A 15-year-old Lone Tree girl has been named Time magazine’s first-ever Kid of the Year for 2020.
Gitanjali Rao, a young scientist and inventor, was selected from a field of more than 5,000 nominees to be named Time’s Kid of the Year.
“I was beyond surprised,” Gitanjali said Thursday afternoon in a phone interview. “Just the idea…it’s something you dream about, but something you don’t expect at all.”
Gitanjali, in a zoom interview with actor and activist Angelina Jolie announcing the award, covered a wide-range of topics, from water pollution, to opioid addiction to cyber bullying. Gitanjali has created an app to combat cyber bullying.
“She is super cool,” Gitanjali said of Jolie. “Her activism is beyond inspiring.”
Gitanjali, in 2017, earned the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist” while attending STEM School Highlands Ranch. At that time, Gitanjali won the award for inventing a device named Tethys, after the Greek goddess of fresh water, and entering it into the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. She told The Denver Post she entered the contest, in part, looking for a solution to the Flint, Mich., water crisis.
“Everyone should know what is in their water and everyone should have access to clean water,” she said on Thursday.
Gitanjali is now a sophomore at the STEM School. She attends virtually because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is obviously such a tragedy, so many people are being impacted in a negative way” by the pandemic, she said. At the same time, response to COVID-19 is driving “leaps in technology on literally every platform.”
Gitanjali isn’t quite positive about where her future education and career may take her. “I change my mind everyday,” she said. Perhaps, she’ll pursue biotechnology and product development. “I know I will continue to create positive change in the world and make a difference, hopefully.”
A broadcast special on the Kid of the Year will air on Nickelodeon on Friday.