Katherine Schug

Founder, The Alan App

Katherine Schug has been an active member of the food allergy community since her teen years. Growing up with multiple severe allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and wheat - which she later outgrew - and she also has asthma and eczema. Katherine has used her condition and created a passion, inspiring those managing similar experiences.

As a teen, Katherine founded Teen FAAB (Food Allergies and Anti-Bullying) which was a website that provided resources, blog posts, tips, and more for teens living with food allergies. As Katherine’s platform grew, she began speaking at Food Allergy and Research Education (FARE) events and Food Allergy and Awareness Connection Team (FAACT) conferences, discussing her website, and in addition gave a TedX Talk at her high school. Katherine became passionate with this cause and wanted to do more for the community, she began developing an app. The app took many years of hard work and resources, and she finally launched The Alan App in the fall of 2020. The Alan App, is an all-in-one food allergy app that features food allergy resources, information, and a collaborative group chat. Katherine is only 20 years old and has achieved a lot for herself and the food allergy community; we can’t wait to see what she will achieve in the next 20 years. 

Katherine’s Story 

I felt alone and isolated, angry at the world for making me feel different. Growing up with severe food allergies and medical conditions wasn’t easy for me. In school, I didn’t know many people with food allergies; my teachers and peers would always comment on my eczema and my conditions. While everyone else in my class got brownies, cupcakes, and other sweet snacks, I ate the same crackers I had every day. They would sit at the lunch table, talking and laughing, and I sat at the ‘allergy table’, staring into space. In summer they would wear shorts and tank tops, and I wore long pants to hide my eczema-ridden skin. 

At 13, my mother noticed how isolated I felt, and she decided to take me to my first Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) conference in Washington D.C. This single event changed my life. 

At the conference, I met so many people with food allergies, and they shared similar experiences to me. I watched presentations, they discussed topics such as food allergy empowerment and advocating for oneself, I was in awe. I met Sloane Miller, the author of Allergic Girl, who inspired me, and gave me words of encouragement. That book is still in my room to remind me that I am not alone. It was such a pivotal moment of my life - I didn’t feel angry anymore. I came to realise that other people were going through similar moments, but they refused to let their differences stop them from living, and I wanted to feel that too. 

I decided to make my own website called Teen FAAB (Food Allergies & Anti-Bullying) when I got back home. I was very inspired from the FARE conference, and I wanted to make a difference. I created blog posts describing my own experiences, provided advice and guidance for other teenagers, and shared the latest food allergy news.

Later that year, Lynn Heun from FARE contacted me. She explained that she found my website and she wanted me to speak at the 2013 Teen Summit. It was an honour, I was 13 at the time, and I was so excited to chance to speak. I went from being in the audience inspired by the presentations to, giving the presentation and hopefully inspiring other teens. The 2013 Teen Summit sparked something inside of me that I didn’t know existed. I stood on that stage, and the pit in my stomach disappeared. I loved being on that stage, and discovered my passion for public speaking. 

I applied for a scholarship in eighth grade, and proposed an idea of a mobile app that helps those with food allergies. I wanted to expand my platform for food allergies, and help people all over the world. I described the features that I wanted to include - restaurant menus, recipes, symptom tracker, messaging system, etc. I worked on this app, on-and-off, for about six years until this year, when it finally launched. 

During this time, Teen FAAB grew bigger, and I received more visitors than ever before. Soon, I was giving presentations at FAACT and FARE events, giving a speech for TEDx, being featured in Scholastic Choice Magazine, and becoming a loud voice for the food allergy community. The website also showed me that I wanted to major in marketing. 

However, when I transitioned into college, I began to feel disconnected from the food allergy community. Many organizations prepare teenagers for the transition, but there wasn’t much support for current college students. I realised this the hard way, when I experienced my first anaphylactic reaction, in my freshmen year. I ate a hamburger from one of the dining halls, but the bread contained dairy. My arms started to break out into hives, my throat started to close, and I couldn’t breathe. It was terrifying, I thought I was going to die. 

Luckily, my two best friends from my high school were there with me, and they helped me administer the auto-injector. One friend held my hand while the other injected it into my thigh. The symptoms started to disappear within a few minutes. After that incident, I was scared of eating at that same Dining Hall. My college (Rutgers University) has four dining halls, and I did what I could to avoid that specific one. I even went so far as to avoid eating hamburgers for the remainder of the year, the anxiety was that bad. 

I tried to look for support from other students, after the reaction, but it was difficult to find a platform solely for college students with food allergies. I searched for more food allergy conferences, but most of the presentations were catered to middle/high school students and parents. 

In 2020, when we went into lockdown, I decided it was the perfect time to release the food allergy app that I had been waiting to develop. I learned everything I could about app development, finance, UX/UI design, and the step-by-step process to creating a business. My notebook was flooded with information and ideas for a food allergy app. Normally this process would take years, but I managed to stuff it all into a few months; working on it day and night. 2020 was a hard year, but it definitely gave me something I never had enough of before - time. 

My family and friends supported me throughout the entire process of developing the app, from the back end to the features. My parents are my investors, my youngest sister is the content manager, and my other sister is the chef. This app started as a family operation, and it brought us closer together. Making an app has been my dream since I was a teenager, and after all of the hard work, it has come true.  

The Alan App has a messaging system that was created to help strengthen the food allergy community. There are different group chats depending age, which I developed based on the reaction I had my freshman year. If you have any questions or want to share any experience, you can instantly receive support from the food allergy community with the click of a button. 

When I was younger, I felt alone and isolated because I felt different from everyone else. After attending FARE’s Teen Summit, I embraced my food allergies and from then on I didn’t let my conditions stop me from living the life I wanted. The people at that conference inspired me to help others, the way they have helped me. I hope that my app will be able to do that for people around the world, managing food allergies. 

Katherine

Instagram @thealanapp

Website www.thealanapp.com

Get the app - The Alan App

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*Inspired by Forbes 30 under 30 list