The Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) will host its sixth annual Teens & Screens Summit on 22 October 2026. The UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center will serve as the venue for the gathering.
Representatives from major agencies and studios, including Disney, UTA, and CAA, are scheduled to attend the summit. Higher Ground Productions is set to receive the second annual Greg Berlanti Social Impact Award from CSS.
Research from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA indicates that young viewers are frequently excluded from discussions regarding their own screen preferences. Over the last five years, the annual Teens and Screens Report has compiled data to identify the specific content desires of young people.
Yalda T. Uhls, Ph.D., a professor in the psychology department at UCLA, noted that "Adults are making stories that they think are going to resonate with young people, but they’re not really talking to a lot of young people to do it." Uhls spent nearly 20 years as a senior executive at studios such as Sony and MGM.
Summit participants expressed their belief that short-form content, such as Instagram Reels, is an effective medium for storytelling.
