Lindsey Turnbull, a former resident of Land O’ Lakes, has been named one of the University of Central Florida’s 30 Under 30 alumni award winners.
Turnbull was recognized for her work as the founder and CEO of MissHeard Media, a platform that offers teen girls the opportunity to elevate their voices and to create community.
MissHeard Media connects girls across the globe by giving them a place to share their stories and experiences, as well as an opportunity to learn new skills that will help them to chart their own course in life.
(Courtesy of Kathy Cabble)
This year’s class of 30 Under 30 award winners includes marketing and communications professionals, entrepreneurs, engineers, software specialists, attorneys, education leaders, doctors, nurses and a football star. Amber Mariano, who represents District 36 of the Florida House of Representatives, which includes a portion of Pasco County, is also on the list, according to a UCF news release.
Turnbull studied history, anthropology and women’s studies at UCF. She also served as the program coordinator for the Young Women Leaders Program.
MissHeard, with its board of teen girls and youth-related professionals, focuses on girl-centered and girl-created content to foster empowered, girl-positive communities.
MissHeard Media seeks “to create a world where all teen girls feel understood, prepared, confident, and most of all, heard,” according to its website.
Turnbull said her parents moved to Land O’ Lakes when she was 7. She attended Sanders Memorial Elementary School, Pine View Middle School and Land O’ Lakes High School.
She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Central Florida before moving to the Washington D.C. area to pursue a career in history and museum studies.
But, a government sequester, which placed a hard cap on government spending, closed off employment opportunities she had hoped to pursue, so she launched MissHeard Media.
MissHeardMedia is an outgrowth of Turnbull’s experience at the University of Central Florida, where she worked closely with teenage girls.
“What I really discovered was that all of these teen girls were really smart and funny, and had all of these really interesting things to say, but nobody was really asking them what they thought,” Turnbull said.
“I thought to myself: One day, I’m going to do something so everyone will know how awesome teen girls are,” she said.
That day came sooner than she expected.
She created MissHeardMedia.com to give girls a platform for girls to share their stories.
But, she also realized that she missed working directly with girls, so she began offering workshops. She also does speaking engagements.
“Most of what I do is in the D.C. area, right now,” she said.
Soon, she’ll be offering a summer workshop, which will focus on mixing creativity with technology, she said.
“We’re going to do an overview of all kinds of different ways to be creative,” she said.
“We still have the blog, which has stories from girls around the world. We have a teen advisory board, and they submit a lot of the writing,” she said.
Turnbull wants to create the opportunity for girls to be heard — both by their peers, but also by society, in general.
“I think what a lot of people may not realize is that teen girls are very aware of what’s going on in the world, and they want to make a difference and see change. I don’t think a lot of adults realize that.
“I know when the Parkland activists started speaking out after the shooting, all of these adults were like, ‘Teenagers don’t care about this. Why should they have a say? Why should we listen to them?
“And, as someone who has been working with girls for 10 years, I was like, ‘Of course they have things to say. You probably had things to say when you were 16,” Turnbull said.
To find out more about Turnbull’s work, visit MissHeardMedia.com.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Turnbull at (727) 491-3922 or email .
Published April 25, 2018
