Indian-American Gitanjali Rao is on ‘TIME’ cover, Twitter churns out ‘desi parents’ memes

Selected from among 5,000 nominees of TIME magazine’s first-ever ‘Kid of the Year’, 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao of Indian-American descent featured on the much-coveted cover. She was interviewed by actress and activist Angelina Jolie for the special cover which honours kids’ achievements.

Rao was named ‘Kid of the Year’ for "astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying.” Observe, brainstorm, research, build and communicate, Rao told about her process during a virtual talk with Jolie from her home in Colorado.

"Even over video chat, her brilliant mind and generous spirit shone through, along with her inspiring message to other young people: don't try to fix every problem, just focus on one that excites you," TIME said.


"If I can do it, she said in the interview, anybody can do it," said TIME in their feature.

The 15-year-old scientist and inventor also earned praise from India Inc top boss Anand Mahindra who felt that back home in India, there are many such ‘Kids of the Year’. Doffing his hat off to Rao, Mahindra said that India’s ‘demographic dividend’ is benefitting the world.

“Let’s celebrate them (the kids) & harness their talents to build a better future for ourselves,” wrote Mahindra.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also praised Rao for her efforts.
Chef Vikas Khanna congratulated Rao’s parents, Bharathi and Ram Rao.
Several other netizens on Desi Twitter proudly celebrated Rao’s achievement and appreciated the young innovator for trying to make the world a better place at such a young age.
“Your intelligence and new inventions will always help all the people to live a better life in future,” wrote this netizen.

However, Twitter being Twitter, couldn’t help but crack jokes at the expense of Desi parents and their over-achieving kids.
‘Rest of the kids, your lives are in danger,’ quipped this netizen.
“May create anxiety for Brown kids to become kid of the year and increase expectations of parents,” wrote The Juggernaut as they shared the news.
‘Please don't show this to my parents,’ wrote this rather worried netizen.
Last year, Rao was featured in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ list for her innovations. In 2017, she won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and was awarded USD 25,000 for creating a device called Tethys.

The device, which contains a 9-volt battery, a lead sensing unit, a bluetooth extension, and a processor was created to detect lead in water.

In May 2019, she was awarded the Top ‘Health’ Pillar Prize for the TCS Ignite Innovation Student Challenge for developing a diagnostic tool based on advances in genetic engineering for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction.

Offlately, the 15-year-old has developed Kindly, a phone and Web tool, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible early signs of cyberbullying.