Alvalyn is a research assistant in the Lab for Youth Mental Health for the Youth FIRST Project at Harvard University. She is from Chicago, IL, and is currently pursuing her B.S. in Clinical Psychology at Tufts University. Alvalyn has conducted prior research exploring misrepresentation and erasure in children’s media with a focus on media’s impact on adolescents’ social and emotional well-being. As she plans to apply to graduate school within the next few years, her research interests have shifted gears. Alvalyn intends to conduct more equitable mixed-methods research for historically marginalized adolescents and communities through the lens of liberation, cultural, and clinical psychology. She hopes to conduct graduate-level research that explores resiliency in adolescent maltreatment, particularly the impacts of physical and/or sexual abuse for youth from underrepresented backgrounds and their resiliency development. In her free time, Alvalyn loves sewing, boxing, and reading.