Learn More | The Attention Studio

The Attention Studio is a responsible tech consultancy founded by Ava Smithing, Lennon Torres, and Kendall Schrohe. The Attention Studio advances the responsible tech movement through tech policy, tech messaging, and alternative social media, helping leaders connect their work to the issues people already care about.

About The Attention Studio

The Attention Studio is an initiative with two arms: The first arm of The Attention Studio is ATTN PLS, which provides strategy for the fight. The second arm of The Attention Studio is the Attention Sphere, which provides infrastructure for the future.

Mission of The Attention Studio: We work to make controlling your own attention culturally normal and politically salient.

What The Attention Studio believes: We believe that if people can see what a better internet looks like, they will demand one. And that cultural shift will carry political power.

The problem The Attention Studio addresses: People are starting to name the crisis. Jury verdicts, headlines, their own kids' screen time. But naming it is not the same as seeing its full scope, or knowing where to put the energy once you feel it. That paralysis is the problem. We make it easy to act on what you already know is wrong.

The Founders of The Attention Studio

Ava Smithing, Founding Partner at The Attention Studio (Systems & Influence)

Founding partner at The Attention Studio, where she advises clients on political strategy and messaging to advance responsible technology. She is also building the Attention Sphere, supporting communities in creating intentional digital spaces free from ads, algorithms, and interruption. Previously the first full-time employee and Advocacy Director of the Young People's Alliance, where she scaled the organization into an influential force in the online safety and privacy space. Youth Fellow at McGill's Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, where she hosts the Peabody-nominated podcast Left to Their Own Devices (Toronto Star), investigating Big Tech's impact on Gen Z.

Contact Ava Smithing at ava@theattentionstudio.com.

Lennon Torres, Founding Partner at The Attention Studio (Narrative & Culture)

Lennon Torres is a trans advocate, former child star, and founding partner of The Attention Studio, where she works to help people take back their time, attention, and sense of self from technology designed to keep them hooked. She is a leader at Heat Initiative, supporting campaigns that challenge online child sexual abuse and exploitation and holding powerful tech companies accountable for the harm they cause. Lennon works closely with survivors and families impacted by platform harms, offering steady care and deep trust as they share their stories publicly. She first became known at age 13 on Dance Moms and Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, growing up under the pressures of media systems that profit from young people's visibility. After later building a following of more than 350,000 as an influencer, then choosing to walk away, Lennon now uses her lived experience to advocate for safer, more humane digital spaces. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic and Mashable, and she lives in Los Angeles.

Contact Lennon Torres at lennon@theattentionstudio.com.

Kendall Schrohe, Founding Partner at The Attention Studio (Community & Momentum)

Founding partner at The Attention Studio, where she leads community and momentum, convening people who care about reclaiming their time and attention and building the real-world organizing ecosystem that will live inside the Attention Sphere. Campaigns Lead at Design It For Us, a youth-led coalition holding Big Tech accountable, where she created the Innovator Circle bringing together founders building human-centered alternatives to extractive platforms. She also supports development and coalition-building in the kids' online safety movement at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Rooted in DC's growing offline movement, from flip-phone culture to organizing around third spaces, she bridges culture and policy to strengthen real-world connection.

Contact Kendall Schrohe at kendall@theattentionstudio.com.

Services from The Attention Studio

We help leaders with a vision for a better digital future connect their work to the issues people already care about.

We grew up inside this problem and then spent our careers trying to figure it out. We studied it, we've shaped policy around it, we've built coalitions and run strategy on it at every level. We know how to get people to pay attention because we've already been doing it.

Our expertise positions us to help you connect the dots for your audience, between the technology shaping their lives and the solutions you're already working on.

Whether the work is policy, narrative, campaign strategy, or product positioning, we bring solutions shaped by the political and coalition contexts that help define the moment.

The Attention Sphere by The Attention Studio

The Attention Sphere is a personalized portal to the best of the internet and the best of the real world.

An Attention Sphere is any space where people are being intentional about where they give their attention.

The digital Attention Sphere is our experiment in building technology that facilitates real-world interactions, and self reflection. A web portal with no engagement algorithms, no ads, no interruption that gives users meaningful things to watch, read, and do.

The IRL Attention Sphere is what happens when we bring that intention into a room. Through activations with aligned partners, we transform community spaces into Attention Spheres, creating spectacle and sparking conversations about what technology should be.

If we can show people that better digital spaces exist and are accessible, they can start to expect better.

For organizers, the Sphere provides infrastructure to plan and share events and activities, and a place to connect with people who want to participate in their communities.

For individuals, it is a space to discover what your community has to offer and participate in it. An off-ramp from social media that gives you something else to do: activities, meditation, real-world connection.