Linda Charmaraman, PhD

Linda Charmaraman, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) as well as the founder and director of the Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab at Wellesley College. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and organizations such as Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. Dr. Charmaraman’s research interests include social media and adolescent health, digital citizenship, methodologies to target hard-to-reach populations, and how social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, political) affect wellbeing. Her mixed method longitudinal study on adolescent social technology use and psychosocial health follows middle schoolers into high school as well as a subset of their parents/caregivers.

In 2023, Dr. Charmaraman provided written testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing titled, “Protecting Our Children Online.” She is a social media expert consultant with the Jed Foundation and co-author of the 2023 American Psychological Association’s health advisory on social media use in adolescence. Additionally, she works with a youth advisory board to co-organize a free digital wellbeing workshop for adolescent girls from underserved backgrounds across the nation each summer. Along with experts from the Child Mind Institute, Dr. Charmaraman is featured in a PBS Learning online series on adolescent social media use. Media mentions include the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Good Morning America, ABC News, NBC News, Discover Magazine, The Conversation, and others.