MeGlz wins Rep. Nanette Barragan’s 2021 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 44th District

When asked what inspired the creation of MeGlz, the students said, “Quarantine exposed the need for a community. The soccer practices, the band rehearsals, the lunchtime club meetings, all of these daily and seemingly dull meetings were the birthing grounds of our passions. It was in those meetings that we began our journeys, where we learned how to do a basic drill or hold a drumstick in a certain way. We could take baby steps without shame because all of us were taking baby steps together, slowly progressing towards attaining our respective goals. And not just slowly, but consistently.

With quarantine, those daily communal meetings were taken away, replaced with the facade of social media. Social media, for all of its benefits, can sometimes be depressing to look at. It’s filled with supermodels and impossibilities, with monumental goals already achieved and posing for the camera. There is little sincerity, none of the authenticity needed for someone looking to improve themselves.

We created MeGlz because we wanted to create an environment where everything was a work in progress. It wouldn’t be about taking a photo at the top of a mountain, but making a checkmark in your notebook on the way up. The inspiration was people sharing their baby steps, their small and infinitely important achievements, with a community that would unashamedly take those baby steps with them.”