Pune girl, all of 10, is youngest Indian TEDx speaker

Most 10-year-olds only have school, homework and cartoons on their mind. However, Ishita Katyal is not like most 10-year-olds. This Pune girl became a published author at 8 and is the youngest Indian speaker at the TEDx talks.

The young author wrote an insightful book named 'Simran's Diary' about how a young 8-year-old girl interprets the world around her. It was after this that her TEDx journey began. Despite her tender age, Ishita delivered a rousing speech, her first, just last year. Shifting focus from what kids want to do when they grow up, she urged them to think about what they were doing in the present. She even organised a TEDx talk at her own school last year.

Now, Ishita has added another feather to her cap - she was invited to speak at the main TED event in Vancouver, Canada. This is how she 'schooled' everyone. “Instead of asking children what they want to do when they grow up, you should ask them what they want to be right now,” she says.

“We can do a lot in this moment, in the present. The problem is our world has many forces working against the dreams of children.” Adults chronically underestimate kids, she says, and in the process they pass on fear. She worries that kids across the world are suffering from this fear — not to mention from hunger, from war, from the increasing cost of education.

“My dream for the future is that people think 10 times before raising school fees, a hundred times before going to war with another country, a thousand times before wasting food and water, and ten thousand times before letting their child’s childhood go away,” she says. “I hope you adults can look after the world long enough to give us our chance.”