Sydnee O'Donnell

Activist, Athlete, Environmentalist, Global soul, Student

I'm fifteen years old and enthusiastic about books, hot chocolate, macaroni and cheese, breakfast foods, tennis, rainy days, new ideas, astronomy, and just about everything else.

other people. I want to help people in every way I can, small or large. I want to teach under-educated kids in the inner cities, fight for clean water in poor countries and even poor regions of the United States, give food to those who are starving across the globe and in my own community, and work towards ending homelessness and poverty. However improbable that all may sound, I want to continue fighting for it even when success seems impossible and failure imminent, because if I'm not living my life for other people, what am I living it for?

I first learned about TED Talks in elementary school, when we watched part of the talk called "The Puzzle of Motivation" by Dan Pink. We only watched the first few minutes of the talk, which discusses the negative effect that extrinsic motivators (carrots and sticks) have on creative, cognitive tasks, probably because our teacher was tired of having to reward us with lining up to go to lunch early if everyone did their homework. But I was really enthralled with the talk and upset when our teacher cut it short, so that night I looked it up on YouTube and watched the rest of it. Then I watched another talk that was suggested to me by YouTube, and another one, and another one: one about lying, one about healthcare, one about sociopaths, one about climate change. I loved hearing all these eloquent people speak about their passions, which was something I had always wanted a platform to do. Just recently, I rediscovered TED Talks through yet another recommended YouTube video, and I even watched some that were given by teenagers. I had always assumed that the only people who could give these talks were adults, professionals, experts in their respective fields, but when I looked further into it, I learned about TEDx and, specifically, TEDxYouth. I loved the idea of a TEDxYouth event and started planning one out in my head but thinking that I would realistically never be able to carry one out. Then I thought to myself, "Why not?" After all, I knew a lot of creative, talented people, and I could ask them for help. There were a lot of possible venues in our city, as well as local businesses that I would love to get as sponsors. If I wanted to do this, I could just do it. So instead of just fantasizing about the TEDxYouth event that I would hypothetically create, I sent out emails and Instagram messages and texts to friends who I thought would be interested, got some really positive responses from people who would love to volunteer, and now I'm starting to understand that this event could actually become a reality.

sports. I've always been competitive and determined to succeed, and those qualities have translated well into athletic performance. I love pretty much anything athletic, from playing competitive high school tennis and softball to challenging friends and family members in basketball games to playing catch with a soft ball inside the house (and almost hitting breakable items several times) to hiking.