All About Change - Mia Silverman - Allergy Activism: Navigating Life and Speaking Out

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

  As a toddler, Mia Silverman had a near-fatal encounter with an allergen. That emergency revealed to her parents not only that she was allergic to dozens and dozens of different everyday foods and additives, but that many of those allergies were life-threatening. Later, as a teen, Mia made a TikTok listing her myriad of allergies. What she didn’t anticipate, however, was that her TikTok would go viral and give her a platform through which to advocate for awareness for others just like her. Mia Silverman joined host Jay Ruderman to talk about her journey from allergy sufferer to allergy awareness advocate. Mia discusses her experiences from childhood, including life-threatening allergic reactions, bullying, and the lack of awareness and support for those living with food allergies. Jay and Mia also speak about the practical aspects of her life, including dining out, traveling, and her efforts to bring systemic changes to improve support, care, and empathy for those living with severe allergies.   Episode Chapters (00:00) Intro to Mia Silverman (00:41) Mia Discovers Her Severe Allergies (03:32) Understanding and Testing for Allergies (04:37) Mia’s List of Severe Allergies (06:48) Experiencing Bullying Due to Allergies (09:25) Mia Goes Viral (13:03) Navigating Daily Life with Allergies (19:09) Traveling with Severe Allergies (23:09) Social Media Advocacy (27:43) Future Goals and Advocacy Efforts (31:11) Conclusion and Credits   For video episodes, watch on www.youtube.com/@therudermanfamilyfoundation   Stay in touch: X: @JayRuderman | @RudermanFdn LinkedIn: Jay Ruderman | Ruderman Family Foundation Instagram: All About Change Podcast | Ruderman Family Foundation To learn more about the podcast, visit https://allaboutchangepodcast.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to All About Change. Food allergies. For anyone who's experienced them, they can be frustrating, inconvenient, and even frightening. That's certainly true for today's guest Mia Silverman. Mia's been dealing with over 50 food allergies, some of which are life-threatening, for the entirety of her life. Now she uses her social media pages to show the world what it looks like to move through the world with it looks like to move through the world with so many allergies, building a community of those navigating similar struggles. Welcome to All About Change.

I'm so happy you're my guest today. Thank you so much for having me, Jay. Not only am I super excited to be here, but also super honored. So thank you so much for having me. Thank you. So let's start at the beginning with your childhood. Tell me a little bit about your childhood and when you first noticed that you had food allergies. I've had allergies my whole life, including my childhood. And that started from when I was born.

So when I was about, I'd say two years old, as my parents noticed that my allergies were very serious because throughout my infancy to being a two-year-old, I was very colicky. I'd cry a lot. I couldn't tolerate breast milk or any sort of milk. I had to use formula. And it wasn't until one day when I was about two, when my dad came home from work and brought home these cookies that had pistachios in them or cashews, one of those nuts, I kind of forget. But I had the cookie and immediately my throat closed up. I was experiencing hives and rashes all over my body. I was vomiting and I was experiencing something called anaphylaxis, which is a life threatening reaction. And my parents called 911 and I got EpiPen in the

ambulance and the doctors ran lots of tests on me and found that I had all these allergies. So it wasn't until that point that parents realized, oh, this is serious because their daughter could have died. And throughout my whole childhood, allergies were a very big part of that. You know, when I wanted to go to birthday parties, I wasn't always invited to those either as a kid. I experienced lots of bullying in my childhood. So my childhood throughout it all was really just around my allergies. Wow. Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm so sorry for your experiences because they sound

terrifying. Not only for you, but also for your parents. And when you were a baby, did they have any idea of the extent of your allergies or wasn't until your father brought home those cookies? Wasn't until that moment. My parents didn't really know what allergies were because it's not something that's talked about a lot in the media, online, in the news. They kind of knew that they were a thing, but they didn't know to the extent of how life threatening and severe they can be until they watch their daughter almost die.

And that was really when they noticed, oh gosh, this is a serious thing and we have to do a better job of parenting and making sure we make sure our daughter has safe foods and things like that. It was a very big adjustment for my parents. So tell me about being in the hospital and what they told your parents at the time of the extent of your allergies. Yeah. So when they came back with these test results, they said your daughter has all these allergies. when they came back with these test results, they said, your daughter has all these allergies, have fun, go figure it out. They didn't really offer any resources, any sort of guidance, any support groups or mental health support for my parents. They kind of just said, it's your daughter has these severe allergies that could potentially kill her and we'll give you

an allergist to see. And that's about it. Because there's not really a cure. There still isn't a cure to this day. So imagine, you know, 20 years ago or 19 years ago where there was not really a cure, there still isn't a cure to this day. So imagine 20 years ago or 19 years ago where there was not really much on that. So my parents were kind of on their own. So what happened? How did they determine what you are allergic to? So it can be done through a few ways. The first is a skin test where they will actually

prick your allergens into your skin and wait a while to see if you have a reaction, if you like a little hive and they'll measure the hive to see if it's a big hive or a small one which will show kind of how severe the allergy could be. That being said, skin allergies aren't always accurate. They can just, you can have a reaction or you may not have a reaction, but it doesn't determine if you actually have an allergy or not. So then you would do a blood test as well, and that would see as well how does your blood cells react to these certain allergens. Those aren't always accurate either. So there's a very flawed way with testing allergies. So the best possible test is a food challenge, and that's only if your numbers are low on the skin and the blood test combined, where they would actually have you in the hospital and feed you little doses of the allergen

and every 15 minutes. And as each 15 minutes goes by, they'll add more and more. And if you do react, they will stop, they will monitor you. So that's kind of how they really test for my allergies. So tell us, what are you allergic to? Because it's a long list. It's a very long list. So I'm allergic to all nuts, including peanuts, because they're actually a legume, but I count

them as nuts and they're oils. So peanut oil, almond oil, I can't have. I'm allergic to sesame seeds and sesame oil. I'm allergic to majority seeds out there, including poppy seeds, flax seeds, safflower seeds, sunflower seeds. I can have sunflower oil, but it's only seed oil I can have. I'm allergic to dairy if it's uncooked, which is a very weird allergy. But with my dairy allergy, I'm allergic to certain proteins in dairy. And when you cook it, like if you use cheese and put it on a pizza and it's heated up, it kills those

proteins I'm allergic to. So I'm allergic to dairy if it's uncooked, so I can't have it in a glass of milk or ice cream or yogurt. It has to be cooked at a high temperature for a while. And same with eggs. I can have eggs only if it's in a baked dish because it dilutes it and it kills certain proteins as well. I'm allergic to all fish and shellfish except for tuna and cod if it's cooked. I'm allergic to a bunch of different spices like tarragon, sumac, zaatar, a lot of Middle Eastern spices I'm allergic to. I'm allergic to a bunch of different spices like tarragon, sumac, zatar, a lot of Middle Eastern spices I'm allergic to. I'm allergic to different food dyes, typically yellow and orange. And this can be also categorized as annatto, which is a more organic or natural

food coloring, and then carotene and beta carotene. And these dyes can be found in Cheez-Its, like any sort of yellow or orange food you'll find it in that. I'm allergic to sulfates. I'm allergic to lots of fruits, so I can't have watermelon, peaches, pears, apple, cherries, kiwi. And then I'm allergic to zucchini and eggplant and a bunch of random other allergies to random natural flavorings, artificial flavorings, and things like that. So you have a long list of allergies. Yes. How common are food allergies

in the United States and the world in general? So 33 million people in America suffer from food allergies. So I'd say it's fairly common. Now I believe the statistic is like one in 10 children have a food allergy in America. So let's talk about growing up when you're in grade school. Yeah. What was that like? Did the school accommodate you in terms of your allergies? Did they understand the extent of your food allergies? And how did your peers, your fellow kids that were going to school with you, how did they react to your situation? Yeah, so it wasn't a very positive

experience. From elementary school, all they really had was a peanut-free table at the cafeteria. So you would probably see me sitting there by myself. I also experienced a lot of bullying throughout those years of school where kids would threaten to sneak my allergens into my food to see what would happen. They would read my allergy list out loud in front of my whole class and laugh at it in front of me, and say that my allergies are a burden or they're not real, and that I'm stupid, and I'm making all this up, and that's in my head. So let's talk about the bullying. Yeah. Because bullying is a huge thing in our society.

How did it affect your mental health growing up? Yeah, well, one in three children's allergies are bullied in the United States. So it's a serious issue in the food allergy community that's constantly being talked about and addressed. It really affected my mental health a lot. So I experienced a lot of depression, anxiety. I had to take medication for it, went to therapy a lot for it.

I went to even a few support groups at times, which didn't really help that much because one thing about me is that I have a very rare case of allergies. Typically people only have a handful, but I have over 50. And so I'm already seen as a medically complex patient. I'm already categorized as something else. And so even with people in the allergy community sometimes, like when I was younger, in these support groups and settings,

they only had one or two allergies and they still were able to maintain a social life and I couldn't because I had it so much worse. So I always felt really alone and isolated. So the bullying really took a toll and I never really looked forward to going to school because kids were always mean to me in class and teachers wouldn't really stop them from bullying me either because it would happen in front of the teachers and they wouldn't stop it.

I'm sorry for that. Thank you. I honestly think though, like everything happens for a reason. And even though I got bullied a lot, I kind of, you know, in a more positive way now, where it helped me build the confidence to actually speak up and now be an advocate. So other people don't have to go through what I went through. How did you transfer from, you know, someone who was extremely anxious and being bullied to someone who became an advocate and very, you know, proud of who you are and what your life is.

So, it was around COVID when people were, you know, quarantined in their homes, doing school on Zoom. It was around March 2020. And I was obviously, like, in my room a lot, along with my thoughts, really reflecting on my life and specifically my allergies and how it's affected my life. And I kind of realized, you know, I feel lonely, I feel frustrated, and I want to use some

outlet to express my frustration and share how I feel. Because maybe someone else relates, because I just feel super lonely and no one gets me except for my parents and my brother, and that's really it. So I had a TikTok account, I was posting TikToks just for fun, like silly little meme videos, nothing serious. I had a couple thousand followers. I posted one video where I listed my most severe allergies, kind of in a funny, quirky, like I was dancing and I was listing my allergies.

I didn't think much of it, but I wanted to post it just to use as an outlet to express myself and get it out there. Just out of my system, I posted it. Maybe one person can relate to it. Great. So I posted it. And the next day the video went very viral. It got, I believe, over a million views. Wow.

And I was like, mom, dad, my brother Maximo, like my video went viral. This is insane. They said, Mia, this could be a chance for you to like find your people, to create awareness about allergies and make a difference. And you can use your platform to help others, uplift others. And I was like, you know what, you're totally right. And so that's from kind of where it started.

And so what do you attribute that to? Like why did it go viral? I think it's the shock factor that someone could have so many allergies. Cause I listed like at least 10 by most severe, which was like nuts, eggs, dairy, fish, like all of these ones. Like what can you beat?

But also lots of comms were saying, oh my gosh, I have these allergies too, I feel seen. So I think it was a combination of people who were shocked, but also people who relate to it. There wasn't really many advocates. And when I was young, I couldn't really find anyone to look up to. So I think probably people maybe saw that,

that maybe there was someone that they could relate to and not feel as alone. Right. And after that first video that sort of went viral, how did you then keep up your advocacy? How did you, you know, build on that? Yeah. So I started posting multiple parts of that video where I listed other allergies that I had. People were kept commenting saying, oh my gosh, I relate, keep posting more content. So I started seeing different TikTok trends and I would take them and make them more about allergies and relate them to allergies. I would kind of show relatable situations that I've gone through, like going to a party,

dating, like being rejected by men because of my allergies or traveling and having to bring a whole suitcase full of snacks. And people started to resonate with that a lot. And that's kind of where my advocacy really began was posting relatable, funny allergy content. Right. I talked to a lot of guests who have social media reach and there's a lot of trolls out there.

And there are people who just want to comment negatively on what you're posting. And you're posting something positive. You're trying to help people through your advocacy, learn more about, you know, food allergies and how to handle it. How do you handle these trolls? Like, what's your policy? Initially, in the very beginning, I'd say the first two years of my allergy advocacy career took a very big toll on me. I kept even thinking, should I stop doing this? Like, what's the point in doing this?

Because I'm just getting tons and tons of hate. But I learned that also people who are activists get hate all the time. People who've created social change and have changed the world have gotten hate, but they still made a difference and did positive things. So why can't I? Right. Let's talk about someone who has a food allergy. What you go through in your daily life.

Yeah. What's it like to try to go out to a restaurant? So I was thinking about ordering the sugar butter and whipped cream mini pancakes with some strawberries. But I do have a nut allergy and a sesame allergy and all seafood, including shellfish. If you could just like let the kitchen know to use like clean gloves and clean. Okay. Thank you.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So you can't just go to any restaurant, you whatever you want. That's something I wish I could experience and that's a luxury and that's a privilege. So for me personally, I have to first Google best allergy friendly restaurants in New York City, for example. And from there I would see restaurants, but then it doesn't always tell me anything. So I'll stick to cuisines I know I can eat.

So I can usually eat Italian food or American food. And from there I'll call the restaurant that seems that has the best reviews like a five or four star restaurant. Like, what this seems promising. So I'll call them I'll ask to speak to my manager and say hey I have a lot of allergies what's your allergy protocol? How do you handle something called cross-contact? And cross-contact basically means the risk of other of allergens touching your food coming in contact with it not on purpose but by accident because it happens in kitchens all the time. It's making people people in the allergy community fear a lot, including myself. And then I'd ask, if anything, can you make me something safe?

Do you think you could even accommodate me? Because it's a lot to ask for because you guys are really busy. This restaurant is like a popular restaurant. And from there, if they say yes, I'll go forward and I'll go to the restaurant and I will get asked for the manager, talk to the chef as well, make sure, hey, are you sure you can accommodate me? And they say like, yes, they'll, you know, making my food, they'll bring it over. And I usually will ask again to double or triple check saying, Hey, can you confirm that this is safe? So I've had times where I would be brought food that is supposed to be safe and it's sent me to the hospital.

Wow. What is that like? You're, You're at the restaurant, you serve something, you take a bite, and then immediately you know something's wrong. Yeah. So for example, over the summer, I went to one of my restaurants that I really love to go to, and this is no shade to the restaurant because they handled it very well after, and I really appreciate it. So this is not me bashing them in any way.

It was a mistake, but I ordered a burrito bowl kind of dish, and they brought it to me, and it had, it looked like but I ordered a burrito bowl kind of dish and they brought it to me and it had, it looked like what I ordered, but inside it was, there was like rice, corn, all these things. But the rice and corn that I thought it was, was actually scrambled eggs. And I couldn't tell. And also it had a everything bagel seasoning sauce, which has sesame and all the other seeds I'm allergic to. But you couldn't tell because it was like a sauce, not like with the actual seeds. I took a bite of it and I'm allergic to. But you couldn't tell because it was like a sauce, not like the actual seeds. I took a bite of it and I'm like,

this does not taste like rice and corn. This tastes like eggs, which I've had eggs before for like a food challenge or something before. It's like, this is bad. So I run to the manager and say, hey, what happened? This is like the wrong order or did there was a mistake? And the manager's like, oh shoot, yes, there was. And I realized, oh my gosh, like this is like the wrong order or was there a mistake? And the manager was like, oh shoot, yes there was. And I realized, oh my gosh, like this is bad

because I'm severely allergic to eggs and sesame. So it was a double allergy, like double whammy. And my throat began to close up immediately and my friend was there and I was like, please call 911 right now. I'm having anaphylactic reaction. Everyone was certain EpiPen right then and there and then was sent away.

And so it feels very scary and empowering at the same time because I was able to save my own life. But in that moment, I felt like I was being watched. I was like very vulnerable, like a wounded animal. And it felt very, very traumatizing. And I just, it did not feel like real. Like it was like an out of body experience, which is what usually anaphylaxis does. And tell me about taking on companies, because I know that you've gone after some companies that have not done the right thing.

And can you give us a couple of examples of that? Yeah, so I called out Starbucks two years ago, and I think the Independent did an article on me and I think a few others did. And did they respond or make any sort of statement? No. I think the important thing with taking on a company is that even if they don't respond, they see it.

Yes. And they internalize it. Yes. So your impact might not be validated by them, but they're seeing it. I remember something that I had done where there was a man who was in a wheelchair, a mechanical wheelchair, and he called the airline and said, I'm coming, I have a ticket, I'm coming on my honeymoon. Yeah. And they said, yep, okay, we'll accommodate you.

He came, they're like, we can't accommodate you, we cannot fly you. They wouldn't fly him and his fiance to the honeymoon. I actually came out and spoke out against it. The airline didn't respond, but they did make it up to him and they were able to fly him. That's amazing. You know, on a different plane. And he actually someone that passed away, but he wrote me a letter and he said that your advocacy on my behalf actually changed my life. So you might not hear it from the company right away, but believe me,

people are internalizing what you're saying and there's, and they're thinking, how can we do a better job? Absolutely. I think allyship is super important because people like me, people that have allergies, I think are disability. And so for example, with this person who we're just talking about, we need to have people that aren't disabled that are able-bodied to also speak up for us and stand up for us. That's also what really helps create change, and to help us, also lift us up, and give us the space to also share how we feel,

to make those changes happen. So thank you for doing that for him, because that's what it takes. We need allies for all disabilities to really help uplift us, so we can also, we can succeed and actually enjoy our lives, and do what normal people do. Well, I think most people want the world to be a more equitable place.

Absolutely. They want people to be welcomed and to enjoy the world and to enjoy the ability to see the world. And I want to talk to you a little bit about travel because travel is extremely complex for you. Hi, how are you? Good, for you. Hi. How are you? Good, thank you.

I'm sitting in 16B and I have a severe nut allergy. Yeah, I will say it now. Okay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. So I know you recently traveled to Europe. And can you talk about the process of what you had to do to go to Europe?

And what was it like getting on the plane? Anything in my life, anything that the normal person does that thinks it's easy, for me, it's a process. That also includes traveling. So with boarding an airplane, for starters, I have to board early with the people that have disabilities because they don't always wipe down the seats. And there could be someone that sat on my seat prior and ate nuts or an allergen of mine and they didn't wipe down the seat

Which is what happens and I want to first prevent that and take and prevent that risk So I usually board first Wiped on my seat and everything and I talked to the flight attendants and tell them hey I have a severe not allergy because that's my most severe. It's like my most airborne allergy Everything else isn't like airborne, but they still are severe enough. I tell the flight attendants that I say, I'm sitting in this seat. Can you please tell the row in front of me, the row behind me to not eat nuts? If you're going to eat nuts, just go to the back of the plane or the front

and eat them, then come back. And they usually will do that and also make an announcement saying there's someone on the plane that has a nut allergy. We're either not going to serve nuts or if you want to eat nuts, you have to go up front to eat them. That's the first thing that has to happen with traveling. In terms of having to like find hotels and locations, we always stay in locations that have good healthcare.

Because in case something were to happen, I at least want to be in a place that has good healthcare and can make sure I don't die. Because that can happen. And in addition to that, I also tend to bring a little carry-on with tons of allergy safe snacks because when we're out touristing and there's no safe restaurants, I want to be able to eat something because they're going to be out all day walking around. I'm going to get tired. And it's hard to find snacks that are safe or foods that are safe.

So I usually will bring some with me when on the go. In addition to that, being able to have allergy cards in different languages. So I have allergy cards, like that list on my allergies in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, for example. And so when we were traveling to like Italy, for example, years ago, I used that. But now because of modern technology, we have chat GPT, and I can just use that and it makes life so much easier and it actually accurately translates everything compared to my previous cards. In addition to that, we have to make sure that we're staying at a hotel that usually when you stay at hotels, we'll call and ask them like if they can make me meals that are safe for me, which is really important. And that we'll look for safe restaurants.

I'll look at them usually ahead of time a little bit, and sometimes we'll just kind of walk around and I'll talk to different managers at different restaurants to see if it's safe. And we did one night, and I posted a video about this, and it got a lot of hate, where we took my family eight or nine attempts to find a safe restaurant. Right, I remember that. And it was very, very frustrating. And people were saying I should plan ahead better,

but everyone handles allergies differently. And I tried, and usually I do call in advance, but sometimes plans do change when you travel a lot. And so you have to just be really flexible. So I'd say overall, like having to plan ahead, like packing lots of safe foods, also having to pack tons of medication with you. I usually bring between three to four EpiPens with me and Zyrtec and Benadryl as well, and

other medications that could be life-saving. It's just bringing a lot of things with you that the average person would not bring with them and lug around. So it's definitely a lot more challenging, but my family has a lot of patience because it's what they're used to, it's what I'm used to. So it's not like it's, it is difficult, but I'm just used to it and don't see it any other way, and same with my family. So your social media has become so popular

that you've been able to monetize your social media. I mean, I know you're a student in school, you're working, does that help you in terms of your own life? Are you able to put that back into your advocacy? Yeah, so I'd say my food allergies or my social media page really helps. Like first of all, it does pay my bills which I'm very grateful for. And I'm able to, you know, save money, invest in money, which I'm really really grateful for. It's opened many doors for me in terms of like monetization where if other brands reach out to me to collaborate with me and large nonprofits and other large companies.

So it hasn't necessarily like the money itself has benefited my career, but people have noticed that my account does get a lot of reach and views. And so when people want to work with me, and such as being on this podcast. So I think that's kind of like what has helped with my career, not the money part. What organizations and companies have reached out to you that you've decided to work with? I've done work with FACT, which stands for Food Allergy Anaphylaxis Connection Team, and they're an amazing nonprofit that offers resources such as mental health support and relationship support and schools and IEPs, anything that's important in any person's

life they have, any aspect of life that they can think of, like going to college. Like what are the best colleges for people that have allergies? All these different things. Fact has actually speaking in their conference in Chicago next week, which I'm super excited about. Awesome. Yeah. I've had brands like GoodRx do work with me twice. CVS has done work with me.

I've done work with a mental health app called Finch, where I create content for them on the side as well, but I also like to integrate food allergies into that. So lots of really diverse brands have reached out. Oh, and Tide, Tide. So. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome.

It shows that you really have had a very strong reach. As a college student, what are your social interactions like? You go to parties. That must be really difficult. It's very difficult, but thankfully college is the actual time where I was able to make really nice friends and people who are open-minded and mature and are willing to be accommodating and let me be in control. So what I mean by this is when we go out to get dinner, my friends say, hey Mia, you pick the restaurant. You pick where you wanna eat that's safe for you

and we'll go there and we'll do that instead of them picking a restaurant. And then with parties, my friends sometimes will like make sure to have like a sign that says like, you know, they'll have a table with like a bowl of popcorn, some fruit, other goodies, and they'll say, please like use a spoon that's in these bowls. Don't like cross contact anything because of allergies. And with other aspects of my social life, like dating, for example, was always really

hard. I have a boyfriend who's very amazing and very accommodating. But before that, you know, men would say that like it's a burden that they don't want to deal with it It's an inconvenience. So but for the most part social social life wise It's been actually very positive in college right here to high school middle school and elementary school. So it sounds like you've you've really Made some good friends who understand what you're going through. Yes, which is really important, you know as you go through life What do you want people to know about, you know, what it's like to live with a food, severe food allergy that they may not know? I would say the first thing to know is that people that have a severe food allergy or multiple them, they tend to suffer, or at least they can live in fear. They often have anxiety.

And so when you want to be what's called an allergy ally, you have to first of all, be open-minded and be empathetic and be patient and listen to them. So the first step is to be open-minded because you don't have to know everything. That's not expected. So if anything, ask questions to that person, if you're friends with them, like say, hey, I don't really know much about allergies, but I want to know, like, what are things that I should know about?

What are your allergies? How severe are they? How can I use EpiPen? So in case we're in a situation that's life-threatening, I can save your life and help you. And just, I think, being empathetic and patient, because people that have food allergies that are really severe, people often live in fear and are anxious because they're always worried

that the food that they can eat could potentially kill them or put them in a very light-threatening situation. So I think just being kind, patient, empathetic, the basics of being a human being, a normal, like empathetic, kind human being, I would say. So what do you want to see, where do you want to see your advocacy go? I mean, you have your social media, social media is strong, you have a reach of hundreds of thousands,

millions of people. What do you want to do in the future as an advocate? So I noticed that in order to make actual change, you have to work with the system, because the system, that's where change has to be done to actually make it so people like me can feel safe and feel included. So I'm now doing a research study with NYU Langone, which is our hospital, working with the allergy department to improve the physician patient experience.

Cause one of our issues that we have in food allergies in general is the lack of mental health support and care and acknowledgement. So patients that undergo a certain treatment, which is called oral immunotherapy, where they're microdosing peanuts, oftentimes they experience anxiety and fear and the physicians don't know how to address or how to best support them. So I'm trying to create intervention to bridge that gap because that's what actually makes a difference is working with the system, working with the medical system especially because we don't always feel like we're seen or heard

or validated with our mental health concerns because as I said earlier, I've experienced depression, anxiety because of my allergies and from bullying and all these different things. So I want to constantly work with the system to improve it so people like me feel safe. So I'm applying to grad school to become a food allergy psychologist.

To one, do research, to figure out other interventions, to help people like me, and also physicians, so they can also feel like they're doing the right thing and helping their patients the best that they possibly could. And also offer mental health support to patients. I also feel like there's a lot of mental health that comes into play with food allergies, like anxiety, where people can experience allergy-like symptoms, but it's actually just

anxiety, not anaphylaxis. I want my future patients to feel like they can be empowered with their allergies and they can live a good life and not let it stop them from doing what they want to do and what they love. And so, yeah, overall, I want to work with, fix the system and help people on a personal level. Because I saw a food allergy psychologist years ago and she changed my life. And that's why I wanna do what she does,

but also get really involved. How did she do that? She changed my life in a lot of ways, especially with my reaction. So I would experience like hives and think, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have a reaction, but it's just anxiety. So she taught me really helpful coping strategies,

breathing strategies, and to really notice, hey, how can I tell whether this is actually going to get worse and be a reaction or it's just anxiety? So instead of jumping to taking Benadryl like I used to do, she said, how about you wait 10, 20 minutes, drink lots of water, listen to some music, distract yourself, and see how you feel in 10 minutes. If you still feel bad, take a Benadryl or a Zyrtec. But if not,

then wait it out. And I noticed, huh, like my high went away. It was just anxiety. So I was able to realize, okay, when I'm having a real reaction, I'm able to now stay calm and know what to do so it doesn't escalate anymore. Because the more anxious you are, the more adrenaline you have, the more pure you have, and it makes it worse. It exacerbates it. So why can't you just learn to kind of stay calm and know that you're going to be okay and safe. And that's what you really taught me throughout the years.

And it really helped a lot. And I feel like I want to help people that are in my shoes because having food allergies are really hard and really scary, but you can also live a really great life. You can still travel, you can still date, you can make friends. It should not stop you from doing what you want to do and living a good life. Well Mia, I think you're mature beyond your years and you're really going to make a difference in this world.

I think what you said is something that's really smart because a lot of times people see advocacy as shouting and complaining and pointing out what's wrong smart because, you know, a lot of times people see advocacy as shouting and complaining and pointing out what's wrong. But if you really want to make change, I think you have to work with people in positions of power and convince them how they can become better. Exactly. Which is a really wise insight. Thank you. So I know you have so much on your play. You're at school, you have other jobs, you have your social media, your advocacy. I really am in awe and inspired by what you do and thank you so much for being my guest on All About Change. Thank you. I really enjoyed our conversation and I'm proud of you. Today's episode was produced by Joachim Eytal and Mijon Zulu. To check out more episodes or to learn more about the show, you can visit our website allaboutchangepodcast.com. If you like our show,

spread the word, tell a friend or family member or leave us a review on your favorite podcasting app. We'd really appreciate it. All About Change is produced by the Ruderman Family Foundation. That's all for now. I'm Jay Ruderman and we'll see you next time on All About Change. But not goodbye Au revoir But not goodbye