Top 10 Youngest Individuals Who Changed the World

Boyan Slat is a 16-year-old from the Netherlands who was shocked by the amount of plastic he encountered while diving in Greece. He decided to focus his high school science project on ocean pollution. By the age of 18, he presented a system that harnesses ocean currents to condense plastic, reducing ocean cleanup time from millennia to just a year.

It is estimated that around 600,000-800,000 tons of waste are discarded or lost by fishermen in the ocean every year. Additionally, about 8 million tons of plastic waste flow into the sea from beaches. Recently, Boyan Slat shared exciting news: his ocean cleanup system is now operational and has officially collected the first batch of debris from the waters between California and Hawaii.

This ocean cleanup initiative is the Ocean Cleanup project by the company Boyan founded. On Twitter, he wrote: "Our ocean cleanup system has finally started collecting plastic waste, from tons of debris to tiny plastic pellets." His invention has been praised by various organizations and companies. Boyan Slat is the youngest person ever to receive the United Nations' highest environmental award.

Elif Bilgin, at 16 years old, spent two years researching and experimenting before she developed a method to turn banana peels into biodegradable plastic. This breakthrough could help reduce pollution from petroleum-based plastics.

In her journal, Elif Bilgin noted that Thailand discards 200 tons of banana peels every day, which could be put to much better use. She began experimenting and ultimately won the 2013 Science in Action Award, a $50,000 Google-sponsored competition.

Anne Frank wrote 'The Diary of a Young Girl,' one of the most widely read books in the world. Her family went into hiding for two years during the intensifying persecution of Jews, but they were eventually captured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp.

She died at the age of 16 in the camp, just months before the war ended. Her diary was published in 1952 by her father and has since been translated into over 60 languages. Anne dreamed of becoming a journalist, but she did not live to see her diary celebrated for its literary value.

Malala Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel laureate ever, born in Pakistan. She grew up in a small town under Taliban rule, where girls were forbidden from attending school. At just 11, she began writing a blog for the local BBC, advocating for girls' right to education.

At the age of 15, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while on a school bus. She survived the attack and was flown to a hospital in Birmingham, UK, where she now lives and leads several educational projects.

Alex Deans, born in 1997, is an extraordinary young innovator. At just 12 years old, he created iAid, a navigation device designed to assist the visually impaired. After helping a blind woman cross the street, Alex was shocked to find that there were no devices available to help blind people navigate independently around their neighborhoods.

Self-taught in programming, Alex Deans developed iAid, a handheld GPS and compass device that detects obstacles and provides directional guidance for the blind.

In 2013, 16-year-old Canadian high school student Ann Makosinski invented the Hollow Flashlight, a flashlight that converts body heat into light without the need for batteries or mechanical energy. She was deeply moved when she learned that a friend in the Philippines was struggling with a lack of lighting at school, and only had time to do homework at night.

Ann Makosinski spent just $26 on materials for her prototype, with the goal of providing her invention for free to people in developing countries.

This young man, born in 1997, Jack Andraka was an ordinary kid until a close family friend passed away from pancreatic cancer. This loss inspired Jack to find a way to detect the early stages of cancer.

At the age of 15, Jack Andraka invented a new type of sensor to detect cancer cells, which proved to be far cheaper, much faster (168 times), and more accurate (25-50%) than existing tests. As is often the case, he was rejected by nearly 200 labs before Dr. Anirban Maitra at John Hopkins validated his work.

A 14-year-old farm boy with a natural talent for chemistry and physics once asked his high school teacher for advice about an idea he had in mind. The idea was so complex that Philo Farnsworth had to draw a diagram on the board, which the teacher copied down to study later.

Encouraged to pursue his idea, seven years later, in 1927, Philo Farnsworth developed and patented the first fully electronic television. Philo Farnsworth created a complete television system with a receiver and camera, which he commercially produced under the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Philo T. Farnsworth was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2013.

A 14-year-old teen created his first robotic hand using LEGO and fishing wire. Not stopping there, Easton LaChappelle applied 3D printing technology and self-taught robotics knowledge to turn his prototype into an affordable, functional device.

As a result, NASA took a keen interest in his work and invited him to join their Robonaut team. By the time Easton LaChappelle was just 17, he was already working for NASA. Now that's an impressive resume!

You’ve likely heard of the Braille system for reading and writing for the blind or visually impaired. It was created by Louis Braille, a 15-year-old inventor from France. At the age of three, a childhood accident caused Louis to lose his sight.

Despite his blindness, Louis Braille excelled in his studies and earned a prestigious scholarship to join the Royal Institute for Blind Youth. There, he began developing a system that would allow blind individuals to read and write quickly, which he introduced to his peers at the age of 15.