On a mission to spread positive news among youth

A 16-year-old, Mehr Sohal has launched The Joyful Peach, a news portal that aims to spread positivity among Generation Z. Reading the newspaper and watching TV every day led her to form her own opinions. But she soon realised that most of the news centred on negativity.

"Research threw up some interesting facts. I found out that issues in news have become a rising cause of stress amongst the world's population. This is specifically for Generation Z, with 75 percent of this community stressed over mass shootings, 62 percent concerned about suicide rates, and more (according to a 2018 APA Survey)," says Mehr.

Mehr said that negativity is unavoidable, but believes that positive and feel-good news can help us feel better and spread positivity among the young population. This is why she launched The Joyful Peach, a news portal that strives to focus entirely on "happy events" around us.

"Three things prompted me in this direction – a media literacy course I attended in school and COVID-19 pandemic. All these made me more aware of the power of the media, and how it is essentially its responsibility to deliver the truth."

Mehr says she realised the truth that the world simply isn't as morbid and unpleasant as some media organisations make it out to be, and that positivity and happiness are the need of the hour in the wake of the pandemic.

I decided to keep it real with The Joyful Peach and give the community their much-needed daily dose of truthful, positive news," says Mehr

The news portal is currently divided into four categories:

S Peachisms: Thoughts, epiphanies, and opinions

S Peachy News: Hearing from the community (stories, anecdotes, and experiences)

S Artsy Corner: Poetry, art, words, creativity

S Covid Plus: Positivity during the pandemic

This service aims to serve as a repository of happiness and focuses on empowering the youth, with teenagers being the target audience for both readers and writers.

The content of The Joyful Peach is free and accessible to all users. Mehr is looking at a revenue model to further invest in developing her existing website, marketing the platform on social media, boosting her SEO, and eventually paying writers.

"I aim to generate revenue through advertisements. I also plan to write paid stories for corporates to promote their good work and the positive social impact their products have," she says.

The portal at present has 75 articles, and the young founder is looking to increase community-generated content and readership. She relies on social media to raise awareness on the need and scope of impact of The Joyful Peach, and create an audience of viewers and writers.

"I launched this platform in early 2020 and am looking to increase the number of readers, improve the quantity and quality of content, and start approaching corporates for advertisements and paid articles on them.

The pandemic has created a 'new normal' where there is a huge need for this dose of positivity," concludes Mehr.