Quinlyn Shaughnessy's story

Welcome to The Allergy Connection, a podcast where people with food allergies and those who love them can find information and community. My name is Quinlyn Shaughnessy, and I’ve had an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts since I was eighteen months old — basically my whole life. Growing up with a life-threatening invisible disability had its challenges, and one of the main ones was loneliness. I didn’t have any friends who shared this major part of my life, which brought feelings of isolation and being misunderstood. The same is true for many 'allergy kids' around the world, who have grown up into allergy adults still on the lookout for people like them. 

That’s why I created this podcast: to help form connections between people in the allergy community. I first started with this concept on Facebook groups, and I’ve found a lot of support there in everything from finding safe foods to restaurant reviews to moral support between strangers. I have a degree from the Walter Cronkite school and natural love of media and storytelling, so I wanted to use my skills, passion, and knowledge to bring these stories I was seeing online to life in a new format. I wanted to not just read the posts from these people, I wanted to talk to them — and I wanted other people to be able to listen and learn from the conversations. That’s part of what makes having a severe food allergy so difficult, but also interesting: you’re learning all the time, and other people are learning right alongside you. 

In this podcast, you’ll hear discussions about learning how to be a parent when your child has allergies that you don’t, learning how to use social media to educate people on your autoimmune disorder, learning how to open a safe space in your local community, and more. No matter which inspiring guest I’m talking to, the theme ultimately remains the same: learning and growing together and staying safe and (and well-fed) in the process. 

At the end of the day, I want this podcast to be what my younger self needed when she felt alone in her disability. I want it to be what I need now, and what other allergic adults and kids need. We need connection, with each other and with those who love us but might not always understand us. Helping people understand each other through storytelling is what I do, and I’m thrilled that you want to be a part of it.

Thanks for being here, and welcome to The Allergy Connection. 

(And by the way, it’s BYOSS — bring your own safe snacks.)