Australia’s top 25 rising stars revealed: Celebrating our amazing kids and teens
Australia’s most powerful kids are getting even younger — these are the social media influencers, athletes, actors, models and entrepreneurs taking the world by storm. SEE THE FULL LIST
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Exclusive: What were you doing in your teens?
Probably not making big money, running successful businesses swaying public opinion or saving the planet.
Meet Australia’s young guns, who are doing just that. They’re some of the country’s most inspiring and influential young people. We’ve put together a list of 25 of the country’s rising stars. They include young social media influencers, athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, YouTubers, inventors, academics, farmers, scientists and more, aged from just six months to 18 years.
Some have made their names in the online world, while others have done so by pushing their bodies or brain power to the limit. And if you’re wondering why we’ve listed the Instagram following of many of our child and teen stars, it’s because, as a rule of thumb, the amount of money made from Instagram influencer posts are based on how many thousand followers the person has. A person with between 30,000 and 40,000 followers can expect to make about $400 for a post promoting a product or event, someone with 40,000 to 50,000 followers about $450, 100,000 to 150,000 followers about $800 per post and so on. YouTubers make money based on the number of subscribers they have, through advertisements on their channels and by selling their own merchandise.
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THE MODEL
Jayla Rose Li On Wing is only 13 but the Sydney teen actor, model, soccer player and influencer has already made a name for herself, and amassed more than 37,000 followers on Instagram. Jayla has appeared in the ABC TV Series Wow! That’s Amazing, with Donna Hay on Foxtel’s Lifestyle channel and in a string of other TV shows, series and promotions. She has also modelled, both on the runway and in magazines.
A fitness fan, Jayla is also a skilled soccer player, competing at State level. Jayla’s mum, Heather Li On Wing, said her daughter entered the modelling world at age 11, after pleading to do so for many years’ prior. Jayla had been inspired by Russian child ‘super model’ Kristina Pimenova, who was once dubbed the most beautiful girl in the world, Heather said. Jayla, who is now represented by national modelling and casting agency, Bettina, has made more than $10,000 over the last two years from her modelling and acting career. By the time she’s 16, Heather believes Jayla will have about $100,000 in her own bank account, which will make a nice nest egg for a deposit for a house. Jayla — who always put her soccer first — dreamt of one day becoming a superstar soccer playing, representing Australia, Heather said.
CHILD GENIUS
Dubbed ‘The Human Encyclopaedia’, they don’t come much smarter than 10 year-old Evan Luc-Tran from Sydney. As a child genius with a photographic memory and an IQ in the top one per cent of the population and a memory ability in the top 0.01 per cent of the population, the primary school student is a member of the elite intellectual organisation, MENSA. With a passion for travelling and geography, Evan knows the capital cities, flags and currencies of every country and can also tell you what time it is anywhere in the world, at any given time. His intellectual achievements include winning Literacy Planet’s national ‘Word Mania’ Competition in 2015 and being crowned Australia’s youngest spelling and word building champion at age six. But Evan is not just super-smart, he is also an actor, model, Instagram influencer, brand ambassador and talented tennis player and gamer. Evan has worked as an influencer with companies including Qantas, Uncle Toby’s, Lego, Reading Cinemas, Cookie Time and Tasmanian lavender farm, Bridestowe Estate, to name just a few. He has also dabbled in modelling over the years, appearing in ads for the Merivale Group with Justin Hemmes, Cartoon Network and Woolworths Cricket Blast Campaign with Australian Cricketers Josh Hazlewood and Alyssa Healy. Evan has nearly 17,000 followers on Instagram.
SCOOTER SENSATION
At just 15, Redcliffe’s Bianca Dilworth is scooting up a storm. The Queensland teenager is a member of the Apex Pro Scooter Team, and has just won the Australian Women’s Pro comp, which was held in April at Ramp Attak in Brisbane. Bianca will represent Australia in the first Women’s World Championships, in the World Roller Games in Barcelona in July this year. “I am so excited. Ever since I was a little girl my dream was to represent my country,” she told News Corp. “And for that dream to become reality at just 15 is unbelievable. I am so blessed to be given the opportunity.” The teen, who has won three national titles since taking up the sport at the age of ten, has nearly 56,000 followers on Instagram.
THE BUSINESS WOMAN
The huge success of Adelaide teen Violet Coleman’s Georgie Paws pet accessory business proves age is no barrier to making it big. The 16-year-old schoolgirl started her business designing stylish dog collars, leads and other doggie accessories and gifts when she was just 13. The range, which is designed by Violet and then manufactured overseas, also includes matching belts for humans, dog chew toys, mugs, bag tags and notecards. After pitching her business on Shark Tank in the show’s seventh season, Violet was nominated for the Telstra Business Awards, and her range has since been stocked in more than 200 stores across Australia, New Zealand, the USA and the United Kingdom. Violet’s mum, Annette, joined the business in the middle of 2018, because, as Violet explains, “things were getting hectic” as she juggled school, sport and business. The business is named after Violet’s beloved Border terrier. This year alone Violet’s products are being exhibited at trade shows in Melbourne, New York, Amsterdam and England, and she is currently working with the high-end group of stores OKA in London.
TINY DANCER
With three national titles under her belt and trophies taller than herself, 11 year-old Melbourne champion dancer and acrobat Isabelle Bitsikas has travelled the world dancing competitively. This year’s Showcase National Dance Championships Pre-Teen Dancer of the Year, diminutive Isabelle has been dancing since the age of two and trains up to 25 hours a week. She was also Showcase Junior Dancer of the Year in 2017 and Get the Beat winner in the same year. A star of the last season of TV show Little Big Shots, Isabelle is as much loved for her perky personality as her extraordinary dancing and acrobatic talents. She has nearly 32,000 followers on Instagram and has worked with some of the world’s best choreographers. Isabelle’s mum, Kerry Bitsikas, said her daughter just loved to dance. “She’s just so fit and strong,” she said.
ATHLETICS CHAMP
He’s just turned 17 but, track and field star Sasha Zhoya, from Western Australia, has set the athletics community on fire and has his sights set on world track domination, recently comparing himself to sprinting legend Usain Bolt. Given his recent, record-beating runs, the dream appears entirely achievable. The Australian Olympic Committee recently nominated the “blistering” and a “genetically gifted” Zhoya as “athletics’ next greatest showman”. The son of a champion skier and musician, Zhoya credits his parents with his athleticism, precision and timing. A track and field triple threat, Zhoya recently claimed the Australian record in the under 18 110m hurdles, nabbed the under 20 200m title and broke the under 18 world record in the pole vault. But despite having lived his whole life in Australia, he may opt to compete for France in upcoming world meets, as his mother hails from there. He has until December this year to decide.
THE CANDY MAN
Nine-year-old Angus Copelin-Walters from Darwin, who has dyslexia, has found sweet success selling crocodile-themed confectionery in the top end, and beyond. His business Croc Candy turned over $10,000 in its first year, when Angus was just seven, and nearly double that amount in his second year of business. Since then his candy company has gained the attention of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who took some sweets home for his daughters and gave the school student’s crocodile candy the big thumbs up. Angus’ Croc Candy website says: “Croc Candy is growing organically and not only am I becoming more confident but I’m learning how to make some money while I am still at school so I can donate to different charities. I was faced with a challenge and now I’m on the sweet road to success.” According to his mum, Joanne Walters, Angus has always been the front person of the emerging confectionary business and even makes his own deliveries, when they are local. What’s more, the young businessman is already a philanthropist, donating to cancer research and charities including Dolly’s Dream, Code Read, Made by Dyslexia and has even had an encouraging tweet from Sir Richard Branson. Angus’s dream is to grow into one of Australia’s leading lolly suppliers and to develop a product line called Candy for a Cause (which he has trademarked) so that he knows every packet of candy sold will benefit someone’s cause or need. Angus was recently invited by the Prime Minister to produce a social media video to inspire other kids to start their own businesses or to work out ways to make money while they are still at school.
ENVIRONMENTAL WARRIOR
She might be just 11 but Cairns’ student Molly Steer has a lot to say and is making a difference to the planet. The Queensland schoolgirl’s passionate environmental campaign Straw No More, aimed at doing away with plastic straws and saving the Great Barrier Reef and our precious marine life in the process, has seen Molly named Cairns Young Woman of the Year, after spreading her message across schools, councils and businesses. Molly’s influence has extended far beyond her north Queensland home, with her campaign receiving recognition and support across Australia and even as far afield as New Zealand, Canada, South Korea, America, and the United Kingdom. Molly is one of just 50 young environmental campaigners in the world to be selected to attend a major marine convention in Canada.
BARBIE GIRL
Thirteen year-old Grace Mulgrew from Melbourne has made a career of playing with Barbie dolls. The YouTube child influencer is filmed playing with her Barbies by her dad, for her hugely successful Grace’s World channel, which has more than 1.8 million subscribers and counting. Grace has run her business since the age of six. She is so successful, her father quit his job to support her in her YouTube career, which is being structured so she can move from Barbies to other, more age-appropriate subject matter.
Her other channel, Grace’s Room, is rapidly growing in popularity and in mid-June this year Grace posted that she had been chosen as a Big W toy tester and would be unwrapping and trying out toys on her YouTube channel. Grace has recently been doing more on her ‘grown up’ Grace’s Room channel, packing for overseas travel, comparing make-up brands and demonstrating hair styles. About eighteen months ago Grace launched another YouTube channel called El Mundo de Grace, aimed at capturing the huge Spanish market.
Grace now has more than 2.5 million subscribers in total (across all her YouTube channels), and her content has had more than two billion views!
She is an ambassador for Moose Toys and was part of the Mattel I Can Be Anything campaign. Grace has nearly 50,000 followers on Instagram.
THE GAMER
Better known to his devoted fans as Eystreem, Victorian school student and YouTube gaming sensation Jordan Barclay boasts more than 1.5 million subscribers and uses his platform to sell his own merchandise. The 16-year-old YouTuber, from Bendigo, made his fame by making lists based on elements of the popular Minecraft video game and has recently made an art form of trolling his sister. Responsible for one of the biggest Minecraft YouTube channels worldwide, Eystreem — who focuses on family-friendly, mobile and console-based videos — has grown a devoted fan base and uploads multiple times a week.
Renown internationally as a Minecraft expert, Jordan has developed a reputation as a public speaker and has hosted Minecraft workshops at the Microsoft flagship store in Sydney as well as panels at both PAX and Vidcon Australia. He has also collaborated with huge, multinational brands including Microsoft, Intel, Fortnite and HyperX. He was the youngest Australian gamer to pass one million subscribers on YouTube and has the 79th most subscribed channel in all of Australia. Jordan plans to work on his YouTube channel full-time job when he finishes school.
THE ENTREPRENEUR
He created his first company at just 12 and now, at 17 and in his final year of school, Brisbane’s Jack Bloomfield is one of the nation’s youngest and most successful entrepreneurs, with a net worth of “well over” $1 million. He told News Corp he had always been interested in business and the online world and unveiled his first business plan to his father at the tender age of seven. A year later, he designed his first website. Jack is not only heavily devoted to his own business success but has now developed a range of mentoring and training programs to help others become successful in eCommerce also. Incredibly, the teenager runs his multiple businesses and manages his very influential social media accounts from his classroom! Jack has a professional, much-visited website, with testimonials from business world luminaries including Mark Bouris and Tony Robbins. He has nearly 65,000 followers on Instagram.
INSTA FAMOUS
Sixteen-year-old Jack Kelly, who hails from Adelaide, is an Australian Instagram personality whose Insta popularity is linked pretty much only to the fact he once dated American dancer Maddie Ziegler of Dance Moms fame. Jack now has 1.4 million Instagram followers. The first mention of Maddie on Jack’s Instagram was in a photo he posted in September of 2016. He and Maddie broke up at the end of summer 2018 and he later began dating model Talia Papantoniou.
THE TOY TESTER
The youngest member of the Melbourne family which makes a motza by filming the opening of surprise eggs and unwrapping boxes, celebrating super heroes and testing toys on YouTube, calls himself CKN and is pretty damn cute. ‘CKN’ is the star of the massively popular CKN Toys YouTube channel, which has nearly 13 million subscribers and is estimated to have a net worth of $22 million.
THE INVENTOR
While other boys his age are playing, 12-year-old Anthony Foong, from Sydney, is working on ways to save lives. Anthony beat 3000 other kids to be named one of the three winners of last year’s Origin LittleBIGIdea competition, and score a trip to America’s NASA Kennedy Space Station, from which he has only recently returned. Anthony was awarded for his development of the potentially lifesaving A-Watch, which he designed to identify anaphylactic shock or sudden cardiac arrest. Basically, Anthony’s invention is an Epipen within a smart watch, which is also linked to a smartphone app. Anthony is severely allergic to wheat, dairy, nuts and eggs himself, and also lost his grandfather to a cardiac arrest while he was alone and out walking. The smart watch is aimed to help people survive anaphylaxis and heart attack, as it monitors heart rate and if and when a person is in cardiac arrest or experiencing an anaphylactic episode, is triggered to deliver a dose of a prescribed medication. At the same time, the A-Watch, which is linked to an app on the smart phone, sends notifications to the emergencies contacts set up on the phone and to emergency services providing personal information and position co-ordinates. The hope is that the drug dose keeps the patient alive long enough for emergency services to arrive on the scene. Anthony is now looking for sponsors to take development of his A-Watch to the next stage. Amazingly, the A-Watch is not Anthony’s only potentially lifesaving invention. He also came up with an allergy analysing machine called The Allergizer when he was even younger.
THE SCIENTIST
She’s a teen with her eyes on the big picture and doing very big things — like fixing oil spills with algae, inventing biodegradable plastic from prawn shells and researching micro plastics in fish which could potentially be entering our food chain. At 17, Sydney’s Angelina Arora is already a well-known environmental scientist, innovator and inventor and has given a TedX talk. The biodegradable plastic she invented is made completely of waste and decomposes 1.5 million times faster than conventional plastics, significantly reducing the amount of pollution caused by plastics in the environment. Angelina speaks at environmental events and in the media, where she advocates for a sustainable future and raises awareness about plastic pollution.
FAMOUS IN THE WOMB
Photos of Aston Bartel, the first child of Geelong Football Club legend Jimmy Bartel and his fashion-blogging, influencer wife Nadia, were on social media before he was even born. An ultrasound photo of Aston inutero was posted to his mum’s Chronicles of Nadia fashion blog in October 2015, with a graphic, blow by blow account of his birth following on the widely-read blog in May 2016.
Aston, now three, and his baby brother Henley, born in October last year, have never been far away from the social and traditional media spotlight and are regularly featured on their footy WAG mum’s Facebook, blog and 422,000 follower-strong Instagram, as she spruiks clothing lines, make-up, department stores, Mercedes Benz and more. The little Melbourne boys now feature in their own right on mum’s social media, playing with hashtagged Fisher Price toys and donning cute kiddie clothing brands. They have also recently become the face of toddler and baby supplements for international vitamin and ‘wellness’ giant, Swisse. It’s a sure bet the Bartel boys’ influence will grow as they do.
THE EXPLORER
She’s only just turned 18 but Melbourne’s Jade Hameister is already an Order of Australia recipient, and understood to be one of, if not the, youngest ever to make the venerable list. The plucky teen last year became the youngest person to ski from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole unsupported and unassisted; the first Australian woman to do so. Jade was also the first woman to set a new route to the South Pole unsupported and unassisted, the youngest to make it to both Poles and the youngest to complete the Polar Hat Trick. She has featured in a National Geographic documentary that has aired in 170 countries and delivered a TEDx talk. In June 2017, Jade also made history by completing the 550km traverse of the Greenland icecap unsupported and unassisted — the youngest woman ever to do so.
WORLD CHANGER
The first Australian ever to win first place in the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair, Macinley Butson, 18, of Wollongong, south of Sydney, is an inventor and inspiration to girls across the world. She was the NSW Young Australian of the Year in 2018 and featured in Sportsgirl’s Be That Girl campaign. Macinley’s invention, the ‘Spoonge’, accurately measures and delivers medicine without the risk of overdosing or underdosing, while her ‘SMART Armour’ invention is aimed at dramatically improving outcomes for radiotherapy breast cancer patients. This year, Macinley has invented the SMART System, an improvement to the SMART Armour to further improve aspects of radiotherapy treatment. She has also invented the SODIS Sticker, a device to show when water in developing communities has successfully been disinfected of biological pathogens. The young woman whose first invention was a pair of sunglasses with adjustable lenses which allowed light to be turned up or down, like turning up or down the brightness on a smartphone screen, hopes to use her smarts to one day find a cure for cancer. Already this year Macinley has: Won first place in Scientific Investigations National BHP Foundation Science and Engineering Fair, first place in the Innovator to Market Award at the National BHP Foundation Science and Engineering Fair, won the Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize, been named the Next-Gen award winner and Judges Choice overall winner in the InStyle Women of Style awards and taken out first place in the Special Award section of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. All that — and she’s still a teenager!
VLOG TOTS
The tiny tots of successful, suburban mummy blogger Keiara Moore and her hubby Kurt have had their little lives recorded on their mum’s Aussie Mum Vlogger YouTube site for all the world to see from the moment they were born (and for Lincoln, even before birth, as Keiara described going in for a “sweep and stretch” to induce labour). Keiara’s YouTube vlog has nearly 40,000 subscribers, and is growing fast. For toddler Mila and baby Lincoln everything from sleeping, waking up, playing with their favourite toys and falling off their bikes, to having friends sleep over while their folks get smashed and then manage a hangover the day before Christmas, is a public affair. And, mostly, it’s filmed inside Mila and Lincoln’s home. On the Aussie Mum Vlogger Instagram site, which has more than 20,000 followers, Keiara says: “We are a young family that live in northern NSW Australia. I started YouTube in late Jan 2017 — and am LOVING IT! I capture all of the great times, the struggles we encounter & the hilarious times we have together! My fiancé (Kurt) & I are high school sweet hearts who have been through many up’s and downs but always worked through them.. In September 2016 we welcomed our gorgeous daughter Mila into the world who was born with a cleft lip & gum notch. She is such a sweet little girl with a huge fun, loving personality! In July 2018 we had our second baby — Lincoln, the missing piece to our little family. Our babies are the centre of our universe & we both ABSOLUTELY love being parents!”
HAIR-RAISING BUB.
He’s just six months old but baby Boston Simich from Perth in Western Australia is already a rising social media star. With his long, luscious locks and adorable smile, Boston has made morning television and graced newspaper pages, and, according to his fitspo mum Tara Simich, stops people in their tracks where ever he goes because of his extraordinary hair. Now on the books of casting agency Munchkins Talent, which has offices in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and New South Wales, baby Boston looks to have a bright future in modelling. Boston features prominently on his mum’s @tarasimich Instagram page, which has amassed nearly 12,000 followers. Tara has been approached by clothing brands wanting to use Boston and his magnificent mane to promote their baby lines and she recently set up Boston’s own Insta account. But will Boston’s hair remain forever long? Tara says “it’s dropped” recently, and she’s toying with the idea of cutting it. Let’s hope that unlike the Biblical Samson, baby Boston doesn’t lose his power with his hair.
CHILD ACTOR
Remarkable for not only his ministerial name but also for his commitment to making it big in the Aussie film industry 10 year-old Morrison Scott, aka ‘Mo’, from Victoria’s Yarra Valley is a rising star. The Grade Five student recently acted alongside Australian film star Russell Crowe in filming The True History of the Kelly Gang, with the movie now in the post-production stage and set to screen next year. Mo, who hilariously now gets “Mo-Sco” from his primary school mates, plays a young Dan Kelly in the film. Mo also has his own YouTube channel, for which he writes, produces and edits his own work, has modelled and appeared in advertisements. There are times, says his mum Fahey Younger, when Mo receives angry emails from people mixing him up with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Like the PM, Mo has some exciting projects in the pipeline.
SWIMMING STAR
Nicknamed ‘The Terminator’ after smashing her personal best 400m freestyle time and in the process breaking the world record at the World Short Course Championships in Hangzhou, China last year, 18-year-old Tasmanian Ariarne Titmus is shaping as Australia’s next Queen of the pool. The teen freestyle swimming sensation has made her presence felt on the world stage winning gold in the Women’s 800m Freestyle and Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay and silver in the Women’s 200m Freestyle at last year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. She also won gold in the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay and silver medals in the Women’s 400m and 800m freestyle events at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo. In 2015, Ariarne and her family moved from Tasmania to Queensland for better training opportunities.
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER
Refugee advocate Bassam Maaliki was just 13 when he started his campaign #uBelong. Now 16, the Year 11 Homebush Boys High School student remains dedicated to ensuring all refugees and migrants — regardless of their background and ethnicity — feel a sense of belonging in Australia. Bassam has been named YMCA NSW Youth parliament member for Strathfield, Save the Children Youth Ambassador, a finalist for the 2017 Human Rights Medal, NSW Youth Collective Ambassador, NSW Multicultural Youth Ambassador for Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN), and the NSW Youth member at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. “Being a Muslim and having a Lebanese background means I’ve lived through a lot of intolerance. I’ve been called a terrorist and told to go back to my own country,” he has said. “But going through a lot of discrimination motivated me to make a positive change. That’s how I came up with #uBelong. It’s a simple message of embracing diversity.” Bassam has raised thousands of dollars for organisations which help youth refugees settle in Australia through his #uBelong campaign and has also raised thousands more through his #ThirstyForChange campaign, by selling water bottles. That campaign helps fund the building of vital water wells and toilet facilities in impoverished communities in Cambodia and Malaysia.
MASTER CHEF
Inspired by MasterChef to create sweet treats, Tasmania’s Freya Downie, 14, combines life on a busy dairy farm with school, soccer and cooking up a storm in the kitchen of her family’s historic home in the Derwent Valley. The Year 9 student has a thriving business cooking, bottling, labelling and selling her signature caramel sauce (Dulche de leche) and more recently also quince paste and other preserves and pickles. The kitchen dynamo loved cooking from such a young age her parents gave her a chef’s hat and apron for her sixth birthday, and just two-days later she made her first desert — a delicious tiramisu. Since then, she hasn’t looked back. Freya’s Delights are now stocked in a number of stores throughout Tasmania. And if all that wasn’t enough to keep the teen busy, she also plays soccer at state-level.
CATTLE BREEDER
It’s not your average teenager that has their own registered beef cattle stud, but then again Jai Thomas is not your average teenager. And he has the wins on the board to prove it. Jai shows Shorthorn cattle from his own registered stud, JT Country Life, at Serpentine in Western Australia. What’s more, he started the stud when he was just 13, with the help of his dad, a dairy farmer and farm manager at Murdoch University. And at just 17, Jai is already an old hand at genetics and breeding, and also on the show circuit, winning the Royal Show junior dairy cattle parader award three years in a row when he was younger. He has shown his own beef cattle, under his own JT Country Life Shorthorns name, since 2015. His wins at last year’s Perth Royal Show included supreme champion Shorthorn and grand and junior champion Shorthorn bull. He also took out senior champion bull, and claimed a string of wins with his cows and heifers. When he finishes school, Jai hopes to continue his interest in animals and breeding by studying vet science. Jai is currently Australia’s number one junior dairy cattle judge.
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