Aly Vredenburgh

From rising anxiety to social media burnout, the narrative around Gen Z’s mental health often stops at surface-level solutions. In this eye-opening talk, author and filmmaker Aly Vredenburgh dives into the systemic root causes we’re overlooking—from economic inequality and environmental stress to digital overwhelm and broken institutions. Blending compelling stories from her book Out of Focus and her upcoming documentary Crisis Generation, Aly offers a bold, intersectional framework to shift how we understand—and solve—the mental health crisis affecting today’s youth.