Last weekend my mom and I drove to Washington DC to go to FARECon featuring Teen Summit 2018. This was the first time Food Allergy Research and Education combined their annual conference with their annual teen summit.

My mom and I went to our first summit my sophomore year of high school in the fall of 2014 which was the 9th year of this event. It forever changed my life as it was the first time I had ever been in a room surrounded by other teenagers who all had food allergies. It was the first time in my life where I realized I was not alone and there were so many other teens my age out there who where going through and dealing with the same things.

The fall of 2015, my junior year of high school, was the 10th annual Teen Summit and my mom and I went again. Both the 9th and 10th Teen Summit were held in Washington DC. After this event, FARE moved the Teen Summits out of Washington DC and due to my current inability to fly far I was unable to attend the event again, until this year. This past weekend was the thirteenth Teen Summit, it was back in Washington DC, was combined with the FARE Conference and it was absolutely amazing.

This year I was given the opportunity to speak to other teens in my own session called The Risk: Studying and Working in the Food Industry. I shared my personal experiences and struggles about food allergies in the food industry and encouraged everyone to follow their dreams and pursue their passions even with the risks of having food allergies involved. Food allergies should not stop anyone from being able to reach their goals and dreams.

I am so thankful that I have spent all three Teen Summits and kept in touch through all the years with my friend Julia. We met at my first Teen Summit, which was her second and we have really similar food allergies. She was a part of two panel sessions where she answered questions about her experiences going away to college, traveling abroad and much more. She has her own website and blog, which you can check out here: https://www.juliasguidetoallergies.com/

We are hoping to meet up over winter break as we realized we do not live too far from one another to do some collaboration projects such as a vlog, which is a video blog and something I have never done before!

As mentioned in a previous post I have opened up my blog to others who are interested in writing and/or collaborating with Food Allergies in the Food Industry to share their experiences and stories related to food allergies. Stay tuned to meet some new writers who will be offering their own unique perspectives on food allergies. If you are interested in writing and/or collaborating contact us at foodallergiesinthefoodindustry@gmail.com.

#FARE #teensummit #2018 #fun