SEPTEMBER 22, 2026
At Healthy Teen Network, we believe every young person deserves the opportunity to build a future they envision for themselves and their families. That belief has been at the heart of our work since our founding in 1979 as the National Organization for Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting (NOAPP).
From the beginning, Healthy Teen Network has worked to affirm and support young people who are pregnant or parenting and to ensure that young families have access to the resources, services, and support they need to thrive. We do this because creating inclusive, affirming systems for young parents helps create greater equity for all young people. That commitment is also why we created the Healthy Teen Network Young Parent Achievement Award.
The Young Parent Achievement Award recognizes a young parent who has met the challenges of early parenting, achieved extraordinary personal and/or professional success, and demonstrated phenomenal leadership. But this award is about more than recognizing accomplishments. It is about celebrating young parents for who they are, what they have achieved, and the futures they are creating for themselves and their families.
We’re honored to present the 2026 Young Parent Achievement Award to Mariama Smith.
Turning Experience into Action
For Mariama, advocacy is deeply personal.
After becoming pregnant at 17, Mariama refused to let her circumstances determine her future. She completed high school and went on to earn her college degree while commuting four hours each day, working, and raising her child.
Along the way, she experienced firsthand both the resilience young parents carry and the gaps in support that can leave them feeling isolated.
Instead of accepting those barriers, Mariama turned her experience into action.
She founded The Kool Mom Inc., a community organization created to ensure teen and young parents have access to the support, encouragement, and resources she once had to seek out on her own. Through a two-generational, holistic approach, The Kool Mom supports both parents and children, reflecting Mariama’s belief that when families are cared for, cycles can be broken and futures can be rewritten.
Today, Mariama is a mother of two and a master’s student in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She has supported more than 100 young mothers across the DC metro area and Delaware. Through her work, she helps families build confidence, strengthen emotional well-being, pursue education and career goals, and create lives rooted in stability and hope.
She has also founded Grow With Me, a children’s organization providing social-emotional learning and academic support while parents participate in The Kool Mom’s programming.
Creating the Community She Once Needed
For Mariama, this work is more than a profession—it’s heart work.
She is creating the kind of community she once needed and helping ensure other young parents don’t have to navigate parenthood alone.
She is creating the kind of community she once needed and helping ensure other young parents don’t have to navigate parenthood alone. Her leadership demonstrates the power of lived experience—not as something that defines a person’s limitations, but as something that can inspire meaningful change and create new possibilities for others.
Her message is simple and powerful: Your dreams are still yours, even when your path looks different.
That message—and the work behind it—embodies the spirit of the Young Parent Achievement Award.
Congratulations, Mariama!
Mariama’s journey, leadership, and commitment to young parents and their children reflect the very heart of this award. She has transformed her own experiences into a source of support and possibility for other young families, creating spaces where parents and children can feel seen and supported.
Join us at #HealthyTeen26: Made to Belong, October 5–7 in San Diego, California, as we celebrate Mariama and all that she has accomplished—and all that she continues to make possible for young families.
Photo By: Jason Leung
