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A Scottish schoolgirl has been named a “girl of the year” by Time magazine after she invented a solar-powered thermal blanket to help rough sleepers keep warm.
Rebecca Young, 13, came up with her design after seeing homeless people struggling in subzero temperatures on the streets of her home city, Glasgow, in winter. She said her message to young people was: “If you see a problem you think you can fix, you can do something about it.”
She joins nine other girls from across the world on the magazine’s first list to spotlight girls’ achievements. It builds on Time’s existing women of the year list, with the express intention of recognising young female role models globally.
Rebecca’s design – a solar-powered backpack with an electric blanket inside – won an engineering award in a UK-wide competition that received 70,000 entrants and Rebecca has since developed it as a prototype.
The engineering firm Thales, which sponsored the competition, subsequently manufactured 30 of the blankets and distributed them to six homeless charities in Glasgow earlier this year, with plans to make 120 more.
Rebecca, a student at Kelvinside academy, said: “The idea came from seeing how hard it is for people living on the streets of Glasgow, especially during winter, and wanting to create something that could make a real difference. At first, it was just a drawing – I never imagined it would actually be made.”
“Knowing that something I came up with is helping others makes me feel really proud. By seeing themselves as builders, girls can challenge norms, pursue any passion and shape the world. It’s easy to fall into thinking that building just means construction. It’s so much more than that.”
The list is launched in partnership with Lego Group, as an extension of their She Built That campaign, which challenges stereotypes and encourages girls to see themselves as builders.
Other entrants on the list include Rutendo Shadaya, a 17-year-old Zimbabwean-New Zealander fantasy novelist, the Olympic skateboarder Coco Yoshizawa, 15, from Japan and an organ donation advocate, Naomi S DeBerry, 12, from the US. All 10 girls are reimagined as Lego figures on the cover of the new edition.
Launching the list, the Time senior editor Dayana Sarkisova said: “These girls are part of a generation that’s reshaping what leadership looks like today. Their generation understands that change doesn’t require waiting for adulthood – it starts with seeing problems and refusing to accept them as permanent.”
Rebecca said: “I think there’s a really important message for any young person to look at what you’re interested in and follow your dreams If you see a problem you think you can fix or contribute to, you can do something about it. And whatever you do, you should always follow your own path to what you want to achieve.”
