Lennon Torres

Lennon Torres is a leader at Heat Initiative, where she supports campaigns that confront online child sexual abuse and exploitation and push powerful tech companies to take responsibility for the harm their platforms enable. In her work with Heat, Lennon partners closely with survivors and families impacted by digital platform failures, offering steady care, deep trust, and a trauma‑informed approach as they share their stories publicly to drive systemic change.

A trans advocate, former child star, and founding partner of The Attention Studio, Lennon also works to help people reclaim their time, attention, and sense of self from technologies engineered to keep them hooked. Her commitment to safer, more humane digital spaces is rooted in lived experience: she first became known at age 13 on Dance Moms and Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, growing up inside media systems that profit from young people’s visibility. After later building—and ultimately walking away from—a following of more than 350,000 as an influencer, she now channels that history into advocacy that prioritizes dignity, safety, and accountability.

Lennon’s work has been featured in The Atlantic and Mashable, and she lives in Los Angeles.