Innovation Begins with Empathy: A Wknd Interview with Teen Innovator Gitanjali Rao

At 19 years old, Gitanjali Rao has already been a Time magazine Kid of the Year, a winner of the inaugural Stephen Hawking Junior Medal for Science Communication, and the brain behind innovations that address everything from polluted water to cyberbullying. Now studying bioengineering and business management at MIT, she continues to be a champion of the notion that innovation starts with empathy. During this Wknd interview, she shares with us her story, her inspiration, and why she thinks young people can change the world. 

Q: Can you recall the first time you were inspired to fix a real-world problem?

Rao: I was nine years old. I had just learned about the Flint water crisis on the news. Kids were consuming lead-tainted water, and no one was doing anything about it. I thought to myself, shouldn't I at least try? That's when I began thinking about a home-test kit for families to test water safety in real time.

Q: And that concept became Tethys, your initial major innovation. How did it come about?

Rao: I came across an MIT article on using carbon nanotubes to sense gases. I wondered, why not divert that for water? I wasn't sure it would work, but I tried it. I named it Tethys, after the Greek goddess of fresh water. When I won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, I used the award money to develop my first prototype.

Q: From detecting lead to cyberbullying—your projects are varied. What ties them together?

Rao: Empathy. Innovation begins not with a breakthrough but with observing issues and asking, what if? Throughout the pandemic, I noticed teenagers fighting online, being bullied on social media. And that is how Kindly was created—a language-checking platform that identifies abusive messages, designed with UNICEF as part of its Digital Public Goods program.

Q: You also work with children in refugee camps. What's that like?

Rao: At the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, I lead innovation workshops. One of my students created an app that gives children pencils or a small toy as rewards for doing their trash disposal correctly. That moment of idea generation is what keeps me going—it's about transferring power to communities that are frequently overlooked.

Q: What motivates your science communication work?

Rao: I am a young, female South Asian. I don't resemble Einstein. Those who look like me have been silenced before. That is why I feel science communication as a duty—to make every child realize that their voice and ideas are important.