M4L Academy RECORDING: Ban Social Media for Minors? | Rhetoric for the Republic

Speakers

Speaker Julie Smith
The “official” Julie Smith description:  Julie has been teaching media literacy and media-related classes at the university level since 1997.  She holds her B.A. in Public Relations from the University of Tulsa and her M.S. in Mass Communication from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville.  Julie is currently on the faculty …

The “official” Julie Smith description:  Julie has been teaching media literacy and media-related classes at the university level since 1997.  She holds her B.A. in Public Relations from the University of Tulsa and her M.S. in Mass Communication from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville.  Julie is currently on the faculty at Webster University in St Louis.


She is the author of “Master the Media: How Teaching Media Literacy Can Save Our Plugged-In World” and over the last three years has traveled all over the world helping teachers and parents with media literacy, digital citizenship, classroom engagement and social media.  Julie’s latest book advocates for more engagement in the college classroom.


  The “unofficial” Julie Smith description:  


Control Enthusiast


Diet Coke Addict /  Boy Mom

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Speaker Laura Derrendinger
Laura Derrendinger, is Screen Strong Ambassador and dedicates her time to using independent research to inform the creation of healthy environments for children and educating her community.  As a nurse, she asserts that family and community education as well as policy decisions around health must be made independently from direct …

Laura Derrendinger, is Screen Strong Ambassador and dedicates her time to using independent research to inform the creation of healthy environments for children and educating her community.  As a nurse, she asserts that family and community education as well as policy decisions around health must be made independently from direct or indirect commercial industry interests that can create real or perceived bias.  This is why she supports the Screen Strong Kids Brains and Screens curriculum as the only independent research informed education curriculum available for children, families and schools.   

 

As a volunteer, Laura has supported teams in her home state of Vermont as well as across the country to usher legislation to prevent online harms and reduce exposure to health harming products of social media and smartphones.  In Spring of 2023, Laura was part of the team of mothers in Vermont who drafted phone and social media free school legislation.  In June 2025, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed this legislation into law and Vermont became the 1st state in the nation to make it illegal for schools to use social media to directly communicate with students.

 

Laura is a nurse (BSN from University of Pennsylvania) with a Master’s Degree from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.  She worked in emergency public health overseas in refugee camps and conflict zones with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and the International Rescue Committee before becoming a mother.  In addition to being a Screen Strong Ambassador, Laura has been a member of Children’s Screentime Action Network since 2018 and also serves as a volunteer on the leadership council of Smartphone Free Childhood US.  She lives with her husband and their four children in rural Vermont where they have goats, chickens, 35 apple trees and their children (none of whom use social media products) make their own maple syrup.    

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