Indian American Gitanjali Rao was on Thursday, 3 December, named TIME Magazine’s first ever ‘Kid of the Year’. The 15-year-old was selected from over 5,000 nominees.
Gitanjali is an inventor, author, and a STEM promoter. She has also previously featured in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ list for her innovations.
According to TIME Magazine, Gitanjali, in an interview with Academy Award-winning actor Angelina Jolie, talked about her “astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying, and about her mission to create a global community of young innovators to solve problems the world over.”
The 15-year-old scientist and inventor is responsible for the innovation of Kindly, an app targeted towards cyberbullying that flags potentially harmful content and asks the user before posting it. She has also partnered with rural schools, women in STEM organisations, museums all across the world, and bigger organisations like Shanghai International Youth Science and Technology group and the Royal Academy of Engineering in London to run innovation workshops.
On Representation
In the interview, Rao also spoke about representation in the science community and what it means to her as she’s growing up.
"I don't look like your typical scientist. Everything I see on TV is that it's an older, usually white man as a scientist. It's weird to me that it was almost like people had assigned roles, regarding like their gender, their age, the colour of their skin,” she said.
(With inputs from TIME)
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