The Kids Hall of Fame Inductees
2-Year-Old Extraordinary Achievers
ACTOR / ACTRESS
Dashiell Messitt and Fox Messitt, twin brothers, played the role of Tommy Fuller, Jr. on the Netflix series Fuller House, meant to mirror the original Full House series casting of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen.
(Glendale, California: 2016)
ARTIST: PAINTER
Aelita Andre held her first solo exhibition at BSG Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, and her first international exhibition in Hong Kong.
(Melbourne, Australia: 2009)
Visit Aelita’s website.
Learn about Aelita as an artist: age 4, age 6, age 9, age 12
ASSEMBLER: JIGSAW PUZZLE
Jonathan Estrada assembled US and world jigsaw puzzles and identified missing pieces by name and color. Jonathan also created shapes of 50 states by biting into cheese. He then indicated the location of the capital city.
(East Northport, New York: 1991)
Photo: Courtesy of Jonathan’s Parents
ASSEMBLER: JIGSAW PUZZLE
Magnus Carlsen assembled a 50-piece jigsaw puzzle.
(Norway: 1992)
ASSEMBLER: JIGSAW PUZZLE
Mayalee Hogan assembled a 50-state US puzzle in a couple of minutes.
(Billings, Montana: 2001)
ASSEMBLER: JIGSAW PUZZLE
ATHLETE: GOLFER
Tiger Woods (born Eldrick Tont Woods) started learning how to play golf from his father, Earl Woods. At age 2, Tiger appeared on the Mike Douglas Show for a putting contest against Bob Hope. Tiger went on to become one of the most accomplished golfers of all time.
(Cypress, California: 1977)
Illustrated by Catherine Sun
Visit Tiger’s website.
ATHLETE: SKATEBOARDER & SURFER
Sky Brown began skateboarding and surfing. Her preschool had a skate park, and her father built a backyard mini ramp where she skated every day. Sky didn’t mind being the only girl at a skate park because she wanted to show everyone that, “Girls can do what boys can do.”
By age 13, Sky won a bronze medal for skateboarding at the 2020 Summer Tokyo Olympics.
(Miyazaki, Japan: 2010)
Learn about Sky as:
– an athlete: skateboarder: age 13
– an author: age 13
– a dancer: age 10
CHESS PLAYER
Abhimanyu “Abhi” Mishra started learning to play chess from his father and went on to become the youngest ever international chess grandmaster at age 12.
(Englishtown, New Jersey: 2011)
Visit Abhi’s website.
Learn about Abhi as:
– an author: published book: age 13
– a chess grandmaster: age 12
– a chess player: age 5, age 7, age 9, age 10
INVENTOR
Sydney Dittman invented a suction-based drawer opener, by putting together a tool made from toy parts. It looked a bit like a toilet plunger and used suction to pull on round knobs to open drawers. Sydney created her invention after her parents told her not to open the kitchen drawers.
(Houston, Texas: 1992)
Learn about Sydney as:
– a patentee: age 4
MEMORY WHIZ: CAR BRANDS
Ezan Muad identified 39 different car brands in one minute, by viewing the pictures of cars on a laptop screen.
(Kozhikode, Kerala, India: 2023)
Haadi Zayan identified 101 car models (national and international) in a little over 6 minutes.
(Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 2022)
MEMORY WHIZ: COUNTRY CAPITALS
Adhyayan Mondal named the capitals of 100 countries in 1 minute and 54 seconds.
(Asansol, West Bengal, India: 2022)
MEMORY WHIZ: COUNTRY FLAGS
Sri Shanmukha Sudarshan Gauji identified 196 national flags.
(Hyderabad, Telangana, India: 2020)
MEMORY WHIZ: COUNTRY FLAGS
Pranav Prakash identified and named all 195 (UN recognized) countries in a little over 3 minutes. He did so by viewing pictures of flags on a laptop screen.
(Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India: 2023)
Illustrated by Kathan Dorriety
MEMORY WHIZ: COUNTRY FLAGS
MEMORY WHIZ: GEOGRAPHY
S. Adhvaith identified Indian states and union territories on a map, along with their capitals cities and official languages, in less than 5 minutes.
(Thoothukkudi, Tamil Nadu, India: 2021)
Sukhir Boopathikrishnan identified all the 28 Indian states by their outline maps, in 35 seconds.
(Salem Tamil Nadu, India: 2021)
MEMORY WHIZ: GEOGRAPHY
Mayalee Hogan memorized 202 country flags in color and black and white. Then she learned where the countries were on the map.
(Billings, Montana: 2001)
Photo: Courtesy of Mayalee’s Parents
MEMORY WHIZ: GEOGRAPHY
Srisanvitha Sridhar located over 70 countries on a map and on a globe. She also identified flags of over 40 countries. The entire family nurtured her interest and skill. When one member of the family taught Srisanvitha to locate a new country, she then demonstrated it to each of the remaining members. They praised her and gave her little rewards in proportion to her achievements. Learning to locate a few countries, earned Srisanvitha a tasty treat from the kitchen. Recognizing 10 to 15 countries earned her a trip to the store to select a new toy. Srisanvitha explained, “Learning is fun! Globes and maps are fun!”
(East Brunswick, New Jersey: 2001)
Photo: Courtesy of Srisanvitha’s Parents
MEMORY WHIZ: HUMAN BODY
Pranina Tandan recited the names of 206 human bones.
(Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India: 2021)
MEMORY WHIZ: NATIONAL ANTHEMS
Vivaan Sarnaik recited the Indian national anthem at Sanskar Sadhna School.
(Washim, Maharashtra, India: 2018)
MEMORY WHIZ: NURSERY RHYMES
Aahan Bera recited 60 Bengali nursery rhymes including Aatul Batul, Agdum, and Akash Ghire Megh.
(Kolkata, West Bengal, India: 2022)
MEMORY WHIZ: PERIODIC TABLE
Anik Shyadligeri recited all the elements in the periodic table, which is an arrangement of chemical elements in order of increasing atomic number, in 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
(Dharwad, Karnataka, India: 2021)
MEMORY WHIZ: SPELLING
Nevin Job spelled 99 English words (minimum 4 letter words) in less than 20 minutes.
(Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India: 2022)
MEMORY WHIZ: WORDS & NUMBERS
Arjun Ayyangar read headlines of newspaper and magazine articles as well as Dr. Seuss books. He learned the Hindi, Tamil, and Urdu alphabet from his grandmother, Saroja, and then learned to read words in those languages.
Arjun also learned addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts, and more.
(Denville, New Jersey: 2000)
Photo: Courtesy of Arjun’s Parents
Learn more…
Learn about Arjun as:
– an ambassador: age 11
– a college freshman: age 15
– an intern: age 18
– a memory whiz: age 1, age 2
– a musician: age 3, age 4, age 6, age 8, age 9, age 10, age 11, age 13
MUSICIAN: DRUMMER
Hugo Molina played the drums on Spain’s Got Talent television program and received a standing ovation. He was the youngest contestant ever on the program.
(Spain: 2019)
MUSICIAN: DRUMMER
Julian Pavone
(Detroit, Michigan: 2006)
Photo: Courtesy of The Pavone Family
Visit Julian’s website.
Learn about Julian as:
– an ambassador: age 5
– an inventor: age 3, age 5
– a musician: drummer: prior to age 1, age 1, age 4, age 8
– a patentee: age 5, age 7
MUSICIAN: SINGER
Neeti Kothari became a professional singer. She released her first solo album, “Gayatri Mantra” produced by B.B. Music Company, New Delhi.
(Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India: 2004)
Nonoka Murakata became the youngest solo artist to release an album. It’s entitled Nonochan Nisai Kodomouta and consists of her singing children’s song.
(Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan: 2021)
MUSICIAN: TABLA PLAYER
Truptraj Atul Pandya, 2 months after his second birthday, gave a performance on the tabla, to an audience of over 1,000 people at Mumbai’s Somaiya College.
(Mumbai, India: 2008)
Photo: Courtesy of Atul Pandya
Visit Truptraj’s website.
Learn more…
PHOTOGRAPHER
Rirendra Shrestha became a professional photographer. He had his work exhibited at the Nepal Art Council held in Babr Mahal, Nepal.
(Nepal: 2007)
POLYGLOT
A polyglot is a person who speaks, writes, reads, or understands more than one language.
Kiran Karthikeya spoke 4 different languages: English, Hindi, Kannada, and Telugu.
(Bengaluru, Karnataka, India: 2019)
NOTABLE: INHERITED ROLE, ETC.
Dalai Lama
Lhamo Thondup was declared the 14th Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet. He officially took the throne at age 4 in 1940.
(Tibet, 1937)
NOTABLE: INHERITED ROLE, ETC.
Emperor
Puyi (Manchu surname: Aisian-Gioro) became the last emperor of China. He was known as a “puppet emperor” since his father, Zaifeng, was in power as prince regent.
(China: 1908)