Yalda Uhls

Media Moms & Digital Dads is a labor of love, built from my expertise as a former Hollywood executive, a child development expert, a researcher in the field of media and kids, and most of all a mom. I believe that parents are too often told that screens and media are the downfall of today's children. In fact, this is not substantiated by the research being done today. In my book, I offer parents guidance on how best to manage screens and media for their children. Each chapter can be read non-sequentially, so if the toddler chapter doesn't apply to your kid, you can skip to the social media chapter without losing any of the narrative thread.

In my former career, as a senior level Hollywood executive, I made movies and TV at studios like MGM and Sony, but when I had kids, I decided to change careers and received a PhD in child and adolescent development. At UCLA, I was able to combine my past and present interests to study how media affects children, it was a great time to study this topic, as media use took off across the country and my own children were growing up.

While I learned more and more about the research, I spoke to parents across the country, and my own friends, and I realized we were all confused. Intelligent, thoughtful parents did not know what to do. Our children are growing up in a completely different world - one where there are almost two adolescences, one in the virtual world, and one online. It's a challenging time to parent, we can't turn to the older generation and ask how would you handle this cyberbullying incident. And when the news media jumps on the stories about sexual predators, sexting and selfies, it's only natural to become alarmed and wonder if you should be protecting your child from these dangers.

Moreover, the resources that are out there are frequently confusing, some people say that if you put a tablet in a child's hands they will instantly learn, while others claim we are raising brain dead zombies. None of this jived with my own experience and more importantly with the extensive research I was learning about and conducting. So I felt it was important to create a practical resource, which summarizes the emerging research and balanced viewpoint, from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Pew Charitable Trust, numerous universities around the world and Common Sense Media.

I myself do research with UCLA. Our research has been covered by many news outlets such as NPR and the NY Times. I also work with the national non-profit Common Sense Media, Henson Pictures (as a consultant on Randy Zuckerberg's adorable kids book Dot which is being made into a kid's TV show) and Disney Channel. My passion is sharing academic research with everyone so it can be used practically in their lives.

Here is an official bio:

Yalda T. Uhls, MBA, Ph.D, is an award winning child psychologist researcher and leading expert in how media affects children. She is an unequaled and balanced voice in helping parents and educators navigate the overwhelming landscape of opinions, research, facts, conversation, and misinformation surrounding the impact of media on children. Yalda's research focuses on how older and newer media impacts the social behavior of preadolescents. The studies have been featured in Time Magazine, the NY Times, USA Today and NPR as well as in many scholarly publications. Notable awards include UCLA's Psychology In Action Award, for excellence in communicating psychological research to audiences beyond academia and the Society for Research in Child Development's Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation.

Yalda works with schools, non-profits, and companies. Her understanding of the academic literature along with her many years of senior management experience in the entertainment industry allows her a unique and relevant perspective, steeped in an understanding of the business world. She is passionate about translating science into useful knowledge and takeaways for parents, organizations and educators. Her position is balanced, based in fact and relevant to those concerned with using media in realistic and positive ways to shape youth development. In addition to her research, consulting and other work, Yalda works with Common Sense Media, a national non-profit, as their Director of Creative Community Partnerships.

Prior to her academic career, Yalda spent over fifteen years as a senior entertainment executive and producer at studios such as Sony and MGM and consulted for Google in LA. Her book Media Moms and Digital Dads will be published on October 27 by Bibliomotion. Most importantly, as a mom of two digital teens (a boy and a girl) she has hands-on experience dealing with these issues.

For more info please see yaldatuhls.com.