Siblings Develop App For Teens Dealing With Mental Issues

15-year-old Hannah Lucas was diagnosed with a medical condition which caused her to faint frequently

After the diagnosis, the teen became very anxious, depressed. She began to self-harm.

She was nervous about potentially fainting when no one was around to help, so she and her younger brother developed an idea for an app that would alert loved ones in an emergency situation.

“I started passing out more and more often and I was terrified of going anywhere,” Hannah told ABC News. “Because what if I passed out and no one was around or what if someone took advantage of me?”

Hannah and her brother Charlie started working on creating an app which they named “notOK,” to help others in similar situations feel less alone.

Charlie had some serious coding skills which he learned in summer camp, while Hannah provided preliminary sketches and used her personal experiences to design the app.

Hannah then decided to pitch their work at a summer entrepreneurship class at Georgia Tech and partnered with a development company to formally bring the idea to life.

The notOK app gives users the ability to press a single button which will send a text message to up to 5 pre-selected contacts which will alert them that the user is in distress.

The automated text message will read: “Hey, I’m not OK. Please call me, text me, or come find me.”

The app also allows for recipients of the text with the users GPS location.

“My goal is to make it a movement like the #MeToo movement,” Hannah shared with Black Enterprise magazine. “I want other people who are going through what I’m going through to not feel alone. To know that it’s OK not to be OK.”

The notOK app is available for Android and IOS devices for a $2.99 monthly fee.

Wow, this is awesome Hannah and Charlie. Well done!

Photo credit: Amber Laws