MEET THE DEVELOPER

Amanda Southworth

She created apps to help others in need. You can too.

Sixteen-year-old developer Amanda Southworth may be an accomplished coder—but she insists you don’t need advanced programming skills to pull off what her two apps have done: help others.

“My apps are not that innovative code-wise,” she says of Anxietyhelper, which she coded when she was 13, and Verena, released in 2017. Yet both manage to solve urgent, overlooked problems by using the simplest technology possible.

Amanda Southworth's very minimal workspace.

Take Verena, which Southworth created to help members of the LGBTQ+ community stay safe. Should you find yourself in a threatening situation, the app can alert a list of your trusted contacts or put you in touch with a support hotline or the police. The app’s incident log makes it easy to document threats or harassment you’ve experienced.

These features remind would-be coders that innovation doesn’t have to be about inventing a new technology; it can be “applying what we already know to those who need it.” Still, getting all the bugs out requires serious concentration.

Verena provides one-touch access to police stations, hospitals, and shelters.

“When I find that problem, I essentially embody it. It gets me very angry,” Southworth says. “I work 10 to 24 hours a day, building, prototyping, and iterating. And after I push it to the world, I go back and say, ‘Where have I skimped? Where can I improve it for the people it serves?’”

You can see her ingenuity in Verena’s incognito mode, which disguises the app as a math study guide so teens can have it installed without alerting others to their sexual orientation.

Southworth got her first taste of coding in a sixth-grade robotics class. “It was that cheesy moment in a rom-com movie when two people look across the room and fall in love. That was me and robotics.”
Your app will be better if you work with other people instead of trying to do all of the work yourself.

Southworth started rebuilding the feature after a friend’s mother noticed none of the buttons in the decoy app worked. The new version will look like a news or recipe aggregator—and will be fully functional.

More recently, Southworth launched Astra Labs, a “Gen Z–powered nonprofit dedicated to using technology to save the world.” Its first release will be Whizard, an education app that converts students’ handwritten notes into practice tests and study guides with the help of machine learning. Whizard will follow a one-for-one model: Each subscription purchased will fund access for a student from an underserved community.

Southworth created Anxietyhelper to support those struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.

With multiple apps in development, Southworth is now well aware of the pitfalls. Her advice to budding creators? “Know where the gaps in your knowledge are, and find people to help you out. Your app will be better if you work with other people instead of trying to do all of the work yourself.”

That’s not always easy for someone who sweats the details, but it has rewards in the long term. “If you want to go fast, go alone,” she says. “If you want to go far, go together.”