OUR STORY

It doesn’t matter if a million people see it, if it didn’t impact a single one of them.

 

Impact one person with a real conversation…

that has the potential to change their life.

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– High School Student

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This quote resulted from a roundtable discussion with high school students. However, our story began years prior, with Open A Dor founder Summer Nilsson and a 10-year-old girl.

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The young girl had begun to question her potential. She was exposed to social media. She believed the content that was delivered on her smart phone.

 

Summer had spent over two decades working in national publishing with brands including People, Food Network, InStyle, and ELLE. She understood the ramifications of an evolving media landscape, where newer content delivery formats were immediate and unaccountable to the long-term effects on kids.

 

Summer attempted to mentor the child, but the young girl needed the message to be delivered differently. Summer saw an opportunity to develop storylines, content, and experiences to facilitate discussions regarding self-worth, character, empathy, courage, false narrative, and mental health.

 

The Loodor Tales book series was born. In the beginning, many challenged whether kids would engage in such deep thinking. It quickly became clear that adolescents did not just wish to engage. They drove the discussions.

 

Using books to bridge dialogue, Summer then built the Loodor Learns Curriculum and “HOO Are You?” education platform to fuel an ongoing movement for connection. Through tours, conversations with kids ensued. Students embraced the opportunity to discuss cyberbullying and digital safety.

 

Today's youth are bullied in new ways. Open A Dor develops programs to provide students, schools, parents, and communities with tools to engage and speak about their experiences. By redefining what it means to “share”, adolescents are taught to silence self-doubt. 

 

The Open A Dor governing board funds content, school programs, and activities that instill self-worth, offset the effects of social media, and educate youth about the power of words.

 

Social media use among adolescents has risen to 95%. "As social media became a primary area of teenage communication, there was a significant increase in suicide," U.S. News & World Report. The second leading cause of death among adolescents is self-harm/suicide.