New Leaf

New Leaf is a supportive space to quit vaping built for teens, by teens.

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Project Title - New Leaf

Project Description

Problem Statement

Vaping is a huge problem for teens in the United States. According to the CDC's 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, over 2.1 million U.S. middle and high school students currently use e-cigarettes.

Many of the apps designed to help them quit unintentionally make the problem worse. Most quitting apps rely on strict daily streaks. When a stressed teen slips up and takes a hit, their 30-day streak immediately resets to zero. This creates intense shame and often leads to a complete relapse.

What surprised me even more while researching this issue was learning that over 67% of youth e-cigarette users have actively tried to quit in the last year. The desire to quit is already there. The real problem is that traditional quitting apps harshly punish small mistakes.

Solution Overview

New Leaf is a quitting app built to be completely shame-free.

Instead of tracking consecutive days, users nurture a digital plant that grows based on the total number of cravings they successfully resist. If a user slips up, their plant simply pauses its growth and their hard work is never erased.

The goal is to create a supportive and forgiving experience that encourages long-term progress rather than perfection.

Key Features

  • A growth system where users grow a virtual plant by resisting cravings. Progress is based on total successes rather than consecutive streaks
  • 5 crisis support tools including interactive breathing timers and physical exercises provide immediate support when strong urges occur
  • A private journal where users can log daily experiences, cravings, and triggers in a personal journal
  • An anonymous community forum where students can share experiences, encourage one another, and ask for advice without revealing their identities
  • A responsive UI to make New Leaf fully accessible on both desktop and mobile devices

Technologies Used

A list of the toools used to build New Leaf:

  1. ReactJS
    • This is the framework I used to build the entire UI
    • Handles all interactive elements (ex: breathing exercises, calendar)
  2. Vite
    • The build tool
  3. TypeScript
    • A strict version of JavaScript that catches errors
  4. Tailwind CSS
    • A styling library used to design and style the UI
    • Made it easy to ensure the app remains fully responsive on both mobile phones and desktop screens
  5. ShadCN
    • A library of aesthetically pleasing React components
    • Instead of building a full UI from absolute scratch, this provided a customizable library of preexisting UI elements
  6. React Router (version 6)
    • Handles all of the navigation between different pages
  7. Firebase (& Firestore)
    • The backend!
    • Securly handles user logins (via Magic Links and Google Sign-In)
    • Stores all user data in an encrypted live cloud database
  8. React-Markdown
    • A specialized tool used for the articles library to render information in an easily understandable format
  9. Lucide React
    • The icon library used for the UI
  10. Google Gemini

Target Users

New Leaf is designed primarily for middle school and high school students who are trying to quit vaping.

When I started brainstorming, I knew I wanted to tackle a problem in my community. According to a study conducted by the CDC, over 2.1 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes in the US. What surprised me even more was learning that over 67% of them have actively tried to quit in the last year. The desire to quit is already there. The actual problem is that traditional quitting apps harshly punish small mistakes. The platform is especially intended for teens who have struggled with traditional streak-based quitting apps and want a more forgiving and judgment-free approach.

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