful. I love that I have never thought about that, that when you look at an award, it is really the culmination of relationships.
you know, what your accomplishments, you never do them together. you know, you never do it really alone. Even an athlete, you know, who's doing a solo is standing on the shoulders of all the people who got them there. So that's really, really powerful.
So, well, this is amazing and I know that you have a limited amount of time. So I just want to ask you, what do you want to tell me about you and your work with your company and your vision for entrepreneurs in your generation?
Priya Patel (30:38.06)
Yeah, I think something that we should all keep in. Well, first something about me is I really, really want to build something where I feel very proud of it in the world and something that gives me the autonomy to do what I want. So I very recently figured out like what exactly do I want in the future? And those things have changed a lot from what social media tells me. I don't need a pink G-Wag and I don't need the biggest house on the street. I need a loving family, time I can spend with them, freedom of time, freedom of money.
and the ability to travel and have new experiences and be healthy. That's what's going to be a fulfilled life to me. And actually, one other tangible goal I have is I want to save at least 100 women from sex trafficking in India by the time I die. And I need the money to be able to fund that. So I want a good amount of money for my company, but that's kind what I need. And I really, really encourage a lot of people who are my age and are thinking about building companies that you don't have to necessarily become a non-profit.
but think about what are you really working towards and make sure that what you're doing today isn't directly in contrast with that. you're working towards having a lot of money, that's great. Having a really big company with a lot of influence, that's great. But then who do you want to share that with at the end of the day and make sure you're not forgetting that in that process because we really like, yes, you're in your twenties. Yes, you have time, but that time is very, very limited and you don't want to look back thinking that you wasted it on things that weren't important.
Vivian Glyck (32:01.096)
Yeah, is, that's amazing. I can't believe you figured that all out by the time you're 20. That, that ability to be focused and to have ambition and drive and clarity and discipline is, I think, really, really the goal.
Right, because those things to your point about self-esteem is that's what builds self-esteem. When you're disciplined, it's because you've worked really, really hard and you have faced challenges and had to push beyond them. And I think that there's some of that in Gen Z now where it's like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm just going to, you know.
live my life, nobody's really paying attention. The world's gonna end. There's like a lot of nihilism and I think anger, there's just a lot of anger. so I think it's just amazing that you can stay optimistic and forward focused. So congratulations.
Priya Patel (32:55.95)
Priya Patel (33:13.374)
thank you. Thank you so much, Vivian. Thank you so much for having me. I love talking about these conversations as well.
Vivian Glyck (33:21.158)
Yeah, yeah. So where can we I know that on badmompodcast.com slash Priya, P-R-I-Y-A is going to be your interview, this interview, and you can go there and find out more information and strongly suggest that who if you're interested, subscribe, leave us a review, tell us information what you what you loved about this interview.
and what else you would like to hear more of. And also, I would love to hear in some of the comments here, what you think the most optimistic moments are for Gen Z and how you can focus on your own mental health and wellbeing so that you get to experience the highlights in life. Like, what are you focused on? So please visit badmompodcast.com.
slash Priya, P-R-I-Y-A, to get this entire interview and leave us a review and subscribe because that's how you find more great conversations like this. So thank you so much, Priya.
Priya Patel (34:35.95)
Thank you so much, Vivian, the Bad Mom community.