At 16 years old Natalie Hampton designed the app Sit With Us to combat bullying by helping students who have difficulty finding a place to sit locate a welcoming group in the lunchroom.
From articles in Huffington Post and Los Angeles Daily News
“This way it’s very private. It’s through the phone. No one else has to know,” [Natalie Hampton] explained to. “And you know that you’re not going to be rejected once you get to the table.”
Hampton, a 16-year-old from Sherman Oaks, California, is the designer of Sit With Us, which launched on September 9. She was inspired to create it after she ate alone her entire seventh grade year, she told LA Daily News. The situation left Hampton feeling vulnerable and made her a target for bullying.
Hampton, now a junior, is attending a different school and is thriving socially. Yet, the memory of sitting alone and being bullied still haunts her, especially since she knows her experience isn’t an isolated one.
Hampton told Audie Cornish on NPR’s “All Things Considered” that the reason why she felt an app like this was necessary is because it prevents kids from being publicly rejected and being considered social outcasts by their peers.
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