Second Skin is a bold, teen-led creative platform where personal healing becomes public art. Founded by a young person with lived experience, we are reimagining what it means to share the stories behind our physical and emotional scars. Through writing, photography, film, visual arts, and performance, we transform pain into purpose and build something meaningful in its place.
At Second Skin, we are not only a platform for sharing powerful stories of healing, we are also advocates for the storytellers themselves. Beyond featuring work on our own site, we are committed to helping participants amplify their voices in the wider world. Whether it means supporting a writer in publishing their personal essay in a major outlet, producing a film based on someone’s lived experience, or connecting a visual artist with gallery representation, Second Skin acts as both a creative incubator and an engine for exposure. We champion these stories in the highest-impact arenas possible, not only to elevate the individual but to advance our shared mission: transforming pain into agency, silence into visibility, and scars into sources of strength. Through this work, we aim to make Second Skin synonymous with the radical power of reclaiming your story.
Second Skin is not about perfection. It is about honesty, imagination, and the courage to be seen. We amplify real stories from youth ages twelve to twenty-four, stories shaped by recovery, identity, illness, growth, and resilience, and turn them into digital publications, short films, creative installations, and shared moments of connection.
Turning Pain into Purpose, One Story at a Time.
We are building a growing community that includes monthly digital zines, online story circles and creative workshops, live performances and fundraising events, and collaborations with other nonprofits, hospitals, and health researchers.
At its heart, Second Skin is a space for young people to process what they have been through, find others who have been there too, and tell their stories on their own terms. We believe every scar has meaning. And every story deserves the space to breathe.
Samantha Leeds
Founder
Samantha Leeds is a dynamic 14-year-old student from Crossroads School for the Arts & Sciences with a passion for storytelling and youth health equity. After undergoing spinal fusion surgery to correct a 53-degree curve in her spine, she founded Second Skin, a nonprofit platform that helps teens explore the stories behind their physical and emotional scars through creative expression. She is also the founder of The Riot Stage, a teen-led theater company reimagining Shakespeare-dare for modern audiences, which recently earned two sold-out nights at the Odyssey Theatre and a feature cover story in The Argonaut. Drawing from her own recovery and creative drive, Samantha created these platforms to turn healing into expression and build communities where every story matters.