EDITOR’S LETTER

SEPTEMBER 2021 / CRISTIN MARANDINO

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TEEN SPIRIT

While our annual Ten Teens to Watch feature has become one of my favorite recurring stories that we run, truth be told, it also tends to make me feel, well, rather inadequate. The accomplishments that these kids have achieved in their young lives is enough to make even Bill Gates question his teen years.

Every summer we comb through the nominations, and one is more outstanding than the next. It’s always a struggle to narrow it down to just ten. But narrow it down we do.

Among the trailblazers in our 2021 “class” are an aspiring astronaut, a rising star of the big and small screens, a future surgeon who was influenced by the doctors and nurses that cared for her terminally ill father, an empath focused on de-stigmatizing mental illness, a budding economist with her sights set on becoming a Wall Street CFO or perhaps the chair of the Federal Reserve, and a first-year West Point cadet passionate about serving her country. And that’s just the girls.

The boys, too, certainly hold their own: a talented linguist who has not only taught languages but developed a curriculum to master Portuguese, a National Honor Society member who also happens to be a champion sailor, a coding phenom who developed technology to help the deaf community communicate more equitably, and a philanthropic teen who created a fundraising event to benefit Alzheimer’s research.

But it’s important to note that these kids are far from singular. Each one is a multifaceted combination of interests and triumphs— philanthropic, academic, athletic and artistic. We know you’ll be just as impressed as we were when you read their stories.

At a time when the news of the day can range from dismal and divisive to absurd and trivial, it is a pleasure to meet kids like these—young people who take their place in the world seriously and understand the importance of perseverance and empathy. It’s heartening to imagine what they will become. It’s certainly not a question of whether they will change the world. It’s simply a matter of how they will do it.

We can’t wait to find out.