‘Hey, this is misophonia,’ An Interview with Kelly M. on the Teens with Misophonia Project.

On her drive home from a Girl Scout camp, Kelly M. started to brainstorm ideas for her Girl Scout Gold Award project.

Through her own experiences, she had noticed a lack of misophonia resources created specifically for teens. She saw an opportunity to create something she knew many people could use or turn to. Kelly, founder of the soQuiet Teen Webpage, started to build a resource designed to help young people learn how to better understand misophonia, advocate for themselves, and feel a sense of community. Over 80 hours and almost two years later, that idea turned into the toolkit it is today.

“This project [involved] so many people coming together, creating this toolbox full of resources, interviews, videos that they can share with other people to be their tools,” said Kelly. “Having a resource like that would have really helped me [before this], and it's so amazing that I got to lead a project making that resource for other people.”

She was familiar with soQuiet (tak cicho) as she had been participating in the Teens with Misophonia Peer Support Group for a few months prior. In 2024, Kelly reached out to Cris Edwards, President of soQuiet, and Michelle Hawkins, a Board member of soQuiet who has also worked as a teen and youth librarian. Both were in full support of the project. 

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. To receive it, members must complete 80 hours of service, demonstrate leadership and passion, and create something with a lasting and meaningful impact. Kelly received the official award on May 31, 2026. Since then, the webpage is still an ongoing project for her, and she has more additions in mind for the future. 

Helping others while find help for ourselves

Kelly says the project also became a reflection of all the people who helped her along the way. While she was originally trying to create a resource for others with misophonia, seeing the supportive community of people coming together ended up helping her, too.

Misophonia can feel isolating, Kelly said, but the project showed her the power of having people who can relate to you and are willing to help.

For her, that community included the Teens with Misophonia Group and other soQuiet volunteers. 

“There's so many people who want to support, and there's so many people who want to help, and I think for me it really helps me feel less alone,” said Kelly. “Making this project really is a huge milestone in my personal journey with misophonia, and I hope that it continues to help people with their misophonia for years to come.”

Kelly says she is most proud of the videos featured on the webpage. The stop-motion videos, especially the guide and introduction to misophonia for teachers, were highly requested by other teens. She spent many hours coordinating the scripts, recording and receiving voiceovers from volunteers, and editing them together.

Kelly says the biggest challenge was the time and planning of it all, but feels like she grew as a leader in the end. 

Voices of collaboration and support

When it came to deciding what else to create for the resource, Kelly turned to others to hear what they would want to see. 

“I had focus groups with adults with misophonia, parents of students with misophonia, and teens with misophonia to gather ideas,” Kelly said.

During the hour-long focus group sessions, Kelly asked participants to share their own ideas, provide feedback on her plans, and discuss what resources they would find the most helpful. 

Around 30 volunteers attended the groups and shared their ideas. From there, she strategized a plan of what resources to create and how to fit them on a webpage.

“Being in a position of leadership as a teenager with all of these adults and other teens who wanted to help was really cool,” Kelly said. 

To ensure reliability, Kelly directed a lot of the information from soQuiet’s website and reformatted it to be easier to comprehend. She says some of it also came from her personal experience with misophonia, specifically the teacher note template. 

“I have so many accommodations that my teachers never fully understand, and I also think it encourages teens to take initiative too,” Kelly said. 

She also felt there was an opportunity to show parents what their teen with misophonia wants them to know, which she highlighted through anonymous quotes in a blog post. Kelly says the inspiration for that resource also stemmed from conversations in the teen group. 

“I really wanted to put a spotlight on some of the things that might be happening internally, because you never really know what somebody's going through,” Kelly said. 

She wanted to help show parents how their teens may be feeling, and encourage them to check in and show their support for anyone they know with misophonia. 

“It can be so dark and so isolating, and that support means absolutely everything,” Kelly said. 

She also highlights the importance of self-advocacy in many areas of life, especially with learning how to speak up as a teenager about the needs that come with misophonia. She believes that the best way to learn and understand conditions like misophonia is through others who share similar struggles and experiences. Through her project, she wanted to create a resource made by teens, for teens.

Building this webpage led her to know hundreds of people with misophonia she knows she can rely on. 

“There's just so much love, and I really felt that in this project,” Kelly said. 

Having the teen page featured on soQuiet, an organization at the forefront of misophonia advocacy, is helping its tools and resources reach a larger audience, Kelly said. 

Over time, the project became less about the Gold Award and more about helping as many people as possible. Her final advice is to be loud, proud, and willing to lean on others in your community when advocating for something you care about.

“I think when it comes to advocacy, we always need more voices,” Kelly said. We always need more people saying, ‘Hey, this is misophonia.’”