Meet golf phenomenon Lucy Li and 10 other child prodigies

IN A week when an 11-year-old girl qualified for a major golf tournament, we take a look at 10 other child prodigies who are killing it at life.

KID geniuses.

From the sporting field to academics and the arts, these child prodigies are killing it at life right now.

LUCY LI

The 11-year-old Californian this week became the youngest player to qualify for the US Women’s Open by winning a qualifying tournament.

You may think she has been hitting golf balls since she could walk, but Li went to the range for the first time when she was seven.

Lucy Li’s club is as tall as she is.

TANISHQ ABRAHAM

Now 10, Abraham became a member of Mensa at four. At four months old, he could answer questions on stories and events in children’s books. At five years old, he completed a Stanford University math course in less than six months. At eight, he became the youngest person to discover astronomical bodies and events. By nine, he became the youngest speaker at a NASA conference.

TITLE: Youngest NASA speaker SIZE: 650x366px CAPTION: Tanishq Abraham

AMIRA WILLIGHAGEN

What a voice. The nine-year-old operatic singer blew the audience away on Holland’s Got Talent (video below) with a performance that led her on the path to winning the entire show. She’s just released her first album.

TITLE: Amira wows audience SIZE: 650x366px CAPTION: Amira wows audience

JADEN AND JULIAN NEWMAN

Nine-year-old Jaden and her 12-year-old brother Julian are turning heads in the basketball world with mind-boggling skills and dominance for very small people in a very big people’s game. Jaden was dubbed the “scariest player in high school” by FOX Sports and scored 63 points against a boys team. Watch the pair in the video at the top of the page and check out Julian’s skills below.

TITLE: Julian Newman SIZE: 650x366px CAPTION: Julian Newman has scary potential

ELIAS PHOENIX

Just watch those little fingers fly. Seven-year-old Phoenix is an Ellen DeGeneres favourite and when you watch him play the piano you’ll realise why.

TITLE: Elias on Ellen SIZE: 650x366px CAPTION: Elias Phoenix on Ellen

MOZIAH BRIDGES

This dapper Memphis sixth grader decided to bring the bow tie back. And didn’t it pay off for him. The 12-year-old entrepreneur, who founded his company Mo’s Bows when he was nine years old, has attracted the attention of Forbes, British GQ and even Oprah. Now Daymond John, founder of the $6 billion dollar FUBU fashion line, has taken him under his wing.

TITLE: Mo's Bows SIZE: 650x366px CAPTION: Mo's Bows

QUVENZHANE WALLIS

The 10-year-old made headlines around the world when she became the youngest actress to ever receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Wallis had to lie about her age to score her lead role in the critically acclaimed 2012 drama Beasts of the Southern Wild. She was five at the time, but the minimum age required was six.

Actress Quvenzhane Wallis attends the 85th Academy Awards nominations luncheon in 2013.

AELITA ANDRE

The little Aussie abstract artist is known for her Surrealist style. The seven-year-old has drawn comparisons with Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso and held her first solo exhibition in New York at just four years old. Both her parents are artists and the story goes that she learned to paint before she could walk.

Aelita Andre abstract expressionist painter.... genius~ pic.twitter.com/9KvEvRCIPD

— (@panjipaj) November 21, 2013

Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Aelita Andre abstract expressionist painter.... genius~ pic.twitter.com/9KvEvRCIPD— (@panjipaj) November 21, 2013

AWONDER LIANG

With a name like Awonder, how couldn’t he make this list? In 2011, Liang became the youngest chess expert in United States Chess Federation (USCF) history with a rating of 2000 at the age of eight. The same year, he became the youngest player to defeat an International Master. By 2012, he upped the ante and became the youngest player to take down a Grandmaster — and then last year became the youngest ever to obtain a master’s rating.

Awonder Liang is growing up and it's making me very sad pic.twitter.com/igsBUfhvAl

— Gabriel (@gbpos) March 7, 2014

Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Awonder Liang is growing up and it's making me very sad pic.twitter.com/igsBUfhvAl— Gabriel (@gbpos) March 7, 2014

ONAFUJIRI ‘FUJI’ REMET

The four-year-old Nigerian already knows he wants to be a professional photographer — and he’s almost there. Very proficient with an SLR camera, his work has been showcased in exhibitions and he’s created a name for himself with photographs capturing the colour of Nigerian street life.

TITLE: Fuji's exhibition SIZE: 650x366px CAPTION: Four-year-old Nigerian photographer