--- title: This Utah Teen is Allergic to Water description: Only 50 cases of the condition have been documented worldwide canonical: https://time.com/3827491/utah-teen-allergic-water/ author: Eliza Gray article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-18T18:53:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:18:53.524Z og:title: Meet the Utah Teen Who Is Allergic to Water og:description: Only 50 cases of the condition have been documented worldwide og:url: https://time.com/3827491/utah-teen-allergic-water/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Utah Teen Who Is Allergic to Water twitter:description: Only 50 cases of the condition have been documented worldwide twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Meet the Utah Teen Who Is Allergic to Water by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Apr 18, 2015 6:53 PM UTC by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Apr 18, 2015 6:53 PM UTC Ever since she was a little girl, Utah teen Alexandra Allen has [broken out in hives every time her skin was exposed to water](http://www.people.com/article/alexandra-allen-utah-teen-allergic-to-water?xid=socialflow%5Ftwitter%5Fpeoplemag). In 2013, her family discovered that her condition was most likely aquagenic urticarial, an allergy to water when it comes in contact with the skin. There are only 50 cases documented in medical journals worldwide. To avoid water exposure, Allen takes five-minute cold showers twice a week, cut her hair short and became a vegetarian so her body would produce less oil. Read more at[ People.com](http://www.people.com/article/alexandra-allen-utah-teen-allergic-to-water?xid=socialflow%5Ftwitter%5Fpeoplemag). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3827491/utah-teen-allergic-water/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3827491/utah-teen-allergic-water/"},"headline":"Meet the Utah Teen Who Is Allergic to Water","datePublished":"2015-04-18T18:53:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:53.524Z","description":"Only 50 cases of the condition have been documented worldwide","url":"https://time.com/3827491/utah-teen-allergic-water/","keywords":["Newsfeed","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Gray","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3827491/utah-teen-allergic-water/","name":"Meet the Utah Teen Who Is Allergic to Water"}}]}] ```