“What do you want to be now?”

It’s almost a silly question for the 10-year-old published author from Pune. On November 14, Ishita Katyal became the youngest Indian to deliver a talk at the TEDx Youth Conference in New York. Her 4-minute speech, entitled “What do you want to be now” challenges the system which thinks children are too small to make a difference. Not to much surprise, she was met with a loud applause.

In 2013, Ishita attended her first TEDx session in Pune. She took the initiative and asked the organisers how she too, could be part of the event. After undergoing two rounds of Skype interviews conducted by Global TEDx volunteers, she became the youngest organiser of TEDx Youth events in the Asia-Pacific region.

On February 7, Ishita organised the first TEDx event in her school titled “Why you don’t have to wait till you grow up”. In the talk she urged kids of her age to think about what they’re doing in the present, as opposed to planning for what they’ll do in the future.