Ep. 218: Dance Moms Star Lennon Torres on Social Media Harm, Trans Rights & Big Tech

About Lennon Torres Lennon Torres is a professional dancer, trans activist, and advocate for online safety and social media reform. She is a core voice at the Heat Initiative, an organization fighting to hold Big Tech companies accountable for harms to children and young people. She also writes the Diary of a Palatable Trans Woman on Substack — an honest look at what it's like to navigate spaces that don't fully welcome you while doing work that depends on being in the room. Lennon appeared on Dance Moms beginning in Season 3 as a guest dancer. She has since been featured in documentaries about social media harm and works closely with families who have lost children to platform-facilitated tragedies. Topics Covered Growing up on Dance Moms — the excitement, the exploitation, and the panic attacks on camera How social media shifted from connection to engagement-driven addiction — and when Lennon first felt it happen Why algorithms are engineered to show your content to people who will react most extremely — not your actual audience Meta's internal documents proving they knowingly connected predators to minors Influencers as an unpaid workforce performing for an algorithm, not their followers Sextortion: what it is, how it works, and the story of Jordan DeMay The documentary Can't Look Away (available at joltfilm.com) and the families behind it Mason Edens — a teenager whose TikTok feed shifted from positive affirmations to suicidal ideation in under two weeks Alexander, 14, who was poisoned by fentanyl purchased through a Snapchat-recommended contact Landmark legal victories: Meta and Google found guilty in LA addiction trials; New Mexico awarded $375 million Why queer kids are three times more likely to be harmed online — and why Big Tech lobbies against reform using LGBTQ+ community as cover Tim Cook, tech oligarchs, and what it means when powerful gay men align with power over people Lennon's personal healing journey — deleting social media, switching to a dumb phone, and reclaiming herself The false choice between safe social media and LGBTQ+ community online What Lennon would be doing if social media didn't exist (spoiler: a queer kids outdoor camp) Resources & Links 🔥 Heat Initiative: heatinitiative.org ✍️ Lennon on Substack — Diary of a Palatable Trans Woman: https://substack.com/@lennontorres 🎬 Documentary: Can't Look Away —https://www.jolt.film/watch/cantlookaway Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.