Two years ago, a teenage scholar, scientist and inventor from Lone Tree created an anti-cyberbullying app that helped lead to her being named Time Magazine’s first-ever Kid of the Year for 2020.

Now, having just completed her junior year in high school, Gitanjali Rao is using her science and technology skills to combat the opioid crisis.

Rao, 16, has created a prototype for what she hopes will be the first-ever clinical tool to diagnose addiction in its earliest stages, helping caregivers treat the problem before it spirals out of control.

“There’s so much focus on opioid response — what to do after someone is addicted — and almost no work being done on the diagnosis end,” Rao said. “By the time you know someone is addicted, it’s often too late.”

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There’s a visible thread of empathy that runs through everything Rao does. Her earlier work concentrated on detecting biocontaminants, like parasites, in water. Her anti-bullying app, which she calls “kind of a spell-check for cyberbullying,” looks at the crisis from the perspective of the sender — the potential bully. The service identifies potentially harmful words and phrases and warns the author of an email or post before it can be sent. The author then has the option to edit the phrase, or send it as is.

Even the app’s name — Kindly — underscores Rao’s concern for others.

“Teenagers often don’t know when they’re cyberbullying someone,” Rao said. “They don’t always know which words or phrases can be harmful to someone. Kindly does that for them. It doesn’t prevent anything from being sent, but it does give a warning.”

The best thing about the Kindly app, Rao said, is that is non-punitive and entirely teen-driven, allowing users the freedom to think things through and make decisions for themselves.

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“There’s no teachers or adults or guardians monitoring the app,” she said. “It’s a completely teenage-driven approach. Just like you can choose spell-check if you want to have good grammar in your email, it’s essentially the same way for Kindly.”

In a 2020 contest for the privilege of being named Time’s inaugural Kid of the Year, Rao beat out 5,000 of the country’s brightest young minds, which included getting her picture on the cover of the magazine’s Dec. 14 edition that year. She also won a cash prize, appeared on a Kid of the Year television special, and participated in a Zoom interview for the magazine with Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie.

“It happened almost two years ago, and it’s still sinking in,” Rao said. “I feel so fortunate to be mentioned alongside young activists like Greta (Thunberg) and Malala (Yousafzai). And it has given me a voice that someone my age wouldn’t normally have.”

Buoyed by that success, Rao turned her attention to the national opioid crisis, working on a diagnostic tool to use the body’s proteins to spot addiction in its nascent stages.

Earlier this month, she showcased her latest project at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta. Her presentation, titled “A Novel Approach to Early Directional Diagnosis for Prescription Opioid Addiction,” garnered Rao an award and a $1,000 cash prize.

Her next move, she said, will be to seek a patent for her prototype and begin testing it on “mammalian models” like mice. To date, she has only been able to test it on yeast samples.

Rao, who attends STEM School Highlands Ranch, is not yet sure what she will do in college, but there’s plenty of time to decide. After all, she doesn’t turn 17 until September.

But whatever she does, it will almost certainly revolve around science, innovation and kindness.

“Innovation doesn’t seem to be an option anymore. It’s more of a necessity,” Rao said. “And kindness is the only way we’re going to change the world for the better.”

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