Dorothy Weiss
Albany, NY
Age 17
Dorothy Weiss is a multi-talented young lady who started reading at the age of two and inventing at the age of five. Frustrated at getting peanut butter out of a jar, she designed a package that dispenses peanut butter like tooth paste. She also loves music and plays the flute, piccolo, violin, saxophone, piano, and is now learning guitar.
When Dorothy was 12, her grandmother suffered a hip fracture. As she recuperated, the doctor warned her not to put too much weight on her hip. This gave Dorothy an idea. She invented the Safe Stepper, a shoe insole which sets off an alarm if more than a prescribed amount of weight is placed on it.
In 1996, the Safe Stepper won the Thomas Edison/Max McGraw Scholarship Competition. After graduation, Dorothy plans to attend Harvard where her biggest problem will be whether to major in biomedical engineering, TV journalism, law, or linguistics.