Mady Dewey Explains What Herd, Her Social Media App, Is Trying to Change

An app for women and non-binary people first, created by women.

Mady Dewey arrives at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show during Paraiso Miami Beach on July 16, 2022 in Miami Beach, Florida.Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

Wondering why Mady Dewey was named the 2022 Swim Search winner? Simple. She’s a complete powerhouse. (Watch Camille Kostek personally deliver the good news to Dewy here.) In addition to being a lifestyle content creator and product manager for the community-building messaging app Discord, Dewey co-founded her own social media app, Herd. Dewey explains the mission of the app she helped to create.

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“There are a few main things we’re trying to change, one of those being the pressure that women feel posting online,” she says. “I remember times where I felt like I couldn’t post really big moments of joy because I was worried about what everyone else would think.

“The other piece is comparison. Comparing your body, comparing your like count. We [Herd] have no metrics on the app. We’re really trying to change the way that people view self-expression and how they view themselves as the result of the media that they’re consuming.”

Herd is a social media platform created for women and non-binary people first. Dewey notes on Herd’s IG profile that all of the major apps used on a daily basis (Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook/Meta etc.) were created by men. Herd was created by women. Women are often overlooked and undervalued in the tech space but Dewey is actively working to change that with Herd.