18 Times Kids Did Extraordinary Things To Make The World A Better Place
From creating a way to detecting types of cancer to inventing a summertime frozen treat, these kids and teens have done their best to help make the world a better place. Vote up the best inventions, intentions, and creations from these wunderkinds whose bright ideas helped humanity.
- 1754 VOTES
A Teen Prodigy Created A Program That Can Detect Pancreatic Cancer
From Redditor u/Ballista234:
A 15-year-old boy named Jack Andraka made a program that can detect pancreatic cancer, a general procedure that usually costs about $2,000-$5,000, for just $3.
- 2597 VOTES
Kindness To Others Goes A Long Way
From Redditor u/ekser:
An 18-year-old Chinese high-school student has carried his 19-year-old friend, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, to school everyday for the past three years.
Source: For Past 3 Years, Teen Has Carried Fellow Student Who Has Muscular Dystrophy To Class
- 3894 VOTES
A Hero Who Refused To Leave A Library
From Redditor u/twilling8:
In 1959, police were called to a segregated library in S. Carolina when a 9-year-old Black boy refused to leave. The child was Ronald McNair, who later got a PhD in Physics from MIT, and died in 1986, one of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
The library that refused to lend him books is now named after him.
- 4492 VOTES
The Child Who Made Vanilla Popular
From Redditor u/fraggle_captain:
Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old slave boy in 1841, he invented the technique for pollinating vanilla orchids profitably. Without this technique, it’s unlikely that vanilla would be nearly as well known as it is today.
Source: The Little Boy Who Should’ve Vanished, but Didn’t
Source: The Unsung Edmond Albius, the 12-Year-Old Slave Who Saved the Vanilla Industry
- 5698 VOTES
Four High School Students Got Rid Of Pay Toilets
From Redditor u/hwkfan1:
Four high-school students in the ‘70s are the reason we don't have pay toilets in America. They created an organization called CEPTIA, and were able to successfully lobby against the issue. eight years later, pay toilets were all but nonexistent throughout the US.
- 6394 VOTES
A Teenager Invented The Quick-Release Ratchet
From Redditor u/Planet6EQUJ5:
A teenager, Peter Roberts invented a quick-release ratchet. He sold his patent to Sears for $10,000 who said that the invention was not worth very much and then went on to make $44 million selling the ratchet. He sued them for fraud and was awarded $1 million.
Source: The saga of one man, a ratchet and his fight for recognition
Source: A teenager, Peter Roberts invented a quick-release ratchet