Supporting the Scoliosis Community with Christine Sinn
Current junior Christine Sinn ’23 is the founder and CEO of ScolioBend, a “service-oriented organization by scoliosis patients for scoliosis patients.” This interview was originally conducted in March 2021, and ScolioBend has since continued to grow and connect people.
Christine was 12 years old when she was diagnosed with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. Common types of scoliosis curvatures include when the spine is “C” or “S” shaped, and like in Christine’s case, the cause of most occurrences of scoliosis is unknown. According to John Hopkins Medicine, scoliosis is common with over 3 million new diagnoses being made each year in the US, but despite its prevalence, Christine says that you don’t often see when someone has scoliosis. In this way, Christine notes that scoliosis is more of an “invisible” condition, sharing, “When I say ‘I have scoliosis,’ people don’t really understand what the ramifications of having scoliosis [are].” The condition can drastically change a patient’s everyday life, and it was certainly life-changing for Christine.
Before her diagnosis, Christine was highly involved in sports and was training pre-professionally in tennis, something she was extremely focused on. After being diagnosed, however, Christine wasn’t able to continue pursuing professional tennis and she had to get used to the “mindset” of pursuing other interests that she had set aside when prioritizing the sport. Given how she had to very suddenly navigate her diagnosis and her treatment process, Christine notes that developing this open mind took some time. However, this journey perhaps, in part, started with OHS in quite an unexpected way.
How Christine came to join OHS is “a funny story [she] like[s] telling now.” Expecting that her competitive tennis would require her to travel as a student-athlete, Christine applied to become a full-time 7th grader. This would have allowed her to balance school and her pursuits in tennis, but it was “literally two weeks” after she got accepted to OHS that she received her scoliosis diagnosis. With this “huge turnaround” in her life, Christine instead joined as a single-course student, which she continues as now, and regardless of everything that changed, she has no regrets. “Looking back on it, I’m glad I joined OHS because the community here is so like-minded and passionate. It’s nice to be able to connect with people on that intellectually stimulating level because people here are genuinely passionate about doing something, and I think that’s really unique to see in everyone.”
It was then at the beginning of her freshman year that Christine stumbled across the OHS Competitive Entrepreneurship Club, now the OHS Startup Incubator, where she discovered her own passion. Christine recalls being the first person to join the club, and remarks that it was where she learned “anyone can be an entrepreneur.”
Being an entrepreneur “isn’t a defined job role” and this flexibility to be able to help others without restrictions is a part of what Christine most appreciates about the discipline. Looking back, however, Christine has perhaps always enjoyed entrepreneurship but simply “never coined it” as such. Having had eraser and post-it tab businesses all the way back in the 3rd and 4th grades, Christine believes that she has “always liked the idea of running a business and serving people.” With this motivation and passion, Christine then began to see her journey with scoliosis in a new, entrepreneurial light.
As she navigated her scoliosis over the years, Christine says that there were “a lot of things that [she] had to figure out on [her] own.” She had always wanted to reach out to other scoliosis patients and see whether they were going through the same experiences as her. So, thinking like an entrepreneur, she decided to see how she could help others connect with fellow scoliosis patients as well. The pandemic turned out to be the perfect opportunity for Christine to bring her idea to life.
Most scoliosis patients are teenagers as adolescents make up the largest proportion of scoliosis diagnoses according to the Scoliosis Reduction Center. Most teenagers also have phones, so Christine started with the idea of creating a mobile app. She has always enjoyed math and computer science, so she applied those skills to make it, along with the help of a $15 online coding course and her extra free time during lockdown. Christine built the app from the ground up, and it now provides a range of resources for scoliosis patients as well as Christine’s personal stories living with scoliosis. Christine explains that with scoliosis, there are many treatment options to choose from and several impacts on traveling, sleeping, or simply getting dressed for school that not many people may know or think about. Christine herself enjoys writing as a “form of reflection” to process the things going on in her life, so she puts this to use and hopes her stories can help other scoliosis patients as well. In the future, she hopes to expand the app to share other scoliosis warriors’ stories, too.
Although Christine’s pursuits in connecting her scoliosis with her passion for entrepreneurship started with the app she built, she soon realized that there are so many more avenues through which she can help scoliosis patients. Given this, Christine decided to not only expand her app but also to found ScolioBend, a company dedicated to “help people navigate life with scoliosis.” ScolioBend’s goals are to emotionally support scoliosis warriors through resources such as their app, and to provide “a safe space for scoliosis patients to connect with one another.”
Rooted in helping scoliosis patients throughout their journeys, ScolioBend has begun to have a true impact on people. Christine shares that ScolioBend currently has over 100 app downloads, and has impacted over 300 scoliosis patients. She has had several of them reach out to her about downloading her app or getting involved with ScolioBend, and adds that she has also received messages from many doctors and scoliosis centers. Christine has even been featured in Wharton's Future of the Business World Podcast as well as in an article by the National Scoliosis Center.
The ScolioBend app page on the Apple App Store
“I have been really grateful for everything that’s been going on,” Christine says. With business, “the impact it has on other people can equate to [the] work [that] you put into it,” she explains, and all the time she invested in ScolioBend has presented real results. Especially given where she started in her scoliosis journey, Christine did not expect to end up where she is now as an entrepreneur and is “pleasantly surprised by where it’s going.” In particular, she says, “I like to remind other scoliosis patients that scoliosis doesn’t define us and it opens a door to new and greater things instead of closing doors.”
Now, aside from ScolioBend, Christine continues to pursue her passion for entrepreneurship as founder and president of the OHS Startup Incubator. She is also involved with the Women in Stem+ Club and the OHS Pixel Chefs and enjoys reading books, baking, and playing the clarinet in her spare time.
Since this interview was conducted, ScolioBend has launched a YouTube series spotlighting the “scoliosis superheroes” that support patients, treatment resource guides, a community journal, a blog, and is now run by a passionate team of five members across the United States alongside Christine. To learn more about ScolioBend and its initiatives, be sure to visit www.scoliobend.com for more information. Scoliobend’s phone app is also available to download for free on the Apple App Store.
5 Questions with Christine Sinn
Pixel Journal: If you could have coffee with any person, living or dead, who would it be and why?
Christine Sinn: I would love to have coffee with my OHS friends from around the world! While I wouldn’t trade the late-night phone calls or Skype meetings (or the iconic “Together” mode haha), being able to see some of my OHS friends in person would be a meaningful and heartwarming experience.
PJ: What are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years?
CS: Hmm… I am most looking forward to surprising myself! I love creating community spaces and helping people with a fresh idea. I can’t wait to keep learning, brainstorming, and growing with new and familiar people. It’s both the scariest and the most exciting thing to imagine what could happen without entirely knowing what will happen.
PJ: What’s something you’ve been meaning to try but just haven’t gotten around to?
CS: Gosh, it’s hard to choose! One of the things I’ve been meaning to try is a reading marathon, where you read a ton of books in a short amount of time. I’ve seen people read 26 books in a month, 100 books in a year, or just for 24 hours straight - just talking about it makes me happy haha.
PJ: What’s your favorite emoji?
CS: My favorite emoji is probably 🤩, the world is big and I’d like to be a positive light in it, cheering all of us on (totally didn’t answer this question by looking at my most frequently used emoji on iMessage). I must say 🤪 is a close second
PJ: What do you want to do after high school?
CS: I want to keep learning, exploring, and solving problems outside of the classroom. From my life path so far, I’ve definitely learned to embrace the fact that the future is never set in stone. I’m really interested in entrepreneurship, business, economics, and mathematics. I’d love to explore those paths in the future - I think I can really help people in these spaces and shed some new light on problems around the world. Most of all, I want to keep meeting new people and develop fresh ideas.