International Youth Day: 10 people who achieved great things before they turned 20

Sofia Tysonon 10 August 2018
Malala Youzafi

Young people are incredible - but often overlooked. So, in celebration of International Youth Day we’ve created a list of some of the most influential and inspiring young people who achieved amazing things before they turned 20.

Malala Youzafi

Perhaps the most known inspiring teen also happens to be studying at Oxford University as we speak. Just five years after being shot by the Pakistani Taliban for her brave campaigning in the name of girls’ rights to an education, Malala is now studying PPE at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Pretty amazing if you ask us! Whilst you are probably familiar with her story, it deserves to be heard over and over.

Despite being shot in the head and narrowly avoiding death, Malala refused to let the threats and attempt ending her advocacy. Rather, she fought harder, spoke louder and remained brave in campaigning for something so fundamental. She has since been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and has continued to address the United Nations on the matter of a child’s right to an education. Did we mention she’s an author too? It’s fair to say Malala has not only spoken out for women - but for youth, globally.

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Alex Scott

Diagnosed with childhood cancer at the age of 1, by the age of 4, Alexandra Scott was determined to be the the change she wanted to see. Alexandra wanted to start her own lemonade stand to raise money that enabled doctors to help other kids, the way she was helped. Her first stand raised an amazing $2,000 and prompted the creation of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation through which Alex continued holding the stands in her lifetime.

Unfortunately, she passed away at the age of 8. However, her impact on in the world did not end there and her legacy lives on through a sponsored national fundraising weekend which hosts 10,000 volunteers and over 2,000 Alex’s Lemonade Stands. Alex was a remarkable young person and her change was long-lasting and without doubt, amazing.

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Akshay Ruparelia

Akshay Ruparelia’s story will have you wondering what you were doing during sixth form. During his a-levels, this teenager from Barnet sold his first house through Doorsteps.co.uk, a site he made live during his studies. Remarkably, Akshay is millionaire managing director of the site and it’s even been described as the ‘Uber of the property world’. So yeah, he’s a pretty big deal.

Despite being a carer for both of his parents, dependent on favours and achieving 3 A*s and 2 As in his a-levels, Akshay’s business was worth £12m and 14th largest estate agent in the UK after the first year alone.

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Nick D’aloisio

As a teenager, Nick created an app which summarises and digests news articles into a more accessible and plain way for readers. The app, Summly, was later sold to Yahoo for $30m when Nick was just 17. However, he left Yahoo and moved on to focus on his studies at Oxford which has resulted in his academic work being published in their peer-reviewed journals.

The most impressive part? Nick has not stopped at Summly. He has invested in his new app which connects people with experts and taking his ideas further. There’s no doubt his work as a young person has been impactful, recognised and paved way for greater things.

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Brittany Wegner

This girl is doing some truly amazing things and if you didn’t know about it - you should do. At the age of 17, she introduced her model of a ‘custom, cloud-based artificial neural network’ to the Google Science Fair. Unsurprisingly, she won. If you’re wondering what that is, so were we. It’s a computer that works kind of like an ‘artificial brain’ and can identify some data patterns in tissue samples to diagnose breast cancer with 99% accuracy.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, she hasn’t stopped at life changing technology. Oh no. She’s giving talks, launching apps and getting herself that degree. So yeah, she definitely makes the list. Go girl!

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Milan Karki

Coming from one of the poorest countries in the world and witnessing first hand the lack of access, unreliability and poverty - Milan designed a solar panel that may well source the cheapest, green electricity in the world. At just 18, he has created a solar panel that replaces silicon with hair. You heard. Hair! Given that the silicon is an expensive component of most solar panels, this could bring power to some of the poorest, most rural areas in the world.

Whilst power is a fundamental to us, Milan could have cracked the case on making it a fundamental to so many more people. A solar panel that can charge a phone or provide light for an evening could change lives for just £23. Milan is out here revolutionising renewable energy which I think we can all agree is pretty cool.

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Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

Imagine this. You’re 17. A hip-hop artist, a climate activist and have already given 3 speeches to the UN - the first aged 15. For Xiuhtezcatl, that is his life. Did I mention he’s part of the group of teenagers suing the Trump administration for not taking action against climate change? Or the fact he’s been speaking out about the state of the planet and educating others across the world since he was six.

SIX?! Is there anything he hasn’t done? He says “It’s not about being an activist. It’s about recognizing the power you have to make a difference.” And I don’t think we could have put it better.

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Kylian Mbappé

There’s overwhelming consensus in the world of football that Mbappé is currently up there as the highest achieving young footballer. Having made his debut for Monaco at the early age of 16 and becoming the world’s most expensive teenager at the age of 18 - it’s fair to say it’s a deserved title. In fact, in time for International Youth Day 2018, Mbappé has become the first teenager to score in a World Cup Final since Pele in 1958. Need I say anymore?

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Chloe Kim

It was only earlier this year that Chloe Kim became an Olympic gold medalist during the Winter Games. Most impressive of all? She was 17. However, this wasn’t the first time she had achieved greatness younger than most. At the age of 13 she was already labelled one of America’s best snowboarders. Later at 14, she became the X Games’ youngest ever gold medalist. Then, at 15, she became the second ever halfpipe rider to achieve a perfect score. What do we know about Chloe? She’s achieving excellence at almost every stage of her life and since she’s only 17 - she’s got a lot more to give!

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Mary Grace Henry

Being exposed to the harsh truth that thousands of young African girls are both forced into marriages and not allowed education - Mary Grace was 12 when she decided to take matters into her own hands. Her charisma and concern meant she asked for a sewing machine for Christmas and used it to launch her own business creating and selling hair accessories. Her aim was to put the profit towards funding education for less fortunate girls all throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

She was quickly successful so launched a website to make even more substantial change to the rights of these girls. Her business is called Reverse the Course and she’s doing exactly that! She’s designed over 200 headbands and sold over 10,000 items, putting 45 girls through education. We love every part of this!

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Sofia Tysonon 10 August 2018