Shared Courage- Two Continents Apart
Midweek Recommendation
Midweek often feels like an endless scroll of reels and shorts- some funny, many thoughtless, a few cruel. In Naperville, US, in 2016, fourteen-year-old Trisha Prabhu witnessed firsthand how online hate could lead a peer toward tragedy.
Six years later, in 2022, in New Delhi, India, fourteen-year-old Anoushka Jolly faced the very same taunts in her classroom. Oceans and calendars separate their stories, but the question doesn’t change: How can we short-circuit cruelty the moment it sparks?
In our previous post, we armed our teens with four simple words, “Not cool- let’s chill”, to help them pause bullying and cruelty in its tracks. Today, let’s meet two remarkable girls- Trisha Prabhu & Anoushka Jolly- who built that pause right into the phones our kids carry every day.
Trisha Prabhu’s Rethink
When Trisha heard how online torment drove a classmate to despair, she wondered: What if teens were forced to pause before they post?
On Shark Tank US Season 8, she won backing to build Rethink- a tiny popup that asks, “Are you sure you want to post that?” In trials, this prompt reduced hurtful posts from 71% to under 5%- a similar conclusion was seen in a 2024 classroom experiment.
Trisha’s journey hasn’t stopped with Shark Tank. Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for her work, she now spearheads Rethink’s global rollout while studying at Oxford, forging partnerships with schools, youth organisations and even tech platforms so that no teen needs to face that hover-thumb moment alone.
Watch Trisha Prabhu’s TEDx talk here
Anoushka Jolly’s Kavach
After playground taunts left her reeling at eight, Anoushka started a blog and school workshops. By eleven, she’d built Kavach, a web-app where students and parents can report bullying anonymously, so that schools step in before wounds deepen.
On Shark Tank India, Anoushka secured funding to bring Kavach into 2,000+ schools across 100+ districts, and she’s now training a network of peer ambassadors to keep kindness visible.
Anoushka’s journey hasn’t stopped at Shark Tank. Now fifteen and freshly honoured with the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, she’s steering Kavach into its next chapter.
She now partners with NGOs and curriculum designers to pilot Kavach 2.0 upgrade across five states, while mentoring a growing network of peer ambassadors who keep the shield of kindness raised in every school.
Watch a short video on Anoushka’s efforts to tackle cyber-bullying here
Tiny tools, Big courage
Both Trisha and Anoushka remind us that cruelty is all around us, starting from early school years. But so is courage when we embed it in our tools. The two brave girls show us that:
Personal pain fuels prevention: Turning hurt into action gives every teen a chance to take the lead.
Micro-acts, massive ripples: A pause, pop-up or a report button can rewrite an entire feed or school culture.
Peers as first responders: No waiting for adults; classmates become guardians the moment hurt surfaces.
“What spoke to you most about how these teens turned their hurt into tools for kindness?”
Let that question spark your own family’s next micro-act of courage, because when kindness lives in our tools, it becomes a habit, not just a hope.
Remember, Raising Ki(n)d isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it.
See you this Saturday.
Gaurav G