15 YO Gitanjali Rao is Time’s first ever Kid of The Year

15 YO Gitanjali Rao is Time’s first ever Kid of The Year Lone Tree, Colorado If you have any doubt about the future of mankind, rest assured it's in good hands. A 15-year-old girl from Colorado, USA, makes us believe that we may not have lost everything after all. Gitanjali Rao has been named first ever Kid Of The Year by Time magazine. And if this wasn’t an achievement enough, she’s already won numerous accolades from around the world. Our future Out of five Kid of the Year finalists selected from a field of more than 5,000 Americans, ages 8 to 16, Rao stands first and firm. Even before she came on the mag cover, actor Shahrukh Khan had said after meeting her during Ted Talk: Nayi Baat, “Our future is safe in your hands.” The innovator She’s also won America’s top young scientist award and appeared on Forbes 2019’s ‘30 on 30’ list. She was only 10-years-old when she told her family that she wanted to research carbon nanotube sensor technology at the Denver Water Quality research lab. In class 7, she created a device called Tethys, which utilises carbon nanotubes to detect lead compounds in water, and sends values of the water status to a smartphone app. The young scientist wanted to solve the problem of the Flint crisis, where the city’s water was contaminated with lead. This invention earned her the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Be ‘kindly’ to others Rao is the brain behind an app which fights against cyberbullying. It’s a service called Kindly—there’s an app and a Chrome ­extension—which is able to detect cyberbullying at an early stage, based on artificial-­intelligence technology. The young scientist wants to work for a better future of our world, in every way possible.