5 Incredible children who are changing the world for the better

Sophie Cruz (born 2010) is an American activist. Her parents are undocumented immigrants from the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. She supports the DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) program, which would allow her parents to remain in the United States legally.

5-year-old Sophie Cruz changed the world in 2015 when she ran out to the visiting Pope Francis's motorcade in Washington, D.C, literally stopping him in his tracks. She was turned away by security, however, the Pope had seen her run out from the crowd and requested to meet her. Sophie was born in America but lived in fear that her undocumented immigrant parents would be deported. Because of her, the pope spoke to Congress the next day about fairer immigration policies.

In 2017, Sophie continued her path of leadership. She speaks about children like her, with undocumented parents, and obstacles they have to face.

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) is a Pakistani activist for female education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 but survived. In 2014, she became the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.

The girl attended a school that her father, educator Ziauddin Yousafzai, had founded. Malala Yousafzai spoke out about her right, and the right of all women, to an education. The Taliban had issued a death threat against Yousafzai and her family because of her activism. When she turned 15, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while she was riding a bus to school. However, she survived and created a number of education projects.

Robby Novak (born 2004) is an American personality best known for delivering inspiring pep talks on YouTube. Novak has osteogenesis imperfecta, which makes him susceptible to bone damage. Because of his condition, he has had physical challenges.

Despite that, he dreams to unite the world through kindness and laugher. In October of 2019, the first episode of a new YouTube series titled “Are We There Yet?” was uploaded on SoulPancake's YouTube channel. It shows Novak's trip around the United States in which he meets children who are trying to "make the world a little more awesome".

Jack Andraka (born 1997) is an American university student, inventor, and cancer researcher. While still a high school student he won the grand prize at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for a method for possibly detecting the early stages of pancreatic and other cancers.

He was inspired to work on pancreatic cancer by the death of a family friend whom he described as almost an uncle. At the age of 15, he invented a new type of sensor to spot the presence of cancer cells, which proved to be less expensive, much faster and more accurate than all other tests.

Ruby Kate Chitsey is giving nursing home residents a reason to smile. 11-year-old Ruby Kate followed her mom to work helping out at nursing homes in the area. There she learned that many residents were in need, so she started a campaign and raised money to grant their wishes. The girl called her project “Three Wishes for Ruby’s Residents”.

She raised $30,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to help make those simple, but life-changing wishes come true.