12-Year-Old Inventor

A UK student has been recognized by Time Magazine for designing a solar-powered backpack at the age of 12. Rebecca Young, who is now 13 and living in Glasgow, has been put on the first-ever list of Time Magazine’s Girls of the Year list, along with 9 other girls from around the world. Rebecca came up with the idea of a solar-powered backpack holding an electric blanket after worrying about how the homeless would sleep on the streets during the winter.

“Seeing all the homeless people, it made me want to help – it’s a problem that should be fixed,” Rebecca had explained. “During the day, the heat from the sun can energise the solar panels nd they go into a battery pack that can store the heat. When it’s cold at night, people can use the energy stored in the battery pack to sleep on.”

She came up with the idea at an engineering club and came in top at the UK Primary Engineer competition, which attracted more than 70,000 participants to enter. Their task was the submit ideas that fix a social issue. An engineering company then turned the idea into reality. 30 of the newly designed electric blankets were given out to a homeless shelter.

Along with the 9 other winners, Rebecca is appearing on the cover of a famous magazine, where she will be styled as a LEGO character, something she describes as “really cool and crazy”.

Citation:

“Time Girls of the Year: Young Solar-powered Backpack Designer Celebrated.” BBC Newsround, 14 Aug. 2025, www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cn02gz9nlw0o.