They’re stereotypically known for their vanity, social media addiction and fashion choices, but young women all over are shattering these stereotypes. A new generation is solving the problems of today with ambitious, ground-breaking tech. They’re using STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and their imaginations to invent new solutions to problems faced by people around the world.
So in case you were looking for inspiration and role models to look up to while starting out on your own career and life’s journey, here’s our list of incredible young women and girls already reshaping the world we live in.
Gitanjali Rao
From being featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list to speaking at various TED events — the 16-year-old inventor is the first Kid of the Year to appear on the Time magazine cover. Rao started thinking of ways to use science and technology to create social change from the time she was in the second or third grade. She was named America’s Top Young Scientist when she invented Tethys, a device that detects lead contamination in water, in 2017. She later went on to build apps to tackle cyber safety, opioid addiction, and more. Her invention, Kindly, is an AI-based solution that flags cyberbullying content in real time. She also developed Epione, an early diagnosis solution for prescription opioid addiction, accompanied by a mobile application.
Aditi Arya, Malini Dasgupta and Devika Malhotra
These young adults from the Cathedral and John Connon School at Fort, Mumbai, designed a sanitary napkin dispensing machine using the 3D printing technology. The project undertaken as part of the ‘3D Printing Course’ was conducted by Curiosity Gym, an organisation promoting ‘design thinking’, that helped the girls innovatively approach the problem of many women lacking basic necessities like sanitary napkins. This sort of facility is rare even in private schools, but the three inventors don’t want to stop at that. While they do want to expand the initiative to other private schools, they want to first fix the problem for less affluent municipal schools as well.
Riya Karumanchi
For Riya Karumanchi, the journey from high school student to the founder and CEO of an accessible technology company started after a chance encounter at a friend's house. Karumanchi met her friend's visually-disabled grandmother for the first time and watched her struggle while navigating the home. Not long after, the 16-year-old started workshopping an idea to help blind people more safely navigate by infusing cutting edge smart technology into the standard white cane. Her latest prototype features haptic-based GPS navigation, which can vibrate the cane to give a user turn-by-turn directions. It also includes an ultrasonic proximity sensor to alert the user of potentially hazardous objects from knee to head height, a blind spot of the traditional cane. Karumanchi hopes to install an artificial intelligence-powered camera in a later model, which can describe everyday objects and even recognize people's faces.
Kavya Vignesh
A graphic designer, an engineer, a robotics champion, and a keen environmentalist and nature-lover. With her Bee Saver Bot, Kavya is hoping to save the world’s endangered honeybees. Using a combination of robotics and hi-tech components, Vignesh has developed a robot that removes honeybees safely and carefully without harming them or humans. The thought occurred to her when she realised that more than 85 per cent of the world’s crops are pollinated by honeybees and that it was extremely important to relocate beehives without harming its inhabitants. In 2018 at the age of 12, Vignesh and her team became the youngest contingent to represent India at a robotics competition in Denmark.
Aanya Soni
At 13, she became the youngest Indian to be selected for the Antarctica 2018 Expedition, fuelled by the 2041 foundation which was founded by polar explorer, environmental leader, and public speaker Robert Swan - the first person in history to walk to both the North and South Pole. She is now a climate change ambassador and wants to help people make small changes in their daily lives. In addition to being a founding member of the Kids4aCause team that provides aid to the people of Kashmir by recycling materials to create new products, Soni and her friends have also been creating sustainable utility products for sales, every year during Diwali.