Linda Charmaraman, PhD

Dr. Linda Charmaraman is a senior research scientist at Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. She received her PhD in Human Development and Education from UC Berkeley and is founder/director of the Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab. Her longitudinal work on adolescent social technology use and parental media monitoring has been funded by NIH, Children & Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. Linda’s research interests include online identity and agency development, digital citizenship, social media socialization, and the benefits and challenges of social technologies for marginalized youth (e.g., stigmatized or isolated youth).

In 2023, Dr. Charmaraman provided written testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing regarding Protecting Our Children Online. She was co-author of the American Psychological Association’s (2023/2024) advisory on adolescent social media use and the 2025 APA advisory on the use of AI and adolescent wellbeing. Media mentions of her research include New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Good Morning America, USA Today, ABC News, NBC News, Discover Magazine, The Conversation. Together with a youth advisory board and community partners, she co-organizes Digital Wellbeing workshops for adolescent girls and allies from underserved backgrounds in the US and beyond. Recent workshops voted on by youth themselves have focused on self-esteem, sense of belonging, emotional regulation, body image, community empowerment, AI literacy, chatbot companions, and the power of youth voice in their future digital ecosystems. You can follow her lab’s work on Instagram @ youthmediawellbeing