A Virginia teen who dreams of combatting skin cancer through soap has been named Time’s Kid of the Year
Meet 15-year-old Heman Bekele, Time magazine 2024 Kid of the Year, and his skin cancer-preventing soap.
As children all over the country are heading back to school this month, Time magazine has named its 2024 Kid of the Year, Heman Bekele.
The Black 15-year-old from Fairfax County, Virginia, doesn’t just dream of combatting skin cancer through body soap; he’s already making it a reality.
Bekele was selected as this year’s Kid of the Year because of the “ambition” and “selflessness” he has demonstrated while working diligently in his spare time — during summer break no less — at a Johns Hopkins lab in Baltimore to craft his special soap.
The rising 10th-grader at Woodson High School first made headlines and earned himself appearances on talk shows after he used his soap to win 3M company and Discovery Education’s annual Young Scientist Challenge in October 2023.
“I’m really passionate about skin cancer research,” says Bekele, “whether it’s my own research or what’s happening in the field. It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life. That’s the reason I started this all in the first place.”
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Originally born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Bekele immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of 4. He now lives in Northern Virginia with his mom, an educator, his father, a human resources specialist, and his sisters — Hasset, 16, and Liya, 7. He told Time magazine that his parents instilled in him and his sisters the importance of sunscreen early on, though he admittedly didn’t “give it much thought” when he was younger.
After learning about imiquimod, a drug approved to fight a form of skin cancer with the potential to fight more types of the disease, the teenager wondered if there was a way to make it more accessible. Realizing just about everyone uses soap and water to wash themselves, he landed on an innovative bar of soap.
“Anybody could do what I did,” Bekele says. “I just came up with an idea. I worked towards that idea, and I was able to bring it to life.”
His concept is still in the very early stages with “a long way to go.” However, his soap and its potential lifesaving attributes are an encouraging development in the personal care world. Ironically, the industry has been plagued by products that have increased many Black and brown people’s risk of various cancers for generations.
While skin cancer remains extremely rare in Black and brown people, Black men, in particular, have the lowest survival rate from the disease. Black people are also more likely to be diagnosed at later stages. With cancer deaths, including from skin cancer, projected to rise by almost 100% by 2050, Bekele’s soap could have a huge impact.
The 2024 list of Time Kid of the Year honorees includes another noteworthy kid from the DMV: actor Keivonn Woodward. At just 10 years old, the Bowie, Maryland, native made history last year as the first Black (and second only ever) deaf actor to be nominated for an Emmy for his critically acclaimed performance in the HBO series” The Last of Us.”
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