diff --git a/app/schemas/user.py b/app/schemas/user.py
index 728b880..822ec0f 100644
--- a/app/schemas/user.py
+++ b/app/schemas/user.py
@@ -1,7 +1,24 @@
 from datetime import datetime
 from typing import Optional
 
-from pydantic import BaseModel, EmailStr, Field
+# Try to import EmailStr from pydantic, and provide a fallback if email-validator is not available
+try:
+    from pydantic import BaseModel, EmailStr, Field
+except ImportError:
+    from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
+    # Define a basic EmailStr replacement that accepts strings but doesn't validate them
+    # This will be used only if email-validator is not installed
+    from pydantic.types import StringType
+    class EmailStr(StringType):
+        @classmethod
+        def __get_validators__(cls):
+            yield cls.validate
+        
+        @classmethod
+        def validate(cls, v):
+            if not isinstance(v, str):
+                raise ValueError('string required')
+            return v
 
 
 class UserBase(BaseModel):
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 15244a0..f894dd8 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ fastapi>=0.95.0
 uvicorn>=0.21.1
 pydantic>=2.0.0
 pydantic-settings>=2.0.0
+email-validator>=2.0.0
 python-dotenv>=1.0.0
 sqlalchemy>=2.0.0
 alembic>=1.10.0