Seeing kids make a difference and changing the world can be an uplifting feeling. Kids, despite their age, can be just as impactful as adults if given the opportunity. Whether they are volunteering in the community, holding fundraisers, working to protect wildlife, or helping to provide medical care to those in need, there are numerous inspiring stories of children and teens making a difference.
This article is about 11 kids who have made an impressive impact on the world for the betterment of society. These children range from the ages of nine to seventeen and have done incredible feats that many adults even at their ages cannot imagine doing. They have used their influence and access to resources to effect positive change concerning environmental sustainability, healthcare, education, poverty, and more.
Armed with motivation, intelligence, and ambition, these young people have been successful in making a change towards positive, sustainable outcomes for their communities and even the world.
Top 11 Kids Changing the World
- Ryan Hreljac
Ryan Hreljac is a seventeen-year-old student from Canada who is the founder of Ryan’s Well Foundation. At the tender age of 6, Hreljac was tasked with a school project that was to raise $70 in a span of weeks. He accomplished the task and raised enough to build a well in Uganda that would provide clean drinking water for an entire village.
Since then, the Ryan’s Well Foundation has provided clean water programs in eight different African countries and has helped 1.8 million people in these countries. The foundation also provides education and health services to the local villages.
- Philip Wollen
Philip Wollen OAM, an Australian philanthropist, was once the vice-president at Citibank. When he was forty-two, he gave up all his luxury to spend his time, money and energy helping animals in need. Wollen is the founder and president of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust (WACK) which is supported by Animalia Australia, a non-profit organisation that Wollen started.
Wollen has been successful in stopping Japan and Mauritius from importing thousands of kilos of whale meat and has saved the lives of millions of street animals in India, protected polar bears in the Kalahari, and provided food and veterinary care for thousands of underprivileged animals at his Trust in Melbourne.
- Jaden Hayes
Jaden Hayes is an eighteen-year-old autistic student from the United States who started an environmental and sustainability nonprofit focused on cleaning up the Great Lakes. His nonprofit, Great Lakes for Future, has quickly become the largest civilian-led effort to clean up the Great Lakes.
In addition to successfully removing over 300,000 pounds of trash from the Great Lakes since its inception, Hayes’ organization has also provided environmental education to over 20,000 students, and has been endorsed by several large companies including Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Anheuser-Busch.
- Kelvin Doe
Kelvin Doe is an eighteen-year-old engineering whiz from Sierra Leone who taught himself how to build a working radio station out of spare materials at age twelve. Doe created his own working radio station and became its own disk jockey, DJ Focus, and the youngest radio host in Sierra Leone.
In 2012, Doe was invited by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to showcase his work and stand as a speaker at their prestigious awards gala. Since then, Doe has used his influence to create a school and provide clean drinking water to his community.
- Juliette Brindak
Juliette Brindak, a seventeen-year-old entrepreneur from the United States, started her website, Miss O & Friends, when she was just 11 years old. Brindak’s website is geared towards helping young girls feel confident about themselves and it has grown to become a multi-million-dollar business.
In addition to her successful business, Brindak is also passionate about giving back. She has raised large sums of money for multiple charities and has been a keynote speaker at several conferences where she promotes the importance of self-esteem in girls.
- Boyan Slat
Boyan Slat is a twenty-four-year-old inventor and entrepreneur from the Netherlands who invented the device, Ocean Cleanup. Slat developed The Ocean Cleanup in 2013, when he was only eighteen. His creation is a collection of floating barriers and screens that can collect massive amounts of floating plastic trash in the ocean.
This invention has vastly improved the environment by reducing the amount of plastic debris in the ocean. Slat has demonstrated immense passion to combat the global plastic waste issue and his invention has immensely helped ocean preservation.
- Marley Dias
Marley Dias, an eleven-year-old from the United States, is an avid advocate for diversity and equality. Dias created the #1000BlackGirlBooks Social Media Campaign to address the lack of books featuring black female protagonists. She has since brought her campaign to life by raising over $20,000, using the funds to purchase books with black female lead characters and distribute them to schools in the US and Jamaica.
Dias has been interviewed in popular outlets such as The Huffington Post and the Steve Harvey Show, and her book Marley Dias Gets It Done And So Can You was released in 2017.
- William Kamkwamba
William Kamkwamba is an inventor from Malawi who built a windmill as a fourteen-year-old. At the time, he had no access to electricity or a technical education, yet he managed to construct and install a windmill powered by an old car battery to generate electrical power and provide his family a sustainable source of energy.
Kamkwamba built the windmill out of scrap parts and farm-made materials and the invention has since been used to help bring electricity to his village. He wrote a book about his experience, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which was turned into a Netflix film in 2019.
- Kehkashan Basu
Kehkashan Basu is a seventeen-year-old environmental activist from the UAE who was appointed in 2012 as the youngest regional ambassador of Green Hope, a youth-led global organization dedicated to raising awareness among young people about the environment.
Basu has gained recognition for her activist work which includes her fundraising efforts to support local farmers, and her founding of the Green Hope Foundation, an organisation focused on educational programmes to help schoolchildren understand the importance of sustainability and preserving the environment. She is also a United Nations Environment Programme Champion of the Earth awardee.
- Ann Makosinski
Ann Makosinski is a seventeen-year-old inventor from Canada who is best known for her work in energy conservation. Makosinski invented a flashlight powered by body heat and created a cup with a built-in tea warmer.
Her inventions have won her numerous awards, including a Google Science Fair award as well as a spot on Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014 list. Makosinski has also been a guest speaker at major tech events such as the TEDxTeen Conference, and she has shared her inventions in museum showings in London, Vancouver, and beyond.
- Shahed Nurani
Shahed Nurani is an eleven-year-old boy from Afghanistan who, at an incredibly young age, has already devoted his life towards helping others. Nurani is the youngest person to ever be appointed as a national goodwill ambassador by the Afghan government in recognition of his passionate social work.
Nurani is passionate about helping those in need. He has raised donated over $50,000 which he used to start Project Light, an organisation he founded that works to provide healthcare and educational assistance to those in need. He also built a middle school in Kabul to help educate children who cannot attend their schools due to the conflict in Afghanistan.
These children are an inspiration to us all. They’ve shown us that with a little bit of drive, ambition, and creativity, anyone can make a positive difference in the world. These remarkable kids have reminded us that it isn’t age that matters but rather the desire to make a lasting change in the world. We should all be inspired by their actions to pursue something we are passionate about and that can make a difference in our community.
