International Youth Day: record-breaking kids who have changed the world
12 August is International Youth Day, a day dedicated to spotlighting young people, and especially those who are driving change and actively helping shape a better future.
At Guinness World Records, we love celebrating young leaders who prove that greatness has no age limit, and use their talents, curiosity and creativity to fix real issues.
Here are some inspiring examples.
Human Calculator
15-year-old prodigy Aaryan Shukla from Maharashtra, India, has left the world speechless by achieving multiple world record titles with his incredible maths skills. He can do mental maths quicker than you could type it into your calculator!
Namely, he holds the record for the fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers – a mere 25.19 seconds (that’s about one addition every 0.5 seconds!) – and the fastest time to mentally add 100 four-digit numbers – 30.9 seconds.
Today, Aaryan is one of the founding board members of the Global Mental Calculators Association (GMCA), impacting the world positively by helping to improve brain health and providing free, accessible STEM education globally.
TIME’s Kid of the Year
When she was only 10 years old, Gitanjali Rao from Denver, Colorado, USA, started developing a small device, named Tethys, that can detect if there is lead in water, a chemical that is unsafe for humans to drink or eat.
One of her more recent inventions, named Kindly, is a computer technology that helps stop cyberbullying. She’s really making the world a better place, one invention at a time!
So, after achieving so much at such a young age, Gitanjali set the record for becoming the first TIME Magazine Kid of the Year.
Gitanjali said: “Take risks, find your own talent and use it. There’s no limit to the amount of times we can fail, and we still have time to succeed in our endeavours.”
Read more stories about record-breaking innovations in our Science and Technology section.
Youngest fashion designer
On 18 November 2023, at the age of 7 years 266 days, Max Alexander from Denver, Colorado, USA, became the youngest runway show designer, after he was offered a spot at Denver Fashion Week – and his career has skyrocketed ever since.
Today, Max is a huge advocate for sustainable fashion, and has a talent for showing people how beautiful deadstock materials can become instead of going into landfill.
“I want to encourage people to use recycled materials. It’s better for our environment,” he said.
Youngest MBE
Carmela Chillery-Watson from Dorset, UK, was only 11 years 78 days old when she became the youngest Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), a prestigious royal honour given by the King for outstanding services to the world.
At the age of four, Carmela was diagnosed with a rare progressive muscle-wasting condition called LMNA congenital muscular dystrophy (L-CMD) and, since then, she has raised over £36,000 for charity by completing various fundraising projects.
For example, in 2020 she covered 10 km (6 mi) every day for a month dressed as the comic-book superhero Wonder Woman!
Awarded conservationist
Dara McAnulty is a naturalist, writer and environmental campaigner from the UK. In 2019, he became the youngest recipient of the RSPB Medal for conservation, joining a long list of renowned naturalists like Sir David Attenborough.
He was just 15 years 209 days old.
“It’s my passion to help protect our environment by teaching others all about animal conservation. I especially love birds!” Dara said.
“Working together to bring about the changes we so desperately need for a healthy planet needs everyone to understand what’s at stake and I do feel that young people have elevated that, in partnership with experts and organizations.”
So happy International Youth Day – we can't wait to see the positive impact that these young leaders’ efforts will have on the activists, artists, scientists and innovators of tomorrow.