CHAPTER ONE

The Girl That Everybody Loved

At the age of 17, Olga Korbut was the world's most famous gymnast. She taught
people to look at the sport differently.

Before 1972, not many people watched gymnastics. But a young girl from Belarus in
the Soviet Union changed that.

Olga Korbut started learning gymnastics when she was only eight. It was very
difficult. She had to work hard for very long hours. But she was a fantastic
student.

In 1972, Olga went to the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. She was 17, but she was
very small and thin, and she looked like a child. People all over the world watched
when she danced on the beam.

Then she jumped and did a back somersault. Her legs went up above her head - and
came down behind her! Without using her arms! And she didn't fall, she stayed on
the beam!

Everybody loved Olga. No other gymnasts could do what she did. Before, people
thought that Soviet gymnasts did not show how they felt.

But when Olga did something wrong, she cried! They loved her because of that, too.

In Munich, Olga was first in three competitions. She was second in another. Some
people were angry with the judges. They thought that she was best in that
competition, too!

Olga was a great example. In 1972, many little girls saw her and wanted to be
gymnasts, too. She made the sport popular!

CHAPTER TWO

Catching the Wind

A young African boy left school at 14, but he used the wind and sun to help people.
Today he is famous.
William Kamkwamba is from Malawi, a country in Africa. He had to leave school at
14. His family did not have money to pay for his lessons. So, he began to learn
without a teacher, from books. One book was about windmills.

In 2002, there was very little rain in Malawi, so there wasn't much food. Many
people died, and many others were hungry. William wanted to help. So the 14-year-
old boy made a windmill to give his village electricity. He made it from trees and
parts of bikes and other things that nobody wanted. At first, people thought he was
crazy. But his windmill worked!

William made two more windmills. But people needed water in his village more than
electricity. Someone wanted to help and gave William a pump. The pump used the
light of the sun to bring water up from under the ground.

In 2006, a newspaper wrote about William's work. Then William wrote a book. People
read about him and sent him money to work and study. He went back to school, in
South Africa and the USA.

"I want to use the things I learn. I want to help my country," he says. "There's a
lot of work to do."

CHAPTER THREE

A Life at Sea

Laura Dekker is a very special girl at the age of 15, she took her boat around the
world alone.

Laura Dekker is a sailor from the Netherlands. She was born on her parents' boat in
New Zealand in 1995. She was at sea for the first four years of her life! Then,
when Laura was six, her parents gave her a boat.

In May 2009, Laura sailed alone from the Netherlands to England. She was only 13
years old. A judge told her father to come to England to take her home. Three
months later, Laura told a newspaper that she wanted to sail around the world
alone. But another judge said she could not. She was too young. She had to wait.

A year later, on August 21, a month before her 15th birthday, Laura left Gibraltar
for Saint Martin in the Caribbean in her boat. On January 20, 2011, she sailed from
Saint Martin. She went to Australia and South Africa. Then she sailed her boat from
there back to Saint Martin. She was back a year and a day after she left.

She was the youngest person to sail around the world alone!

"I was good friends with my boat in the end," said Laura. "And I learned a lot
about myself."

CHAPTER FOUR

Money for Jam

Fraser Doherty learned to make jam at home when he was 14. It brought him millions
of dollars before he was 20!

One day in 2002, when 14-year-old Fraser Doherty from Edinburgh, Scotland, was at
home, it rained. It often rains in Scotland, and this day Fraser was bored. So, his
grandmother (his father's mother) taught him to make jam. Her jam was very good,
and he learned quickly.

Fraser then thought he could make some money with jam. He made a lot of it and took
it to people's houses. They bought it! He began to make more and more jam:
thousands of jars each month. People bought a lot of jam from him, so he opened a
business on the Internet.

Then he learned that people ate less jam than before because there was too much
sugar in it. So, he made a better jam. He used fruit juice - not sugar - to make it
sweet. He called it SuperJam.

Big British supermarkets asked for his new jam. He began to make it in a factory.
Soon, people bought hundreds of thousands of jars every year! Before he was 20,
Fraser had millions of dollars!

But Fraser is not only interested in making money. He uses his money to help other
people. He loves to help old people - like his grandmother helped him!

CHAPTER FIVE

Making Movies

Tanvi was a 12-year-old schoolgirl like all the others. But then she was in a
movie. It made her famous!
Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar is an actor from Mumbai in India. She was born in 1995. Her
mother works in a hospital, and her father works in a bank.

When Tanvi was only 12, her uncle told her that people wanted actors for a movie.
She went to see them. At first, they did not choose her. But then they heard that
she was a great dancer. So they asked her to be a person called Latika in the
movie.

The movie was called Slumdog Millionaire. It is about a very poor young man from
Mumbai. He wins a lot of money on a TV show. People all around the world loved the
movie. In the USA, it won eight Oscars. Tanvi was famous at 13!

Tanvi went to the Oscars in California. She met Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt there.
"What more can I ask for?" she said. She really enjoyed her time there.

Three years later, she was in another movie, a love story called Teenage. She is
now working on a third movie. Tanvi is doing great things - and she is only 17!

CHAPTER SIX

If You Can't Walk, Drive

Michael Johnson had a very bad accident at the age of 12. Now he cannot use his
legs - but he drives cars in races!

When Michael Johnson was a child, he rode bikes in races in the USA and Canada. He
was very good and he often won. Then at the age of 12, he was in a very bad bike
accident. After that, he could not use his legs. But Michael did not want to stay
home and do nothing. He loved playing sports. So later on, he began to drive cars
in competitions.

"Never tell him that he can't do something," says Michael's mother Kathi. "He'll
show you that you're wrong."

Race drivers use their feet to drive their car faster or slower. Michael cannot do
that. He needs a special car. He uses his hands to do all the driving. Somebody
helps him get in and out. But he goes very fast: more than 170 kilometers an hour.
And he wins competitions!

At 19, Michael is a professional race driver. Michael wants to win the biggest car
race in the USA: the Indianapolis 500. He often practices in Indianapolis.

Michael says that he forgets his problems in his car. "When I'm winning races, I'm
the happiest I can be."
CHAPTER SEVEN

Dancing to the Top

Michaela DePrince, a little African girl, lost her parents at the age of three.
Now, at 17, she is a famous ballet dancer in the USA.

Michaela DePrince is from Sierra Leone in Africa. Both her parents died in the war
there when she was three. Michaela is black, but some parts of her skin are white.
Some people in Sierra Leone thought that little Michaela was bad because of that
white skin! Crazy!

One day, Michaela found a picture of a ballet dancer. She really wanted to be like
her. Then when she was four, new American parents came for her. Michaela did not
speak much English, but she showed the picture to her new mother. So, Michaela
began ballet classes in the USA.

Soon Michaela was a great dancer. When she was 14, newspapers wrote about her. Now
she is in a movie about ballet, and she dances on TV shows. And she is only 17!

Her mother says that it is difficult because some people think that black girls
cannot be good ballet dancers. Michaela said on TV, "Because I'm a black ballet
dancer, I have to work ten times harder."

Michaela wants to be one of the best dancers in the world. And she wants to show
everybody that black women really can dance ballet well!

CHAPTER EIGHT

What Do You Think?

So now you know the stories of Olga the gymnast, William the windmill maker, Laura
the sailor, Fraser the jam businessman, Tanvi the actor, Michael the race driver,
and Michaela the ballet dancer. If you watched the Video Quests, you also know the
stories of Iris the cliff diver, of Marika, Italy's fastest schoolgirl, and of the
Chinese gymnast.

In this book, we learned that one of these teenagers made millions of dollars.
Which one? Do you think it is good or bad for teenagers to have a lot of money?
Why?
Can you think of other teenagers who have a lot of money? What do you think about
that?

To finish, do you know about a really great teenager? He or she can be famous or
not. It can be a friend or somebody in your family. Write down why you think the
teenager is really great. How is he or she different from other teenagers? Why is
this teenager so special?

- THE END -

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