How a 14-Year-Old Turned Heartbreak Into a $650,000 Nonprofit

We received, oh my God, so many, like over 70 rejection emails in the span of a couple weeks. And my team and I felt so discouraged. I realized that people, they invest not in the, the company itself, but more so in the founder and the story. So I shared a lot about how losing two people to cancer is why I started this organization. And unfortunately that was something that a lot of people could relate to. And so when I was able to kind of communicate this very vulnerably, a lot of people responded very well to that because they were like, oh, like that's a connection that me and her have, you know? And I understand why she's so passionate about it. And so they would give us maybe like a 10, 15 minute call. I would be like, okay, this is, this is the time to really sell myself. And so I got really good at learning how to pitch Cancer Kids First and my story over the phone. I would make pitch decks, pitch in person to people. And I think that really helped get the ball rolling. Today we're joined by Olivia Jahn, founder and CEO of Cancer Kids First, a nonprofit she launched at just 14 years old with one mission, to make a real difference for children battling cancer. Now a Harvard student, Olivia has grown CKF into one of the world's largest youth-led nonprofits, supporting pediatric cancer patients. At just 20, she has become one of the youngest leaders in the social impact space, earning recognition as the youngest 2026 Forbes 30 under 30 honoree. In this conversation, Olivia shares how she turned heartbreak into global impact and why age should never limit purpose. This is Bay Area Innovators, and I'm your host, Steve Vispas. Olivia, welcome to Bay Area Innovators. Hi, I'm so excited to be here today. Thank you for having me. Yes. Great to have you on. So where are you right now? Is that your Harvard dorm? Yes, I'm in my dorm. It's final season, so everybody's kind of locked in libraries or in their rooms studying. Okay, awesome. Well, thanks for talking to us during your finals. So I really want to start this discussion with, I kind of went through your book. It's pretty cool, pretty nice book. I really want to start with your 3.07 AM kind of deja vu moment, or not deja vu, but Eureka moment or whatever, when you kind of decided you want to start a company at the age of 14. Of course, you're now assuming you're about 21, so you've probably been owning a company or in charge of a company for seven years, and that's pretty amazing. But tell us about that starting moment in the middle of the night. Yeah, for sure. So I am actually turning 21 in a week, so I'm really excited, but also a little nervous. I think that my, I guess, founding story is a little bit unique in the sense that it's not like I had this idea that I sat on for a really long time, and then I was motivated to create an action plan and start a company. I think it really spurred because of emotional difficulties, and because of that, it's sometimes like very hazy in my memory when I think back to it, but essentially I was raised largely by my grandfather and my elementary school teacher, and they took care of me while my parents worked late. And so I got really close to them, and they were kind of like the first two people who believed in me and invested a lot of time and energy into me. And they were diagnosed with cancer when I was in middle school, and then passed away two months apart from each other. And so it was like at 13 years old, I'd lost the two most important people in the world to me, and I struggled a lot with grief. And coming from an Asian American household, that was not something that was ever talked about, and so I didn't really know what to name my emotions. I didn't know if what I was feeling was okay or not. And it was just a very hard time for me because I think that transition period from middle to high school, you're still trying to figure yourself out, and I was grappling with all this loss, and I didn't know how to process it. And for me, what I realized that is I was really good at turning all this into work in order to find purpose. And so I did a lot of volunteer work. I did a lot of fundraising. And then I ultimately didn't think that it was enough to, I guess, honor my two loved ones. And so I wanted to come up with some sort of actionable item that I could do to, I guess, make sure that I was honoring their legacy. And so that's what kind of led me to read. I almost feel like it was kind of a manic episode in the sense where I read 87 articles in the middle of the night, and I would spend many, many days in a row doing this. I was addicted to finding some sort of solution to what I thought was a problem, which was childhood cancer care. And so I discovered that a nonprofit was kind of the go-to method for anything social impact related. So I spent a lot of time reading a bunch of different articles on how to start a nonprofit legally, how to build a team, thinking about your name and your logo and your mission statement. And then I took blank pieces of paper and I drafted out all my ideas. And then I kind of brought it to school with me and asked my friends and peers and classmates to join. And that's kind of what got the ball rolling. So the nonprofit's purpose, at least in the beginning, or maybe even now, it's about how to give better treatment to kids who have cancer. Is that right? Yeah. So when I was in hospital rooms and talking to other oncologists and patients and families, I realized that I think there's this huge gap in childhood cancer care right now, which is people overlook the mental health part of it and the psychosocial support that these kids need. And my grandfather, he was also a teacher. So what I wanted to do was honor their legacies where they really put their students first. They cared about investing in their students, especially their students' mental health, developing them as people. And I wanted that to translate into my nonprofit. So we created this organization that essentially used the power of young people to help kids with cancer in a way that only youth can. And so we do this through different virtual events to build friendships, because a lot of these kids are really isolated in the hospitals and they miss birthdays, the start of the school year, and they aren't able to develop socially or even experience a normal childhood. So our goal is to give that back through different events that we do where we connect peers so they can build friends and make friends. And then also we do different card donations and do hospital and medical resource drop-offs as well. Now, I know there's so many details when you start a company. I started my first company at the age of 21, and I thought that was pretty early. You're not even there yet. In your book, you talk about many of the steps you took to get there, which I thought it's pretty exciting. But I know one example you gave was about opening a bank account, which is obviously like a very basic thing that you'd need for when you start a company. Tell us a bit about that chapter, that example. Yeah, for sure. It was definitely, I think, very difficult because some people are surprised. You can start a company or a nonprofit pretty young, but the barriers that you come across are like when you're pitching to investors, you know, or for money, when you're opening a bank account, like that's where your age becomes a barrier because a lot of banks will not trust that you can handle money, that you understand how to use a bank account, how credit works, how savings work. And so we went to like three different banks and all of them rejected me because I was 14 years old. I was a minor. Everybody thought, you know, she clearly doesn't know what she's doing. Like why would we trust her to open a bank account with us until Bank of America? And so that was a very, I think, long process because I had to sit through so many different calls and also in-person meetings where I had to explain why I wanted to start a business account for Cancer Kids First and why, even though I'm a freshman in high school, they should still trust me. And I had my dad with me. I remember when we first sat in on our Bank of America meeting and they were the first bank that trusted in my vision and authorized us to start an account. And obviously that was so helpful in being able to manage all our revenue and transactions, things like that. Because otherwise, I know that a lot of youth-led organizations struggle with like having to manually store their money or resort to different mechanisms because, you know, they don't get a bank to kind of trust them the way Bank of America was able to trust us. Right. And another thing that I thought it was very fascinating was how you put some of your friends and other very young people in positions in your company. So can you talk about that? And also, how did that work out when you have like the management to be very young people? Yeah, for sure. So I think that's actually a really core part of what makes Cancer Kids First so special because not only do we help kids with cancer, but we're really trying to change the narrative around what it means when young people lead. Right. So I think a lot of it came from my personal experience. I care a lot about leadership and I think I've seen throughout my six, almost seven years of doing this that even to this day, a lot of adults still don't really trust young people to, I guess, take over any sort of project. They don't really believe in our capabilities and they kind of diminish our worth. And that's why it's so important that like if I have this platform and my platform is like Cancer Kids First and social media, things like that, where I have almost like opportunities to give other young people to kind of step up and grow as leaders because they get assigned projects and they learn how to communicate with diverse people. They're able to learn how to pitch themselves, like all these things. I think it's so important to kind of share and give back and do that. So that's why we really, really maintain a youth led team. So everybody on our team right now is either a middle school, high school or college student. And I think that way it's really exciting because we are almost at like the forefront of innovation because young people are so tapped into technology, you know, but then also we are really showing that we're like investing in youth and saying like, look, everything that we've done has been powered by young people. So it's clear that we have incredible powers and you as a young person should get involved and believe in yourself too. And so hopefully this way we can create this like continuous change and long term impact where it's like future generations are able to step up and grow as leaders and then mentor other people. And then it kind of goes into a cycle like that. Well, what I personally think it's very valuable and important is that there's no question how capable young people are and can be. I have a young son and he's very capable. But what happens is so many times kids get distracted and be it video games, being, you know, other things, they spend a lot of time not in a productive way. So how do you turn that around? How do you make the kids or yourself focused to do something that's that's so important versus really pretty much wasting time? Yeah. I mean, this is definitely, I think, a headache for a lot of parents. I know my mom struggles a lot with this with my younger sister. I think, well, first and foremost, I think it's great that we're able to use technology and social media to share about the work that we do, because then hopefully the algorithms, the feeds that all these kids are looking at, they see videos of, you know, volunteering and like positive, good things that hopefully incentivize them to be like, oh, let me see what this organization is about. Like, let me get involved. So I feel like that is one way, like we hit direct messaging to the platforms that these people are wasting time on. Another avenue is, I mean, I do this for myself when I'm trying to, I guess, like make sure that I'm being productive. I will set different time limits. There's a lot of apps that can do that. So for instance, right now for Instagram and TikTok, every day I can only go on it for maximum an hour and then it automatically locks the app. I know another method people use is they'll turn their screen to be black and white. So then when they are looking at content, it's not as fun because, you know, there's no color to it. So I think like little commitment devices like that, where you have kind of this external commitment kind of forcing you to stop. That's very helpful. In terms of like video games, though, or things that maybe aren't as social media related, I think it can be a lot harder. And unfortunately, a lot of it is up to like the kid and how they want to use their time and like what they think is beneficial. But I think like as parents, as friends, as peers, it's always great to give them like a gentle reminder. And I think like motivating them, reminding them of like other goals or more productive, you know, hobbies can be fun and also beneficial. So like instead of video games, like do you like video games because it's it helps you like be creative, then maybe like instead you could try journaling or art, something like that. So kind of like switching those traits and like getting them to try something new, I think is like the best the best way to do that. Yeah, I agree. I think the most the best thing to do is to give the kids something that's more and more interesting than than playing a video game or more meaningful in so many ways. Now, one of your I think it's probably maybe your first video that went viral was your video about applying to colleges. And that was pretty interesting. I think you applied to what, 26 schools and you got into 19. I think pretty much all the Ivy Leagues, right, except Yale maybe and Stanford and others. Can you talk a little bit about that, how, you know, maybe the video itself, but how did you accomplish that getting into so many important schools? Yeah. So I think like I kind of shared before, my parents, they immigrated from China to the United States at the age of 30. So naturally, and me being the oldest child, they had no idea anything about the college process. My mom is amazing. Like she kind of similar to how I built this company. I remember she like read so many different articles on this is how to write the best common app essay. Like this is what you should do to help your kid get into college. So she was a manpower and like my, I guess like sidekick when I was writing all my essays, like she would give me tips and read over everything. I think a big, the biggest thing that I realized was you need to learn how to tell your story very effectively. And that means that, you know, all the activities that you do, the awards that you have, the essays that you write, even the letter of recommendation, recommendations that you get, all of them needs to be very cohesive into like a thread almost where you can tell the school very clearly. This is who I am. If you admit me, this is the type of person I'm going to be on your campus. Like this is how I'm going to make your school better. And for me, what I realized is I have a lot of experience and also passion for social impact specifically in the healthcare field. And I was a great leader. And so I kind of use this common narrative throughout everything. So I made it very clear, like I do Cancer Kids First, obviously, but I also serve on different health company boards as the only young person. I was school president. I did a bunch of different like social impact programs, and I won a lot of different social impact awards. And so it all kind of like fit together into this theme. And in my essays, I wrote about how my background, my childhood, my upbringing, why that all shaped, like why I care so much about service, you know. And I think being able to explain your kind of motivations and tie it to what you're currently spending time on and then how you see yourself in the future, creating that like three step framework, I think that was like really key to kind of sharing authentically who I was and explaining what the story was behind all these big awards and accolades and things like that. And I actually talked to my Harvard, Stanford and Wharton admission officers afterwards, and they all highlighted that that was kind of the key to why they admitted me in a sense. And I honestly thought I would end up at community college. So I was really surprised when I was admitted to all these different schools. Yeah, that was a very interesting video. And also you have one where you talk about your extracurricular activities, which you mentioned some of them, but clearly there was also a big part of your success in so many ways, right? Yeah, for sure. I think schools definitely want students who are making an impact in their school and also the community and world at large, because to them, that's like, oh, if she was able to do this in high school, then if she comes to my college, she can also make this big of a change. And so I did a lot of leadership and service work, both in my school and my local community and then obviously in the world with Cancer Kids First. So being able to, I think, showcase that while at the same time showing I can keep up with my academics while doing all of these cool things. I think that was really, really key. So I'll definitely ask you about that in a second. But the other thing I want to ask you about is the swim team. So you were in the swim team throughout high school, pretty much? Yeah. So I've always actually really been into sports, not because I'm necessarily very athletic, but I love the feeling of being on a team. And I really, really like the, I think this is also why I guess I succeed really well in the workplace is because I really enjoy pushing myself. And I think pushing yourself physically is one form of that. So I played 10 different sports growing up, and swimming was just the one that I, I guess, got into the most. And so I started when I was five, and then I just kept swimming competitively all the way up until high school. So I do have to ask you about time management. I was in the swim team as well, and I play water polo. And I remember we used to practice every day, maybe it was four to six. We barely had any time to do any homework. We were dead tired after the workout. We just go to sleep and wake up late the next day, because it was just very hard. Talk to us about time management, because clearly you do so many things, and everyone has the same amount of time during the day, but you found a way to not just do it academically, but to balance, to do all these other things. Was it just natural for you to do it, or you have some other secret? I think I definitely learned through trial and error what schedule worked best for me. And I think everybody should adapt based on their strengths, aka, are you a night owl? Are you an early bird? Do you prefer to work by yourself with other people? I think learning all these things about yourself can really help you be more productive and also manage your time. I guess what I did is, I think it's very important that your schedule reflects your priorities and not the other way around. So every year, let's say in high school, like before junior year, I would over the summer sit down, I would write out, these are all the things that I want to focus on, these are the things I want to do well. And then I would make sure that in my Google calendar, in my planner, all of that was very clear, clearly reflected in a sense. So I guess like as an example, junior year, I decided to take a step back from swimming in the sense that I wasn't prioritizing it as much. And instead, I really wanted to apply to more awards, apply for summer programs. And so because of that, I kind of adjusted my schedule. So, you know, let's say I have some practice 6 to 8am every single morning, and then I go to school during school, like time management also means like maximizing on every chance you get. So like on my way to school, I would walk to school every day. I'd be like answering emails, you know, during like the study hall or lunch. I would also be working on my nonprofit. And then on the way home, I'd be like, okay, first two hours are to finish up my school work. And then next two hours, I'm going to apply for all these different programs and write essays for these scholarships. And then I think time blocking like that, and again, making sure that it reflected my priorities for the time period, that was helpful. Whereas like maybe freshman year, when I was more committed to swimming, I would go to morning practice, and then I would also go to afternoon practice. But I was able to do that because I wasn't applying for awards or scholarships, you know. So I think being able to kind of switch up your calendar based on your priorities like that is very helpful. And also kind of like what I talked about with knowing yourself, I know that I work very well in the morning. So I try to do all my hard tasks in the beginning of the day. And then as the day goes by, like I'll do easier things like meetings or writing emails because they take less, you know, brain power, and I'm really bad at STEM. So maybe I did my math problem set or math homework before earlier in the day. And also I like to work with friends, and sometimes they would hide my phone from me so I wouldn't be able to get distracted by social media or things like that. And I think that helped me be more productive and work efficiently as well. What was your GPA in high school when you graduated? I think it was a 4.6 something. 4.6? Yes. Wow. Okay, okay. So has it just naturally been easy for you like to do well in school, like you would not have to spend a lot of time, I guess, doing homework or understanding concepts, big math or other things? No, it was definitely not easy. I would say like, this is why my mom was also very worried about me because academics is not something that comes very easily to me. And I think stereotypically, Asians were supposed to be book smart, you know? And so I was definitely not as smart as my peers. And I would say like, especially like I was talking about for STEM subjects, it would probably take me five hours to learn a topic that other people could learn in one hour. So it was very stressful taking all the like math classes that I did and the physics and other science ones. So for those, I would, this is the other thing, like knowing yourself is about understanding your weaknesses and being able to take the efficient steps to improve those, you know? So I knew that I was so bad at STEM. So before I took AP Physics this summer, I hired a tutor so I could like pre-study ahead. I would email the teachers beforehand and ask for some example resources that they thought I should use. I would stay after school and get help. Even if I did that, though, sometimes I would still do very bad on these exams. And so it was just, I think a lot of like, I remember just seeing my sister go through I think sophomore, junior year. That was like the most stressful time of my life because I was doing so bad in my math classes. And it was honestly about like finding study methods that worked for me. And I would source so many practice problems from outside places, like free websites. I would ask my teacher for extra help. So I think that was very helpful at like helping me get through it. I think English and history, though, came pretty easily to me. So those I feel like I didn't spend as much time on. But STEM was so bad. So another concept that I picked up from your book that I thought it's, again, very significant is about leveraging your age. There's so many kids who say, you know, OK, when I'm going to be 16, I'm going to do this. I can't wait till I'll be 18 to do this or 21 or whatever. Right. And I think you took a different approach. And you said, no, I am young now. I am this age. I'm going to take advantage of my age to do what I can do instead of waiting. So can you talk about that? Because I feel that time does only goes kind of one direction. Right. And once you get older, you can't really come back. So talk to us about that. Yeah, that's definitely, I think, one of my favorite topics to talk about, because over this past year, especially, but also throughout leading Cancer Kids First, I think I've learned so much about being a young leader. And I think that we can leverage our age kind of in three, I guess, unique aspects. The first one we've kind of hit on is definitely like because we are so digitally native, that means that we know how to use not only social media the best, but also different digital platforms. So when we're starting businesses, organizations in our current world where technology is very, very heavily relied on, social media is like a great form of marketing. You can use it to get volunteers, investors, partners, things like that. And so being able to kind of know a channel how to do algorithms, and we know what's viral, what's trending, how to market to large groups of people, we can really leverage social media in that sense. But also with communication platforms, we know how to maybe use email better than the older generations. We know how to use Remind, Telegram, all these apps where you can bring together large groups of people at once. We know how to do that. And I think that's something that we can really leverage. Number two is there's no better time, I think, than when you're young, when you have that close-knit, easy-to-tap-into network. And what I mean by that is when you're in high school, right, you're a part of the soccer team. You have a soccer team, an entire team of people you can reach out to, to come to your fundraisers, come volunteer for you. Also, let's say you do art, you're at art class. There's another 12 people that you can kind of corral into your entire school. I think high schools are very supportive of their students and their students' projects, and so you have an entire high school that you can tap into. So there's so many close-knit networks, whereas when you're an adult, all you have is kind of your company and then your family, right? So it's, I think, harder to reach networks of people. So I think that's another way that young people can kind of leverage that. And then third, I think that there is this changing narrative of people wanting to invest in Gen Z and future generations. And so there's so many new programs and awards, scholarships, funding that's only for people like age 13 to 21, let's say. And it's because all these new companies want to invest their money in young people with good ideas. And so there's so many different really cool incubators, mentorship programs, and you can get grant funding from very specific places that only allow you to do it if you're a young leader. And so I feel like that's also something that we can really leverage. And I know we'll probably get into this later on, but Forbes 30 Under 30, for instance, is a list for people who are only under 30, right? And so it gives you this access to a network of other incredible people, to summits, to the ability to leverage the Forbes name for yourself and your organization. But that's not something that's accessible for somebody who's 50 years old. So I think that's why being able to start something young, there are a lot of people who actually do want to support you. And it's just about finding those resources and making sure that you're applying to them and using them to the best of your abilities. Yeah, but let's please talk about the Forbes 30 Under 30. You are on that list. And I saw you were actually right next to Zane. And Zane was on our program maybe a year ago or so. And I was like, wow, we already know two people on that list. How did you get on that list? And what does it mean to be on that list? Yeah. Oh, my God. I feel like it's still not real, because that was something that had been on my vision board for like three years in a row. And I never thought it would be possible. So it means like the world to me, because again, like I talked about, just the starting journey, being 14, starting this company, like it was so hard to get people to believe in us and in our work. And so having such a reputable list and company like Forbes be like, I see what you're doing. I believe in it. And I want to honor you for it. Like that was incredible, I think, and like so full circle. In terms of how I kind of got on it, it's the social impact list that I'm a part of. They really evaluate you on both, I guess, how much grant money you're able to kind of collect, but also, obviously, like the impact that you're generating and like the idea of your organization, I guess, like the reputation and credibility that it has. And so it's a nomination based process. So one of our amazing partners like nominated us and then or I think we might have gotten multiple nominations, but they basically just submit like a bio of what you do, like what your organization or company does. And then it's kind of like multiple rounds of application process from there. But I really thought that there was like no chance because I feel like everybody, every business leader like wants to get on Forbes. But naturally, there's only a limited amount of spots every year. And so, again, it just it was incredible to share that list with like so many people that I admired and had always looked up to. Can you give us an idea how much money you raise? I'm not sure if that number is official, you know, confidential or not, but. No, it's definitely not confidential. I will say we are a very grassroots organization. And so we've been able to donate over $650,000 worth of items, meaning that I guess like that's not the fiscal value that we've raised, but a lot of our impact comes through our volunteer manpower. And so on the actual financial side, I believe we've done like well over $100,000, but for I think a nonprofit of our size, that's a pretty small budget. But again, it's because we've been able to do so much with our sustainable, low cost programs that really rely on like volunteers and donations and our volunteers time and efforts, which has been really cool to see. But I think funding is definitely something that we actually really want to improve on and also kind of grow in the few years. Can you talk to us a bit about you approaching, you know, either investors or top executives in companies? What was it like? And, you know, would they be welcoming you or would some of them like say, well, I'm not going to talk to a little kid about, you know, something so important? What was your experience on that? Yeah, definitely a lot of, I don't want to talk to you. I think we got, oh my God, I don't even remember how many, like well over, I think at this point, like six years later, we've gotten thousands of rejection emails. A lot of our emails would go unanswered because I think people will see our age and, you know, not want to meet with us because of that. When we were first starting, it was the worst because, I mean, obviously I was the youngest then I was like 14, but also we had no credibility. Like we couldn't be like, oh, we've already helped this amount of patients. Oh, we've already worked with this hospital, you know? So we had no like platform to stand on. And I remember, I think we had sent out a few hundred hospital partnership emails that we wanted to work with. And these weren't even like companies or, or investors yet. These were just people that we wanted to help, you know, and give our service programs too. And we received, oh my God, so many, like over 70 rejection emails in the span of a couple of weeks. And most of the emails actually went unanswered. So in a way they were also rejection emails. And my team and I felt so discouraged. I think it was just like not getting a response back was almost worse than being rejected because they didn't even bother, think that we were worth the time to respond to, you know? I think we were able to really change this by kind of like connecting with authentically, like what our mission was and why we started. I realized that people, they invest not in the company itself, but more so in the founder and the story. So I shared a lot about how losing two people to cancer is why I started this organization. And unfortunately that was something that a lot of people could relate to. And so when I was able to kind of communicate this very vulnerably, a lot of people responded very well to that because they were like, oh, like that's a connection that me and her have, you know? And I understand why she's so passionate about it. And so they would give us maybe like a 10, 15 minute call. And on that call, I would like, I would be like, okay, this is, this is the time to really sell myself. And so I got really good at learning how to pitch Cancer Kids First in my story over the phone. I would make pitch decks, pitch in person to people. And I think that really helped get the ball rolling. So at the moment where you didn't get responses, you thought of a new approach instead of kind of giving up. Do you think others, or maybe even your friends, people in the team would say, let's just give up. Let's just do something else because this is not working. Yeah, we actually, I haven't talked about this so much, but in the very beginning, when we got all those rejections, our founding team, actually, we took a step back for, I think it was like four months, actually, because we were just getting nowhere. And all of us were discouraged. And in a way, we did almost give up. But during that break time, I think that was beneficial because all of us kind of separated. We tried to like not talk about Cancer Kids First and really give our brains a break from it. And then because of that, we had a clean slate and we were able to come back together and meet and discuss what new ideas we had. Like you talked about, what new approaches can we take to our pitching methods? Because clearly the old ones weren't working. And I think that's a lesson that I definitely had to learn, where sometimes this goes for anything. When you're facing an obstacle or a roadblock and you've tried so many times to figure it out, sometimes the best thing is to honestly scrap everything that you've already done and just start over and start with fresh perspective. And so that was actually, I think, a huge turning point for our organization because we were able to use that time to reflect and kind of grow from that. That's awesome. Next, please tell us a bit about the 2025 L'Oreal Paris honoree. You were a women's honoree. And then just tell us more how you got there. Yeah, for sure. L'Oreal Paris, well, let's see if I actually have a lot of their makeup. I've been using their makeup since I was like eight years old. So I have been obsessed with the brand for a very long time. And they do a program where every year they honor 10 women across the nation. And they highlight you because of your community service work. And it's incredible because they do this entire ceremony where they bring in celebrity mentors and they give you so much press and media to really elevate your story. They also give you $25,000, which is transformative for an organization like us. And so I found out about the program, I think, through some of my other friends who are in the social impact space. And I was like, naturally, like the Forbes list. I put it on my vision board. I never thought it would actually happen. But I was like, oh, please, maybe this will one day happen. And one of our partners also nominated us for this. And similarly to Forbes, it was multiple rounds. We had to do interviews. We had long essay responses. They really wanted to understand the stats of impact that you had. So how many people have you helped? How many items have you donated? How much money have you raised? But then also deeper than that, why did you start this? Why do you believe you represent women and can inspire other women nationwide? Why do you think you deserve this? And so that was their award process. And I think I found out in the summer of 2025. And then I had to keep it a secret until October, I think, is when the press release was. And I remember, I don't think it really set in for me until the press release. Because then I could openly share with everybody. And I remember I was sitting in the Harvard Library. And then I just started crying. Because I was reading emails and texts from my friends being like, you deserve this. Like, you're always a woman that I've admired. And that just meant so much to me. Because L'Oreal Paris, they created the program because they really believe in women supporting other women. And the reason that I've gotten so far is 100% because of my female mentors and female friendships. And so that was, I think, it really hit close to home. Because that was a mission that I really, really believed in. So that was how I guess I got it. And all these awards, I think, really gave us the credibility where we could say, look, we've been honored by Forbes. We've been honored by L'Oreal. If these amazing companies believe in us, why shouldn't you? And so we've been able to use that and turn that into more money, more volunteers, more media attention, things like that, and leverage that to help our organization expand. Wow. And then you had one more, right? You had the Princess Diana Legacy Award, I think it was. Yes, the Princess Diana Legacy Award, which made you travel to London, right? Yeah. Oh, my God. That was also... So that was actually the first, I guess, big award that I won. I remember it, once again, I'm not very good at, I think, accepting and believing that I deserve these things, almost like imposter syndrome in a sense. And so it, once again, did not hit me that I got this until months after it happened. But we were flown to London to meet Prince William and Prince Harry. And I could bring a plus one. And so that was the first time I got to take my mom on a trip where it was all expenses paid and got to bring her to another country. And that meant a lot to me because, obviously, her and my dad made so many sacrifices. It's always them taking my sister and I traveling and on vacation. So it just felt really nice to be able to do something nice for her and give her a new experience. And that was a magical night because, obviously, it's to honor Princess Diana, who cares so much about changing the world and making the world a better place. And it was, I guess, a very similar nomination. And then you have to do a bunch of essays, and then you have interviews and things like that. And I met just incredible young people, like the other winners that were there. And I learned so much from them. A lot of them are actually featured in my book, too. And so the Diana Legacy Award, it gave me not only, once again, press and a platform and different connections, but it also really gave me, I think, a lot of knowledge and new learnings from the other leaders that I met on how to better fundraise, how to market yourself as a startup so that you can attract more people. And all those things I took into our organization and kind of used it to make our organization better. Now, I gotta ask you, what do you do in addition to all of this? It sounds like you like to travel. What else do you do for fun? How do you enjoy yourself in a way that can be meaningful and have fun at the same time? Yeah, so I think I have a lot of non-negotiables. And this is what I tell people, especially other young people, that you need to have non-negotiables in your life so that you don't burn out, you know? And you're not just like work, work, work all the time. So for me, that's working out. Right now, because I don't play a sport, I go to the gym or I run every day. And so that's like a big thing. Like every morning, or I'll start every day off by going to the gym or running or whatever for usually like two hours. And then I also really just like spending time with friends. We love trying new restaurants. I love doing things outdoors with them. I would also say I'm very big into reading and writing. I do a lot of personal narrative kind of writing. And in the future, I really hope that I can turn all that into like a memoir, maybe a few years down the line. But I think like reading and writing, that really helps me like decompress. And I'll try to do it before I go to bed every night. So I kind of have some, you know, calm, peaceful, like alone time. And then I used to also be like into art. I think that was like a huge hobby. Unfortunately, in college, I haven't had as much time to like paint or draw or anything like that. So I'm trying to discover actually like new hobbies. So if you have any suggestions, definitely. Let me know. Scuba diving, maybe. I think that would be hard. Hard to do in Boston, but. I just remember two major tennis players. You know, one of them was retiring. I forgot who he was. Either Roger Federer or Nadal or some, I forgot. But one of them was retiring. I said, what am I going to do now? I'm retiring from tennis. He said, take scuba diving, you know, come to Australia. Come do scuba diving with us, you know. What is your major at Harvard? I didn't ask you that. Right now I'm studying economics and my secondary or my minor is global health. What's the future look like for you? What are your plans? Since you kind of have structure approach, right? Your plans after school and with your company, what are you looking for? Yeah, so I guess I'll answer the second part first. Like I mentioned, keeping Cancer Kids First Youth-led is very important to me. And unfortunately, by the time I graduate Harvard, I'll be 22, 23 years old. And so naturally having like a 22-year-old boss around a bunch of 16-year-olds, I don't think that's very fitting. And it also goes against the whole purpose of keeping it to young people and giving other young people the opportunity. So I made the decision with my board a few months ago to pass down the CEO role. So another person, we're actually training her right now. She's going to step up into the CEO role. And then I'm going to step onto the board of directors and kind of manage things from a more strategic management kind of level rather than doing hands-on tasks, which I'm a little nervous for because I've been doing Cancer Kids First every second of every day for six, seven years. Like I'm so used to having it be such an integral part of my life. I'm really scared, honestly, to see what it's going to be like without it. But at the same time, I think this will open up a lot of space and energy and time for other things that I'm interested in, like continuing maybe to like write more books or do more speaking, maybe spend more time on like social media or try out other career pathways. So I'm at the same time very excited. In terms of the actual, I guess like my future career prospects, I am not 100% sure yet. I think I would really like to eventually get into kind of the more for-profit side of healthcare. And I think it'd be really cool to do like a startup for childhood cancer where we leverage like AI and technology to help patients in low-income areas. But I don't know, I guess we'll see how it goes in the next few years. I think now I've kind of adjusted my planning to be more short-run sprints. So like in the next three months, what do I want my life to look like? Like in the next six months, nine months. And like I kind of only plan a year in ahead now just because I've realized I think over time when I tried to make like five-year plans and like 10-year plans, like so many things change, you know, and I can never predict that. So I feel like it's not as productive to plan too far in advance. Yes. Well, maybe if you look for a startup, especially in the health sector, you can consider coming to California here, Bay Area. We definitely have the top for doing that. And I'm thinking back, I remember the story about the scuba diving. It was Michael Phelps. When Michael Phelps retired from swimming, he was talking to someone from Australia. He said, I don't know what I'm gonna do now. That's when he was told, come to scuba diving in Australia. And that's more fitting, you know, than a tennis player. But Olivia, we thank you so much for your time. Any final thoughts, anything you would like to add that we haven't covered from your amazing journey so far and what's coming ahead? Yeah, I guess I would say just for any like young person listening, I think that just given everything that's going on in the world right now, politically, socially, there's a lot of change, I think that needs to happen. And I really believe that the future can only be changed by, you know, the next generations. And so if there's any cause that you really care about, do as much research as you can about it. Think about what your strengths are and see if you can take action and do something to make the world a better place. It doesn't need to be start a whole nonprofit. You know, it could be something small, like volunteering at your community center, passing out flyers about something, even sharing something on social media that's informative. Anything like that, I think is just critical that we start learning how to utilize the platform and resources and strengths that we have to help other people. Well, Olivia, we thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Thank you for having me. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay at epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you and see you next week.