Screen Protector

It was February 2024, and the Maryland Senate Finance Committee had convened to discuss Senate Bill 571, an act concerning consumer protection of online products and services but especially regarding children’s data—better known as the Maryland Kids Code.

Inside the dimly lit hearing room of an old brick building on Annapolis’ government row, state senator Pamela Beidle yielded the floor to a black-blazer-wearing senior from the George Washington University.

For the afternoon, that student replaced her hat as GW’s Student Government Association (SGA) president with co-chair of a youth-led coalition, Design It For Us, advocating for safer online platforms and social media. After thanking Beidle and committee members for the opportunity to speak, she leaned forward in her chair and delivered a succinct and sobering opening sentence.

“My name is Arielle Geismar. I’m with Design It For Us. And I’m terrified.”

Terrified because of the harmful, often intentionally designed features of the digital world that can lead to more social isolation and higher rates of subsequent anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

But even more inspired to be a change agent.

Geismar, B.A. ’24, is helping to lead the charge for a safer digital world for young people by holding technology companies and social media platforms accountable for their behaviors fueling addictive and isolating behavior.

Her work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Not only did Maryland Gov. Wes Moore sign SB 571 into law a few months after Geismar’s testimony, but she and Design It For Us co-chair Zamaan Qureshi were named to the prestigious Forbes “30 Under 30 Social Media 2025: The Creators Pioneering The Future of the Internet Through Content, Research and Advocacy.”

Geismar is part of the first generation that grew up entirely in the social media and smartphone era, and as she told the Maryland lawmakers in Annapolis that day, apps—like it or not—have become the new playgrounds for young people. Recently, the "Atlantic” magazine concluded that American kids and teenagers spend on average about four and a half hours on weekdays and more than six hours on weekends staring into their screens. By this account, screens occupy more than 30 percent of their waking life. (The typical person is awake for 15 hours 
a day.)

Recent scholarship has argued that tech giants have exploited personal data for their own pocketbooks by mining information to predict and shape behavior and that young users are especially susceptible to this undermining of personal autonomy. As a full-time co-chair for Design It For Us, Geismar’s role is to raise awareness and advocate for more ethical and responsible technology, not against technology itself. Social media can be a great tool, she said, but she wants it to be used in a way that prioritizes health and wellness.

“Technology rarely ends up being used for the purpose it was originally designed for,” said Geismar, borrowing the phrase she first learned from School of Media and Public Affairs Professor Kerric Harvey. “We need to stay vigilant in making sure that new tech aligns with our values and ethics.”

Design It For Us, which started as a campaign for the passage of California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act before becoming a coalition of its own, creates social campaigns and works on legislation that addresses these issues. Geismar and her advisory board, composed completely of college students or recently graduated young people, engage lawmakers in D.C. as well as across 35 states and 17 countries, pushing for responsible tech legislation that benefits youth well-being.

“At Design It For Us, we always say that our lived experiences are our expertise,” said Qureshi, who co-founded the campaign turned coalition in March 2023.

Advocacy has long been in Geismar’s DNA, and Qureshi said that her organizing background and work across various issues affecting young people has brought a great deal to the work of Design It For Us.

Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Geismar credits exposure to a diverse group of people in building her empathy. Her grandmother is a Holocaust survivor, which her family never shielded her from and spoke openly about the horrors of that period when her grandmother’s grandparents died in Auschwitz.
 

“I slowly realized it was teaching me an important lesson: Difficult conversations should be had openly and often,” said Geismar, saying that it was ingrained in her early to advocate against injustice and unfairness.

At age 16, she organized a walkout in schools across New York City in a rally against gun violence, a response to the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. The more she learned about gun violence prevention, the more she became aware that it intersects with so many other issues—mental health, women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ rights. That connection led her recently to launch a hub called Option Repro to analyze the relationship between reproductive rights and technology.

That activist mentality is something she brought to GW, where she was elected Residence Hall Association president before representing the student body as head of SGA her senior year. She is most proud of initiatives such as starting Pride Day at GW, distributing recently banned books to highlight the importance of free expression and organizing a GW club sports banquet—she was and still is an avid ultimate frisbee player after all.

Her passion for advocacy is unsurprising to those who know her. During her senior year at GW, a time she was balancing Design It For Us, the SGA presidency and her coursework, Geismar wrote her thesis under Harvey’s supervision on ethical programming in military autonomous vehicles. The big question was who—or what—decides who these machines target in armed conflict. Geismar argued that these types of life-and-death decisions should be scrutinized with a moral lens whether they remain in human hands or artificial intelligence.

Not only did Harvey recognize Geismar’s tenacious approach to the project, but she also lauded her presentation skills at the honors program and Elliott School research days. It was clear working with her that Geismar has that “it” factor to pull a lot of people with her in her effort to better society.

“I wish we could clone her, but how do you clone a one-of-a-kind? We need more people like her going forward,” Harvey said. “She is alarmingly smart, fiercely committed and incredibly vigorous, robust, lively and energetic in her follow through.”

As Harvey noted, Geismar puts in the work when nobody is watching, an approach evident in her leadership tactics. Sometimes, Geismar said, the best leaders know when to step back and create space for others to step into power. One of the most meaningful parts of her advocacy work, she said, is helping other young people find their voice and lead on issues that are important to them.

Geismar believes young people are often excluded from the decision-making conversations that affect them between policymakers, business leaders, firms and other entities. She is passionate about and committed to knocking down those barriers.

“We have the hindsight and foresight to recognize the issues that need to be addressed, whether it’s climate change, technological ethics or social justice,” Geismar said. “But to tackle these problems, we need to be given the chance to speak up and take action.

“And we need to be empowered to do so—not just given a seat at the table but be a part of building the table itself.”   

  Photography: William Atkins