Tackling Breast Health in a Lighthearted Manner

Winner of the Best Non-Profit WebAward, The AWARE Foundation’s Teen Health Talk tackles a delicate issue for teenage girls – breast development and health. This interactive, educational Web site includes a rich media activity to facilitate a greater understanding of breast development, abnormalities, disease, and cancer detection and prevention.

In 2003, the AWARE Foundation received a grant from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to provide more information on its Website on teen breast development. The AWARE Foundation partnered with I-SITE, an interactive design and development company, to create this Web site, which is accessible from The AWARE Foundation’s home page at www.awarefoundation.org.

The AWARE Foundation’s Teen Health Talk tackles a delicate issue for teenage girls – breast development and health.

“The challenge in creating this Website was to convey awkward subject matter in a way that would engage adolescents,” Ian Cross, chief executive officer of I-SITE said. “We asked ourselves where teens got most of their information and the answer was from their friends.”

“When we originally began developing the AWARE Foundation Website, we learned through a series of focus groups with adolescents of varying ages and backgrounds, that teenagers wanted to learn about wellness and sexual and reproductive health — however, they wanted to learn about it in private,” Dr. Alvin Goldfarb, president and executive director of The AWARE Foundation, said. “And, what is more private than the Internet.”

The “setting” for Teen Health Talk is a dressing room in a clothing store, where teenage girls are trying on dresses in preparation for a school dance. After all, what teenage girl has not found herself in a similar situation? In addition, the privacy of a dressing room makes for an effective atmosphere in which teenagers can feel free to discuss personal topics, such as breast health and development.

Teen Health Talk is “staged” in a store dressing room, which provides a private forum for teenage girls to talk about breast development issues.

The first page introduces you to the cast of characters, all of varying ethnicities and backgrounds. This diversity enhances visitors’ interaction with the site by offering the opportunity to more closely identify with one or more of the characters. Information is then offered through the conversation of the characters.

The issues associated with breast development are divided into three areas:  size and shape, lumps and disease, and pain and tenderness. Visitors click on each heading to watch the characters discuss each topic with one another.

“This interaction keeps the Website from being too formal and fuses education on sensitive topics with entertainment,” Cross said.

Jessy shares her concerns about her breast development,
while her friends reassure her that she is normal.

If visitors have a question about an issue that has not been covered by the characters, they can click on the “Learn More” button, which will take them back to the frequently asked questions section of the AWARE Foundation Website. If the answers are not found in the FAQs, visitors can seek answers from either the Susan B. Komen Foundation through the “Get Help Now” section or from The AWARE Foundation’s own panel of experts through the “Ask AWARE” section. 

Site visitors are given contact information to be able to get more information if they need it.

The AWARE Foundation (Adolescent Wellness and Reproductive Education) was started in 1998 by a number of physicians concerned with the growing incidence of adolescent health problems. The goal of the foundation is to provide a forum to educate and empower teens to make responsible health decisions.

“Sexual development and wellness are a part of life and we should not avoid them,” said Dr. Alvin Goldfarb, president and executive director of The AWARE Foundation. “We have no sex education for our youth in the U.S. -- we moralize. For example, the Federal Government will only fund programs that teach sexual abstinence as a form of birth control. As a result, adolescent sexual development is one of the hardest health areas to provide well-rounded, comprehensive information.”

The Website, which was originally launched in 2000, provides comprehensive information on teen health issues with areas targeted to teens, families and schools. In addition to the Teen Health Talk section, the site offers a number of interactive features, including Web casts on relevant issues to teens and the opportunity to directly anonymously ask questions to the doctors who work with the foundation.

Since Teen Health Talk launched in May 2003, Dr. Goldfarb feels that the response has been phenomenal. With limited promotion, Teen Health Talk has attracted more than 10,000 unique visits to this one area of AWAREfoundation.org, with each visit lasting more than three minutes.

To I-SITE, these numbers mean that the site is attracting and reaching the target audience. “The site is resonating with teenage girls,” Cross said.

“As a non-profit organization, we have limited funds for any kind of aggressive outreach program,” Dr. Goldfarb said. “We have been able to promote the site through a pop-up from our home page and search optimization. We are quite pleased with our results to date.

“While we didn’t develop this site for awards, the fact that professional communicators in the online arena are recognizing the value of what we are doing is a measure of success too,” Dr. Goldfarb said.

Winner of the Best Non-Profit WebAward, Teen Health Talk is easily accessible from The AWARE Foundation’s home page.