International Youth Day: these record-breaking kids made the world a better place!
Who says you need to grow up before you can make an impact on the world?
These 5 awesome kids are here to prove that greatness has no age limit!
12 August is International Youth Day, a day dedicated to celebrating young leaders who have broken records using their own talents, curiosity and creativity to fix real problems.
Let’s have a look…
Human Calculator
15-year-old prodigy Aaryan Shukla from Maharashtra, India, has left the world speechless by achieving multiple world record titles with his incredible maths skills. He can solve just about any calculation in seconds, without using a calculator – just his brain!
Just a couple of the world record titles he holds are:
- Fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers – a mere 25.19 seconds (that’s about one addition every 0.5 seconds!)
- Fastest time to mentally add 100 four-digit numbers – 30.9 seconds
And how does he make the world a better place?
Today, Aaryan is one of the founding board members of the Global Mental Calculators Association (GMCA), helping to improve brain health and providing free, accessible STEM education globally!
TIME’s Kid of the Year
When she was only 10 years old, Gitanjali Rao from Denver, Colorado, USA, started developing a small device, named Tethys, that can detect if there is lead in water, a chemical that is unsafe for humans to drink or eat.
And later, she invented Kindly, a computer technology that helps stop cyberbullying. She’s really making the world a better place, one invention at a time!
So, after achieving so much at such a young age, Gitanjali set the record for becoming the first TIME Magazine Kid of the Year – a special award given to a kid or teen who is doing amazing things to help others and solve big problems…
Gitanjali’s advice is: “Take risks, find your own talent and use it. There’s no limit to the amount of times we can fail, and we still have time to succeed in our endeavours.”
We couldn’t agree more!
Youngest fashion designer
On 18 November 2023, at the age of 7 years 266 days, Max Alexander from Denver, Colorado, USA, became the youngest runway show designer, after he was offered a spot at Denver Fashion Week – pretty amazing, right?
Today, Max is a huge supporter of sustainable fashion, which is the making of clothes using materials and processes that are kind to planet Earth.
“I want to encourage people to use recycled materials. It’s better for our environment,” he told us.
Well done, Max!
Youngest MBE
Carmela Chillery-Watson from Dorset, UK, was only 11 years 78 days old when she became the youngest Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).
That’s a huge royal honour given by the King for people who are helping the world in a MAJOR way. WOW!
At the age of 4, Carmela was diagnosed with a rare progressive muscle-wasting condition called LMNA congenital muscular dystrophy (L-CMD) and, since then, she has raised over £36,000 for charity by completing various fundraising projects.
For example, in 2020 she covered 10 km (6 mi) every day for a month dressed as the comic-book superhero Wonder Woman!
Iconic.
Awarded conservationist
Dara McAnulty is a naturalist, writer and environmental campaigner – in other words, he knows a lot (like, A LOT) about plants and animals…
In 2019, when he was just 15 years 209 days old, he became the youngest recipient of the RSPB Medal for conservation, joining a long list of famous naturalists like Sir David Attenborough.
“It’s my passion to help protect our environment by teaching others all about animal conservation. I especially love birds!” he told us.
“Working together to bring about the changes we so desperately need for a healthy planet needs everyone to understand what’s at stake and I do feel that young people have elevated that, in partnership with experts and organizations.”
That is so true!
So happy International Youth Day – will you be the next activist, artist, scientist or innovator to make this world a better place?