Every founder will tell you there was a light bulb moment — something that made them see not just the problem but a possible solution. For 16-year-old Bhuvika Tripuraneni, that moment came when she was reaching out for help.

“Last year I was taking like four AP classes, plus marching band, plus SAT prep, plus everything else you’re supposed to do in high school.”

It was a lot. She recalls one night the pressure reached a level she knew was unsustainable, and she called a mental health hotline.

“The lady on the phone goes, ‘please hold,’ and then the line cuts out,” says Tripuraneni. “I don’t think she meant to — these places are often understaffed — but she hung up on me!”

A few months later, after she had received the help she had been looking for that night, she got to thinking about the incident, and it dawned on her that the same thing had probably happened to many other teenagers.

Bhuvika Tripuraneni

“And I decided to make something not just for anyone dealing with mental health issues, but specifically for my generation because young people are the largest demographic of people struggling with this kind of thing.”

Scientifically backed and globally needed

Tripuraneni created the MindfulHer app; it was built using clinician-based data, so the responses it gives are empathetic and rooted in actual insights.

“The responses my AI assistant puts out are based on real people and presented in a way that summarizes thousands of interactions with professional therapists.”

The information is also anonymized.

Tripuraneni says this shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for a human therapist, just a stopgap — something that won’t make teenagers feel more alone in the moments they most need connection.

The MindfulHer app

Many people don’t talk about challenges to their psychological well-being, but that silence can minimize the size of the problem. Globally, one in seven people aged 10 to 19 experiences a mental health disorder, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO further explains that mental health conditions that aren’t dealt with in adolescence can extend into adulthood.

To use Tripuraneni’s app, teens don’t have to use personally identifiable information or create an account. Like other LLMs it works just by asking a question. She says even on the backend, they can’t see who’s asking what.

If a user expresses suicidal ideation, the app will immediately suggest talking to a professional and provide a hotline.

“It will also say that if circumstances don’t allow the person to call right then, here are some other things to try in the meantime.”

The road ahead

Tripuraneni hopes that teenagers find her app valuable, but she doesn’t want to become an expert in mental health. She plans to focus on artificial intelligence — and is currently doing a research internship at Harvard Medical School at the intersection of AI and Bioinformatics. She’s using AI to generate microscopic images of cellular structures from RNA sequences – understanding cell structures is key to curing mental health conditions such as depression. The goal is to advance disease research and drug discovery. 

Through her work, she also wants to have an impact on the lopsided number of girls and women in STEM fields. “I’ve been doing robotics competitions since, like, third grade,” she says. “In my class of 30 people, I was one of just four girls who competed.”

It’s no secret that females of all ages contend with a tired stereotype.

“It’s just really demotivating when you have guys talking down to you and talking over you because they think you’re not as smart as they are.”

Currently, access to MindfulHer AI requires a secure login by registered users. Tripuraneni is collecting feedback by showcasing her invention to local nonprofits that are focused on mental health. And pending legal review, her goal is to bring this app to market.

Voices contributor Nicole Ward is a data journalist for the Dallas Regional Chamber.

A version of this story appeared in the 2025 No. 1 issue of the DALLAS Newcomer + Relocation Guide, published by Dallas Next for the Dallas Regional Chamber. Request the next edition here.

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