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For the first time, “Time Magazin” has chosen a “Child of the Year”. The only 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao has been selected from among 5,000 nominated children, and Angelina Jolie already admires her.
“Child of the year”: Gitanjali Rao, 15, from the US state of Colorado.
Photo: Vivien Killilea (AFP)
The scientists Gitanjali Rao knows from television are older, mostly white men. The 15-year-old herself is neither older, nor male nor white, which has not prevented her from dedicating herself to natural sciences. The girl from the small town of Lone Tree in the US state of Colorado has developed, among other things, a device that detects lead residues in drinking water and anti-cyberbullying software. Now Rao has been named the first “Child of the Year” by Time magazine.
For nearly a hundred years, the magazine has voted for the person of the year who has made a particular impact on the world, in a good way and in a bad way. Most men have been named since 1927, among the few women was Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015, and last year climate activist Greta Thunberg, then 16, was the youngest “Person of the Year”. For the new category, Child of the Year, only US children and teens were eligible, and obviously only those who have a positive impact on the world.
Don’t experiment in the backyard according to Mom’s taste.
Gitanjali Rao, who prevailed against 5,000 candidates, has it in several ways. When more than 100,000 people in Flint, Michigan, were poisoned by contaminated drinking water about five years ago, Rao developed “Tethys” – a case-sized box with carbon nanotubes and a battery that uses Bluetooth to measure the content of lead in drinking water. Submitted an application. Rao was grateful that she was allowed to develop her invention in a water factory laboratory, she once said in an interview, because her mother didn’t like it as much when she experimented with lead in the backyard.
Now the young American smiles from the cover of time, in sneakers and with numerous medals around her neck. Angelina Jolie conducted the winners’ interview, and it’s the actress who looks like a fan: “I’m so happy to get to know you a bit,” says Jolie. Because at some point he could say of Rao: “I met her once.”
No fame overnight
Rao was named “America’s Best Young Scientist” in 2017 for her drinking water test device, and at just twelve years old she was on Forbes’ list of the top “30 under 30s” in the science category. Time magazine also honored Rao because he encourages other children to turn their curiosity into inventions. In workshops, Rao worked with a total of 30,000 schoolchildren to develop ideas, invent things, produce products. Despite the awards, it seems modest. “There are so many problems that we did not create and that we must solve now,” he told Jolie of his generation. He hopes to contribute a “small part”.
While other girls her age used to read teen magazines and are now on Tiktok, Rao prefers to read MIT Technology Review, a scientific journal from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and says things like, “Everything at school is great. Funny.” She doesn’t get excited about Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber, but about “the great people from universities like MIT or Harvard who do great work with technology,” as she puts it. Jolie commented that it seemed a bit like she was talking to a 60-year-old scientist in Geneva.
Rao tries to calm down: he also does things that 15-year-olds do, especially in the confinement. For example, she bakes a lot – it’s a science too, after all, although one she’s not particularly good at. At least he got a loaf the other day. She was proud of that.
