Food Allergy Survival Guide – High School and College Edition

Featured Allergy Blog: Food Allergy Survival Guide – High School and College Edition

Author: Lily Roth

Author Bio:
Lily Roth is a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh studying Emergency Medicine on the Pre-Med track. Lily has multiple anaphylactic food allergies and asthma. She loves playing tennis, hanging with her friends and volunteering as an EMT. Lily is an active member of FARE (The Food Allergy Research and Education foundation) and she loves helping people go to college with food allergies like she has. She started her own guide for teens with food allergies so no other student has to feel alone in the college process like she did.

What is your blog about?
My blog is about food allergy management in high school and college. I have both a guide and a blog. While the guide is static, I update my blog pretty frequently and write about some of the challenges I have faced in hopes others will feel like they have someone who they can relate to.

What inspired you to start your blog?
I decided to start my guide/blog because I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of information available for teens. During high school and the college process I felt extremely alone and as if I was navigating a maze blindfolded. By creating my site, I hope that it will give teenagers some guidance that I would have wanted going into high school and college.

What is your most memorable allergy experience?
My most memorable experience would have to be when my friend Reed and I started a petition to take down a food allergy page on Facebook that was mocking food allergies with extremely hurtful posts. Within less than 24 hours our petition on change.org had over 2,500 signatures. It was just really cool to see how much the community can come together. We decided from that to create a Facebook page called Our Food Allergies Aren’t A Joke and have since gathered a following and enjoy making light of food allergies while raising awareness.

Check out Lily’s blog at foodallergysurvivalguide.weebly.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.