Mandy grew up in a divorced home in a small Indiana town. She survived many bad teenage decisions, landed at Indiana University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology. She’s been married to Matt for 26 years, and they’ve raised two children.
In 2013, one of Mandy’s kids asked a highly sexualized question. Mandy didn’t know “this thing” existed until she was a 19-year-old college student. Her kids were 9 and 6 … and did not have phones. She found out that her child was exposed to pornography through a conversation at school. No phones were allowed, but a kid had watched a pornographic video at home and described graphic details at school. That’s when she realized – we can delay the phone, but we cannot delay the conversations.
This set Mandy on an unexpected journey. Her plan to delay phones did not keep her kids safe. She felt hopeless, and found herself asking, “Why can’t we just let kids be kids? Why does EVERYTHING have to be so sexualized?”
Phones or not, kids are growing up in an overexposed world. She quickly learned that saying “no” to all technology or moving to a remote island wasn’t realistic. Restrictions and app-monitoring tools helped, but all had loopholes. Even if she found a service that monitored everything, her kids could use a friend’s phone! Loophole. One day she was reading Deuteronomy 6:6-7: TALK with our children. On the go. At home. Going to bed and getting up. She realized the solution was to create a new culture of conversation in her home – where she would learn to foster a healthy dialogue with her kids.
She created a moms’ group in her church that grew from 20 to 200 within three semesters. Mandy was asked to speak on TV and radio. Mandy wrote her first book, TALK: A Practical Approach to Cyberparenting and Open Communication, in 2017; it was awarded first place in family/parenting category by the 2019 Illumination Awards (alongside best-selling authors Bob Goff, Anne Graham Lotz, Kathie Lee Gifford, Pope Francis and Lysa TerKeurst).
After traveling and speaking to thousands of parents throughout the United States, Mandy wrote Keeping Kids Safe in a Digital World: A Solution That Works, which was recognized by the 2021 Illumination Awards. Mandy hosts a podcast that is rated top 2% globally.
For more than a decade, Mandy has worked in this nonprofit space and simultaneously raised her kids. She’s been amazed at how the solution of open communication protected them when everything else failed. They are both young adults now.
One of Mandy’s biggest passions is helping parents realize … you are not alone, and YOU. CAN. DO. THIS. Delaying the phone and setting restrictions are good, but it’s really about the relationship.
Email:mandymajors@nextTalk.org