16 Under 16 in STEM: California Teen Harnesses His Anxiety for the Greater Good
Zidaan Kapoor combines his love of math with anxiety from having severe allergies to create an app that allows users to take control of their fears
This summer we鈥檝e been celebrating America鈥檚 16 under 16 in STEM 鈥� young learners who have already made a meaningful mark in their schools and communities.
Today, we give center stage to Zidaan Kapoor, a homeschooled 15-year-old from Redwood City, California who knows a thing or two about the anxiety that comes with having food allergies. Zidaan was diagnosed with life-threatening food allergies when he was just a toddler, but it wasn鈥檛 until his most recent bout that he truly understood the dangers.
鈥淭he aftermath was something I never experienced,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was debilitating anxiety. I couldn鈥檛 eat. I couldn鈥檛 trust my family members [to prepare food for me].鈥�
So he developed an app called Fight Fears to solve this problem for both himself and his peers. Through a series of questions, the app analyzes the user鈥檚 anxiety level. Based on that, users get challenges to complete to quell that anxiety, with the goal of allowing users to feel more in control of their allergy fears. Zidaan also founded and operates a math and chess tutoring business for other youth.
But right now, he says he鈥檚 most concerned about social justice, climate change and mental health: 鈥淚鈥檓 kind of using all of this as a baseline to move forward in a way that I can discover as I move along.鈥�
See our full interview 鈥� and celebrate our full 2022 class!
鈥擵ideo edited by James Fields and produced by Emmeline Zhao
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