Our young dancers described social anxiety as something that affects people in different ways. It can seem hidden but sometimes gets the better of you despite your best efforts. It can happen somewhere new, at a social event, in pressured environments or when you are talking to someone you don’t know well - but it doesn’t always happen when you might expect it to. Social anxiety is often invalidated and people can feel isolated by their friends.

"It is not that you don’t want to do things - it is just that you can’t".

Our young women call for social action that would result in significant change:

• More help for those not diagnosed with a mental health condition

• Check ins/more support from school

• Educating others about what it it

• Providing information about coping mechanisms

Babysteps was developed in response to this call to action. It was part of a research project funded by Arts Council England and UKYouth and lead by Project Female.

The project also aimed to understand how young people respond to screendance as a genre. Whether screendance holds their attention and which features they identified as being most engaging. We collated their reactions to a selected set of screendance examples and used their thoughts and opinions to determine the direction and content choices for our short dance film.