Celebrity Life

Jean, 11, sees the world as it could be if more people brought their communities together

Gitanjali Rao was TIME’s first kid of the Year, named in 2020 for her work as a scientist and leader. Now 16, Rao remains focused on her research and on expanding access for kids to use their unique perspectives to innovate as well. She spoke with TIME about what she has done with her title.…

Much has been said, and rightly so, about what a heartbreaking time this period has been for so many kids around the world. “The Lost Year,” we called it in a TIME cover story about how COVID-19 affected a generation of students. This year’s TIME Kid of the Year, 11-year-old Orion Jean from Mansfield, Texas,…

Each year, TIME and Nickelodeon launch a nationwide search across social media and school districts to find kids age 8 to 16 who embody five key attributes: determination, passion, kindness, bravery, and innovation. The result is TIME’s Kid of the Year, and these finalists are each changing the world in unique ways, big and small.…

Jayden Perez spent the weeks leading up to Black Friday asking anyone at the park or on the streets in his hometown of Patterson, N.J., if they’d heard of Giving Tuesday. “I’m not afraid to approach strangers,” says Perez, who is a kid ambassador for Giving Tuesday, an online campaign created to encourage people to…

From the age of 6, Samirah Horton, also known as DJ Annie Red, was picked on by her peers for the things that made her different—her raspier voice, her unique sense of style, and her unwavering confidence in herself. Rather than giving up, Horton decided to pick up a mic and make sure other children…

For Mina Fedor, there was no other option but to speak up. The preteen had witnessed a harrowing rise in anti-Asian violence since the start of the pandemic, including a troubling incident that happened to her mother, who is Korean, near their home in Oakland, Calif. She started small, calling out xenophobia during a virtual…

Cash Daniels once found a “creepy doll head” in the river. “We find more strange things than you’d think,” he says: a tiny Mickey Mouse figurine, two old cassette tapes with songs that dated back long before 13-year-old Daniels was born, shotgun shells. But mostly he unearths cans, straws and plastic bottles that threaten the…

Ethan Hill was on his way to school one day in 2016, when he noticed a man living under a freeway overpass. Despite only being 6 years old at the time, Hill was determined to help the man. After school, he began to research ways he could provide aid to the homeless. A few weeks…

For most kids, the early stage COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 meant one thing: boredom. Many took the chance to start a new hobby, watch superhero movies, or spend more time on TikTok. But Lujain Alqattawi, a 13-year-old eighth grader in Maryland, saw the pause as an opportunity to do something different. “With COVID we were…

Lino Marrero was leaving cello practice one day when he noticed several blisters on his fingers. The pain was so bad that the 10-year-old inventor from Frisco, Tx. wanted to quit playing the instrument for good, even though he loved music. So he started doing some research online to find a solution. “I learned that…

Lino Marrero was leaving cello practice one day when he noticed several blisters on his fingers. The pain was so bad that the 10-year-old inventor from Frisco, Tx. wanted to quit playing the instrument for good, even though he loved music. So he started doing some research online to find a solution. “I learned that…