There are 74 million kids in America. But only one is the 2025 TIME Kid of the Year—and she’s a 17-year-old violin-playing, nonprofit-volunteering, senior citizen-protecting student at Frisco’s Lebanon Trail High School.

How did Tejasvi Manoj beat those 74 million-to-one odds to land on the cover of TIME? It all started in February 2024, when she was a 16-year-old junior at Lebanon Trail. Riding home from Scouting America camp with her dad, she heard him call her worried 85-year-old grandfather, who was being victimized by an email spoofing scam. Designed to look like a family member’s urgent request for $2,000, it was actually a cybercrime in progress.

Tejasvi’s father stopped her granddad from sending the money in time to expose the hoax. But many older Americans aren’t so lucky. In 2024 alone, scams targeting people over the age of 60 accounted for losses of nearly $5 billion, according to FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data cited by TIME.

2025 Time Kid of the Year Tejasvi Manoj. [Image: TIME]

She built a senior-scam prevention website

Most kids would have simply felt relief for their granddad. But Tejasvi thought about all the other grandfathers and grandmothers out there who were still in danger. So she set out to build Shield Seniors, a website that teaches people over 60 how to spot online scams. The site enables users to upload suspicious emails and text messages, anallyzes them, and if they seem fraudulent, it provides links to report them. 

TIME says the site is still in private preview mode, awaiting more R&D and fundraising. But it’s already earned Tejasvi an honorable mention in the 2024 Congressional App Challenge. And since she built the site, she’s done a Tedx talk in Plano and spoken at local senior living facilities about how to avoid cybercrime.

“I remember going to my first seminar and I was super nervous,” Tejasvi told TIME. “What if no one shows up? What if I totally mess up?”

Instead, she made a big impact.

“There were so many people who were really interested—taking notes on their notepads, which was really nice. At the end some of them came up to me with questions, and I was able to help them,” she told TIME.

The publication said Tejasvi is its first Kid of the Year to also be a TIME for Kids Service Star, taking part in its sister publication’s program highlighting young people making a positive impact.

She’s the first North Texas student to be named TIME Kid of the Year since the 2021 issue, when Mansfield sixth-grader and “ambassador for kindness” Orion Jean was honored for his volunteering and humanitarian efforts throughout the region. 

Mark Cuban AI Boot Camp alumni

Tejasvi has been coding since the eighth grade. She’s taken cybersecurity classes and attended summer Girls Who Code programs. She’s even taken part in Cyber-Patriot, a joint Air Force and Space Force program focused on cybersecurity and STEM for young people, TIME said.

“I code mostly in Java and Python, and a bit of HTML,” Tejasvi told TIME. “I really love the fact that you can solve problems with your computer, and I really like creating.”

In 2024, she built up her tech prowess at a Mark Cuban AI Bootcamp, a free, 20-hour introduction to artificial intelligence for high school students. Taught by local industry experts, the bootcamps are presented by the Mark Cuban Foundation. (The 2025 bootcamps are being offered this November in Richardson and Plano. Deadline to apply is Sept. 30. For more info, go here.) 

She’s also an alumni of The GEMS Camp, which gives girls hands-on experiences that build skills and a path to STEM. Dallas-based VisioTech founder Tiffani Martin worked her over the summer at the camp, and posted this on LinkedIn:

“I was given the honor, and yes, I said honor, to work with this young lady over the summer at The GEMS Camp, where she served as an intern as we explored AI & project management together,” Martin wrote. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind working for her one day and having her as my boss because that’s exactly the kind of leader she already is… She is going to change the world… Give it up for this Super-SHEro!”

Eagle Scout, violinist, volunteer, and more

Somehow in the midst of all this, Tejasvi is also an Eagle Scout who plays violin in her school orchestra. An active volunteer, she’s on the leadership board of the North Texas Food Bank Young Advocates Council and has packed meals for hungry families for TangoTab, a mobile app that donates a free meal to a person in need in your community every time you use the app when you dine out.

Oh, and she tutors Bhutanese refugees online in math and English through Vibha, a nonprofit focused on workforce and scholastic development in India, TIME added.

But top of her mind these days is her Shield Seniors website, and what it can do to protect people like her grandfather.

“This is supposed to bring people a sense of ‘You’re not alone,’” Tejasvi told TIME. “A lot of people are embarrassed that they got scammed, but this isn’t something you should be embarrassed about. It’s just a learning experience. You should report it to help make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

You can read the TIME story here.

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