TIME Magazine’s inaugural Kid of the Year is Indian American.
Gitanjali Rao is the first to hold the title which aims to highlight the accomplishments and positive impact of the next generation, TIME reports. Rao, a 15-year-old scientist and inventor, was selected Thursday among 5,000 other kids, aged 8 to 16.
The Lone Tree, Colorado teen has done extensive work, NPR reports. Among her inventions is a mobile tool to identify early signs of cyberbullying and a device to detect lead in water, which she created in response to the Flint, Michigan water crisis.
“I don’t look like your typical scientist,” Rao said, The Quint reports. “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 color of their skin.”
The award, formed from a partnership between Time and Nickelodeon, grants each of the five finalists a cash prize and a chance to appear with comedian Trevor Noah in an upcoming TV special. According to NPR, Noah and a committee of kids were responsible for making the final decision to choose Rao.
The decision was met with widespread support on social media.
“Love the female Indian representation,” Twitter user @Chyateezy said.
This isn’t Rao’s first accolade either. According to NPR, she was previously named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and was named America’s Top Young Scientist as a seventh grader.
She’s also worked with rural schools and women in STEM organizations to promote youth activism, The Quint reports.
“I was always someone who wanted to put a smile on someone’s face. That was my everyday goal, just to make someone happy,” Rao said, according to TIME. “And it soon turned into, How can we bring positivity and community to the place we live? And then when I was in second or third grade, I started thinking about how can we use science and technology to create social change.”
Her latest project, Kindly, works to combat cyberbullying by allowing teens to check their texts for bullying before sending, Rao said.
“You type in a word or phrase, and it’s able to pick it up if it’s bullying, and it gives you the option to edit it or send it the way it is,” Rao continued. “A lot of the teenagers were telling me that, you know, it doesn’t seem like I’m being micromanaged; it seems like I’m being given an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. So that’s what I was superexcited about, that they understood what the goal of it was.”
Rao will be crowned Kid of the Year Friday evening.
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