TIME’s 2021 Kid of the Year: Orion Jean
Orion’s constellation deserves to be seen and celebrated.
Orion Jean is the “ambassador for kindness” in Time Magazine’s 2nd annual Kid of the Year award.
Orion Jean is an eleven year old, sixth grader from Mansfield, Texas.
In 2020, Orion entered the National Kindness Speech Contest. He won $500 for his moving speech while in the mist of a troubling time for the the world.
Orion Jean – Kindness Can Change a Nation
What Orion did with his winning funds further changed the trajectory of his life and so many others. He took that money and began the community service campaign, Race for Kindness. With the help of his mother and father he launched the campaign’s website in August, and addressed the multiple needs of his community. Race for Kindness’ first project, “Race to 500 Toys”, provided toys for sick kids at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. Once September rolled around the charity surpassed their goal of 500 books. It even earned him an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Orion Jean then shot for the stars, and wanted to reach a new goal of donating 100,000 free meals before Thanksgiving arrived. Race for Kindness got on the move and partnered with, another bred food charity, TangoTab. From there they both pushed their expectations even further by breaking their goal and picking up sponsors like Chobani and Whole Foods.
At this point its hard to stop the momentum of his cause.
After countless interviews and awards like the 2020 Aspiring Living Legends Award, he didn’t let the praise go to head. Orion and Race for Kindness pressed forward and continued to be of service for anyone in need. In May 2021, it was announced that the next initiative would be the “Race to 500,000 Books”. He took his talents and partnered with ReadingisFundamental, Book Drive For Kids and Reading Partners North Texas.
By September, AGAIN, the collective already dashed the 500,000 mark.
Orion and co. picked more corporate sponsors including Chick-fil-a and Thriftbooks. The then 10-year-old was juggling his school, family and social life while doing all of this. AND YET he somehow had time to write and publish his first book, A Kids Book About Leadership. The 64-page book, details “what it means to be a leader and highlights that a good leader can come from anywhere and be anyone.” According to Texas Monthly, Orion has stated that he wants to be an author when he grows older.
In less than 2 years Orion Jean has started his own charity, launched a writing career and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Time Magazine. Time Magazine and Nickelodeon launched the Kid of the Award, back in 2019, with 5,000 nominees looking to be the first “Kid of the Year”. 15-year-old scientist and inventor, Gitanjali Rao, started it all off with being the first.
