Tim Cook hails 9-yr-old Malayali girl after she becomes youngest iOS developer with storytelling app

The mobile application development industry is booming. According to a rough estimate, there are over 26 million individuals who are developing mobile applications. This is testament to the far-reaching impact of apps not only for businesses but also consumers. App development has become an integral part of businesses worldwide as they have transformed the way people use technology to conduct day-to-day activities.

The world of mobile applications seems like an ocean full of possibilities. Each day a new individual creates history with their innovation. Now, a Dubai-based Indian youngster has caught the attention of the world. Nine-year-old Hana Mohammed Rafeeq seems to have charmed her way into the world of technology after she created an App. For Hana, recognition came to her from none other than Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.

The young girl created an app called Hanas, a storytelling app that allows parents to record stories. With this, Hana has become the youngest iOS app developer. After creating the application, the young girl had written to the Apple boss enumerating her application and her achievement.


The Khaleej Times reported that Hana was sleeping when her father woke up and read the response from Cook. “I woke her up and conveyed the news to her. She immediately sat up and ran to the washroom. Usually, it takes several minutes to wake her up,” Hana’s father Mohammed Rafeeq was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times.

You Will Do Amazing Things
In his response, Cook congratulated Hana on her impressive achievements at such a young age. He went on to encourage the girl by asking her to be consistent and that he was hopeful that she will do amazing things in the future.

“Congratulations on all of your impressive achievements at such a young age. Keep at it and you will do amazing things in the future,” read Cook’s response.

Hana wrote 10,000 lines of code to create the app which allows parents to record stories in their own voices for their children. Reportedly, the young girl got inspired after watching a documentary on the significance of parent-child relationship. According to Hana, parents can record stories before they start their day at work and it can be played later for the kids to listen to while they fall asleep.

“In case parents are busy with work, they can record stories so that children can listen to it before going to sleep. This will help build the bond between parents and their children,” Hana told Khaleej Times.

Family And Background
According to Mohammed, both nine-year-old Hana and her 10-year-old sister Leena are self-taught coders. The young girls drew inspiration from their techie parents. Talking about Hana’s journey, her father revealed that in 2018 he owned a fintech start-up for which he also encouraged his wife to start learning coding. At the time, Leena was about six years old and got interested in coding. Considering her age, her father gave her a smaller laptop to start HTML and CSS for website development.

Hana’s older sister Leena went on to develop a website ‘Lehnas’ that introduced animals, colours and words to children. Leena had also added a link to the Kerala Chief Minister's relief fund as their home state was witnessing massive floods. Rafeeq told the media portal that it was at this time that they realised the potential of their daughters. Rafeeq admitted that since schools were not supportive of their skills, they decided to get the girls homeschooled.

In addition to their mother tongue Malayalam and computer languages, the girls are also being taught Spanish, Arabic, German, Hindi, and English.