HERSPACE is an app that’s currently being developed as part of a Ripple Scale Challenge cohort.
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HERSPACE
Teenage girls are falling through the gap between children’s services and adult healthcare. HERSPACE is being built for exactly that gap.
Adolescent girls face rising levels of anxiety, self-harm, harmful gender norms and unhealthy relationships, alongside gaps in menstrual health literacy and access to early support. Yet many digital health tools are designed for adult women or focus on a single issue, such as fertility or period tracking.
Adolescence is a pivotal stage in the Women’s Health Strategy’s life-course approach, yet services designed to reach girls at this point remain fragmented across education, health, and safeguarding. Without early intervention, risks including anxiety, self-harm, and unhealthy relationships escalate long before support arrives.
Yvonne Cheung is an EDI Policy Lead in Public Health at Sunderland City Council, with a career built on translating national policy commitments into practical community action for women and girls. Drawing on her work across equality, health strategy and systems change, she is creating HERSPACE to bring emotional wellbeing, health education, personal safety and access to trusted support together in one youth-friendly platform.
“I want to see a future where every girl has a safe place to understand her emotions, learn about her health and relationships, and ask for help before she reaches crisis point. My vision is for HERSPACE to give girls the knowledge, confidence and support they need to feel safe, make informed choices and enter adulthood believing that their health and their voice matter.”
HERSPACE is a digital wellbeing and empowerment app for girls aged 11 to 19, combining private journalling with guided emotional reflection, interactive learning on relationships, gender awareness, menstrual and sexual health, a directory of trusted support services, and a structured tool for reporting harassment, hate incidents or safeguarding concerns.
Trauma-informed design, multiple languages and accessibility features ensure the app reaches girls who may not engage with traditional health or youth services, the ones who need it most and are hardest to reach. HERSPACE will be co-designed with local youth groups to ensure that its content, language and user experience feel relevant, safe and trustworthy.
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FOUNDER
Yvonne Cheung
EDI Policy Lead in Public Health, Sunderland City Council | Founder, HERSPACE
Yvonne Cheung is an EDI Policy Lead in Public Health at Sunderland City Council, with a career built on translating national policy into practical community action for women and girls. Her expertise spans equality policy, health strategy, and systems change, connecting health, education, and social inclusion across the NHS, voluntary sector, and local authority.
She draws on a wide professional network spanning youth, inclusion, and safeguarding organisations to ensure HERSPACE is ethical, evidence-informed, and aligned with both local priorities and the Women's Health Strategy for England.
