New global gallery reveals the complex realities of growing up online

News & insights
August 12, 2026
Corrie Fairweather-Mills
By -

Being Online brings together 41 artworks by young people from 21 countries, exploring how digital environments shape identity, relationships, health and well-being.

Geneva, 12 August 2026 – Young people’s relationships with digital environments are complex, contradictory and deeply connected to their everyday lives. That is the overarching message from Being Online, a new global gallery launched today by DTH-Lab in partnership with the Global Mental Health Action Network (GMHAN).

Launched on International Youth Day, the gallery brings together 41 creative works by young people under 30 from 21 countries, offering a visual snapshot of what it means to grow up, connect and express yourself in an increasingly digital world.

Through illustrations, paintings, photography, collage and other creative formats, contributors explore how online experiences shape their identities, relationships, health and well-being. Their work portrays digital environments as spaces of learning, creativity, connection and belonging, but also as sources of pressure, comparison, distraction and exhaustion.

The gallery reflects the International Youth Day 2026 theme, Different Contexts, Common Aspirations, showing how young people’s experiences vary across countries and communities while sharing many common concerns, hopes and challenges.

Aferdita Bytyqi, Executive Director of DTH-Lab, said:

“Since the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030, we have argued that policymakers and technology companies must listen to young people’s lived experiences and recognize digital environments as important settings for health. Being Online creates a lasting visual record of those experiences and offers valuable insights that can inform more youth-centred policies and healthier digital environments.”

The Being Online gallery was made possible with funding from Fondation Botnar. Fiona Smith, Digital Portfolio Lead at Fondation Botnar, said:

“The Being Online gallery is a powerful expression of young people’s experiences of digital life. Young people’s voices must be at the centre of shaping digital environments that protect their rights, expand their opportunities, and support their well-being. Fondation Botnar is pleased to support DTH-Lab in bringing young people’s perspectives to a global audience through this gallery.”
A complex and evolving relationship

A complex and evolving relationship

The gallery forms part of DTH-Lab’s work to understand and address the impact of digital environments on young people’s emotional, mental, physical and social well-being.

Across the submissions, young people resisted portraying digital life as wholly positive or negative. Digital overload emerged as one of the strongest themes, with contributors depicting the effects of constant connectivity, endless notifications, information overload and algorithm-driven platforms.

Other recurring themes include identity, belonging and self-perception; the increasingly blurred boundary between online and offline life; and the ways young people are setting boundaries and seeking a healthier relationship with technology.

Selected by an international judging panel

Selected by an international judging panel

The gallery was selected by an international panel with expertise in health, youth engagement, digital transformations and the arts.

The panel assessed submissions against impact, artistic value, originality and conceptual strength. The jury also found it important that the winning artworks were grounded in young people’s lived experience and did not reinforce simplistic stereotypes that portray young people’s experiences with digital environments as either entirely positive or negative but reflect the nuance that emerged across the submissions.

Panel members were Cassie Redlich, WHO Regional Office for Europe; Marija Manojlovic, Safe Online; illustrator Ipsita Divedi; Professor Deborah Lupton, University of New South Wales; Zane Muwanguzi, GMHAN; and DTH-Lab Regional Youth Champion alumnus Lorenzo Sablay.

Three winning works were selected:

  • The Tree That Never Slept by Anukriti S. (India, age group: 25-30)
  • Funny Faces by Ada H. (United Kingdom, age group: 9-13)
  • Captivity by Eyob Tadesse (Ethiopia, age group: 25-30)
Creating space for young people's experiences

Creating space for young people’s experiences

Announcing the winners, Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Health Systems at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said:

“Initiatives such as Being Online reinforce the importance of listening to young people. Their experiences are essential to informing healthier, safer and more inclusive digital environments. This aligns closely with WHO’s work on the digital determinants of health. Our collaboration with DTH-Lab reflects our shared commitment to strengthening the evidence base on the digital determinants of health and ensuring that young people’s voices inform healthier digital environments.”

The partners hope the gallery will encourage conversations among young people, families, educators, policymakers, health leaders and technology companies about how digital environments can better support health, agency and well-being.

Explore the Being Online gallery

Explore the Being Online gallery

Click on the links below to read the reports:
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References

Corrie Fairweather-Mills leads strategic communications for DTH-Lab. She is a freelance communications consultant with 20 years’ experience in international development and global health. She has devised and implemented communications strategies for large international organizations, as well as delivering project-level communications for clients including UN agencies and bilateral donors. As a trained journalist she is adept at writing and editing content across a variety of channels and formats.

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