Girl Genius My Life

My name is Kashmea, and I'm 12 years old.

When I was 11, I did an IQ test and I was told I had a higher IQ than

Albert Einstein.

I was always working towards building an app,

and I think the IQ just sped it up.

So, I'm going to make an app about something very close to my heart.

Nainika was like one of the most sweetest people I've genuinely ever

met in my life.

So, they tried to resuscitate her, but nothing happened.

My name is Kashmea, and I'm 12 years old.

I live with my mum, dad, and little brother.

Kashmea is creating ripples in the United Kingdom and here's why.

After I did an IQ test last year,

I got a score of 162 from Mensa.

It's the highest score you can get.

Which means she now has a higher score than

scientists like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

I ended up getting lots of attention from media around the world.

Here is an example of some questions that I got asked in the Mensa exam,

and I just want my dad to do some of them.

Unscramble the letters...

OK.

OK. Do they not give a hint or anything?

It's Mensa.

I speak two languages fluently, Hindi and English.

So, I speak Hindi fluently because it's basically my first language,

and it's the first language I ever learnt.

In the future, I'd also like to be fluent in Spanish, French,

and language encoding.

Coding allows us to do all the things we love on our phones

and tablets.

The languages I've been learning are C#, Java, and HTML.

I was always working towards building an app,

and I think the IQ just sped it up and gave me a bit more confidence.

So, I'm going to make an app,

and I'm giving myself just one month to do it.

A few weeks ago,

we received some news from our community which shocked us all.

A close family friend's daughter, Nainika, had passed away.

I want to find out what happened.

It was a usual Saturday morning, 20th of May.

She got ready to go for her horse riding lessons.

She'd been asking to have pancakes for a few days,

and because I've been so busy,

I couldn't make pancakes during weekdays.

And we said, "Daddy will make it for you today."

And on the way back, she said,

"I want to have pancake with blackberry in it,"

and she had never eaten blackberry before.

She had just a bite of it and she came up in a big reaction.

So, similar to an asthmatic reaction...

..turning red suddenly, you know, itchy all over.

So, her daddy gave her the piriton and the inhaler.

He gave her the Epipen and she had lost her pulse straightaway,

she couldn't breathe. She wasn't...

Her heart wasn't breathing at all.

So, they tried to resuscitate her...

..but nothing happened.

She couldn't eat out at Indian restaurants or restaurants which are

multi-cuisine, because the chefs sometimes wouldn't be able to give

her a dairy-free meal.

It's a simple thing, "Let's go out and eat today."

And families like ours struggle.

Nainika's family were always having to double check every ingredient

on every menu.

I want to make going out to eat a bit easier.

Hearing Nainika's story has really hit home,

and although my app couldn't have stopped what happened,

I hope it makes doing simple things possible.

After seeing Lakshmi, I found out that there was an allergy show,

so I'm here to find out more.

-Hello, nice to meet you.

-Hi, my name's Kashmea.

-Hello, I'm Emma.

Emma does allergy awareness work with children.

Her son also passed away after an allergic reaction.

So, recently we've had someone quite close to us as a family pass away.

She was a nine-year-old girl.

And so, since then, we've decided to create allergy awareness,

because it is a huge topic.

Like, just being here today,

you can see how many people

are suffering from this, you know, daily.

That's very similar, on the same lines as what happened with Haydn.

It was very sudden. We had no clue he had an allergy to food.

He was an asthmatic beforehand,

and had a bowl of cereal with peanuts on it in the morning.

And, again, it was so sudden, he was gone within 20 minutes.

We had nothing to help him out and that was it.

It was over very quickly,

which is the reason why we push for the education side for our charity,

Haydn's Wish.

So, it's very much along the same lines.

What we were trying to achieve was to help people with allergies

be able to go into restaurants and feel confident that, you know,

-they're not going to face an issue when they get there.

-Yeah.

What we were thinking is an app,

one of the main facilities it would have is, you know,

list quite a few restaurants and

have the ability for people to view them

and review them.

In terms of the importance of the app, incredibly important.

The usefulness is going to be amazing,

and I think you'll take off really well with it.

Especially cos Haydn and our family friend's daughter,

they were both around the same age and they were both very, very young.

I do really feel that this app is a way to go.

I feel that this will be useful for many people in their daily life.

Meeting Emma has really inspired me to get going.

I can't imagine losing someone so close to me as she has.

I love my sister.

She has to try her best. The main thing is, she is always...

That thing is always there in her to help others.

She's very kind-hearted.

She's the best daughter.

My ambitions for this app,

I want to make this the best app it can,

and I want this app to help as many people as possible,

not just a limited amount.

I don't want to restrict this app to anything.

All of my research into allergies has shown me how important

accessibility is.

It's made me think that I may be able to help more people.

I'm off on a trip with Clara and Alfie,

who know more than me about what it's like to have to think about

access wherever they go.

Clara, Alfie, look at these.

Can you find Dory? Do they have Dory?

Yeah, that's a real Nemo.

-Ow!

-I got you!

When you're going out,

does your mum check for you before you go somewhere,

does this place have a ramp, or do you do it?

My mum checks on the internet.

She checks on the internet, yeah.

-Do you know where she checks on the internet?

-She just searched it up.

She just searched it up, OK.

Have you ever had somewhere where you went there and there hasn't been

a ramp, so you couldn't get in?

-No.

-No?

-Yes.

-Yes?

-Yeah.

Hanging out with Clara and Alfie was great fun,

and if I can at least make sure that they have more accurate information

about access, that will be a start.

I have often been called special since taking the Mensa test,

and I want the app to be called Speciall, with a double L,

to reflect it's about all of us being equal.

So, right now, I'm basically creating a web page for Speciall.

My ambition for Speciall isn't for it to just be a web page,

it's for it to be a mobile app and be quite global.

But for me to be able to code an app,

that takes a lot more knowledge than it does to be able to code

a web page. An equal sign and then two quotation marks.

I've been doing coding for a while.

I think I'll still need a little bit,

quite a lot more training to be able to code a whole app by myself.

So, at this point, I think I'll need a bit more help.

What do you require first? Did you check on that...

My mum's found a developer in Scotland

who's going to help me make the app.

So, your idea is brilliant and I am

sure you would have no problem with that.

So, 20 days from start to publishing it to Apple store.

We'll work as a team to try and get a prototype together in a few weeks.

That was really, really, really helpful.

I'm feeling a bit nervous about just how much I've got to do.

Right now, I have so much on my plate homework-wise...

..and it's just sometimes a bit pressurising,

coming home a bit late and then having to fit in everything.

Now with the app, I really do want to dedicate a lot of time to this,

but I'm just struggling quite a bit to just fit it all in.

I've just got to sit down, and, OK, I need to plan what I'm going to do,

when everything is due, what my priorities are,

because otherwise if I just wing it, it's going to all fail.

I know there's going to be a lot of work to do, but before I start,

I want to get some netball practice in.

I am quite proud of myself for getting the app started,

but I still think this is nothing in comparison to what it could be,

and I think I'll be even prouder in myself

if it gets to its best potential.

I was like, "Oh, I need to start practising netball and lacrosse,

"but I don't have any time today." And it turns out that I do.

I have to get 90% of the shots in.

So, let's start counting now.

OK, let's start counting after I've got one in.

Shooting hoops really focuses my mind,

but now I need to get back to the app and do some more research.

Well, they do gluten-free options, so that's always good.

There are no houses here.

It's basically just cafes and restaurants.

I need to get restaurants to sign up to the app.

We were wondering if you'd want to be listed and involved in the app.

-We'll be part of it, you know...

-Yeah.

-..to give you a hand, why not, you know?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

-Yeah, no problem.

Lots of places want to be involved.

So, it was a shame, she was just...

Well, most of them.

My mission now is to spread the word,

meet as many businesses as possible...

My name's Kashmea.

..and get some tips.

We took the philosophy that even a small number of listings is fine,

as long as they are really good, really well vetted.

Srin set up his online B&B service because he was fed up with not

having information on wheelchair access from other apps.

I finally feel like I'm starting to make some progress.

But on the business side of things, I may need some help.

And here it is.

So, this is her book, What You Really Need To Know About Business.

Common sense rules, from the star of Dragons' Den.

To see if my app has what it takes to succeed,

I'm meeting leading businesswoman Deborah Meaden.

I'm really nervous, because I don't like...

I KNOW Deborah Meaden from watching her,

and I just don't know how she's going to react.

And I hope it's positive.

Deborah Meaden has disappointing news from the outset.

I do, obviously, look up to her,

because she's such a great businessperson.

And...

Let's just hope it goes well.

I really hope Deborah can help me focus on what I need to do to make

my app a success.

What I would say about marketing is, think of...

..where the person you're talking to is, you know?

Where do they gather, what do they read.

I'm guessing if you have disabilities,

actually online is quite an important marketplace for you,

because that's where you're going to...

That's where, I guess, you're going to be able to explore lots of things

around the world.

I think for you, the most important thing will be to think about,

how do I capture those people? What language do they speak?

They don't even know about me, so how do I...

What words do I try and use to make sure that they can find me?

So, maybe I just wanted to ask, first of all, how to sell this idea?

It's a great app, it's really useful.

So, you know, you need to get lots of people talking about it,

the influential bloggers, the ones people are listening to,

and not just people with disabilities.

I think it's a great app, so get voices that have actually got

an audience. Just get people like me talking about it,

-and then people will know to even look for it.

-Yeah.

Which investors do I choose?

I think that went really well.

Like, I was really nervous about it at the beginning,

but when I saw her come in and she was just so friendly and so lively,

I just like, all my nerves went away, which was really good.

-The lighting's amazing.

-Isn't it? That's it, there you go.

I think I'm just going to go away from this and just really,

really get into the marketing,

maybe set up a few accounts for social media to really,

really energise this.

And just hope for the best.

Deborah advised that I get well-known bloggers involved,

so I messaged Dina Tokio, who has 1.3 million followers,

in the hope that she will agree to meet with me.

But before that, I've got a flight to catch.

I am super excited,

but the rest of my family are treating my business trip

like a holiday.

I'm about to go meet the app developer,

and he's going to show us a prototype of the app.

I'm quite excited, because this is sort of clarifying that this is live

and it is a reality.

We've been working on the app and it's almost complete now.

Last minute testing, a couple of bugs here and there,

but more or less ready for us to test now.

-Would you like me to show you the app?

-Yes, please.

-OK.

There you go.

The app opens on a home page which has

different activities people like to do.

The user can then choose what they want to do

and apply filters, like...

..so they know that they can go out comfortably.

It then creates a list based on their choices and location.

So, what do I need to do next?

Right, now that you've given me the list of improvements you would want

on the app, what we would do is go back to the team,

give them the list of changes,

and then I'll send you a link for you to test it, finally.

And once you're happy, we can send it to Apple and Google.

They will review the app, and once the app is ready to launch,

they will send us an e-mail saying, "OK, now you can launch the app."

Speciall team!

I really like the app.

The first impression it created on me was quite great.

Although, there is a version out right now, a demo version,

I think there's still a lot more to go.

I'm back in London now.

Seeing the app was awesome,

but I still need to figure out what needs to be done.

When we met the app developer,

it sort of brought a bit more confidence into me,

cos I sort of knew that, OK, so now the app is coming to life,

because of the experience of carving it into stone,

it's definitely going to happen.

Also, I'm really looking forward to launching the app to have some sort

of launch event...

..just cos I've never, obviously, done one of those,

and I want to know what it'll be like.

With the vacation around the corner, you'll have a lot of time.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, and I need some tea or coffee desperately.

Hi, guys! So, for today's video, I'm...

So, Dina Tokio has said yes to meeting me.

She has millions of followers,

so if she likes my app that will really help spread the word.

She's really cool.

You're only 12, mate!

You've got a great future, you know.

You're so mature. I feel intimidated.

I don't want to do this any more!

I don't know what I'm doing. So, OK, tell me, then.

-Is it a free app?

-Yeah.

And, sorry, just back to the beginning,

cos we didn't really get round to this,

what exactly is the app going to do?

So, I'm trying to help children who can't live as fully as they would

like to, and I would like them to.

The two main people that we're focusing on are people who suffer

from allergies and wheelchair users.

I really need help, basically.

So, now you're just at the stage where you want to tell the people

that might need this app, look, it exists.

Basically, if you want to make something viral,

what you've got to do is you've got to make it relatable and shareable.

-It needs to be shareable. You know like when you share something?

-Yeah.

Like on your WhatsApp or on your Facebook,

it's normally something that's two minutes long or a minute even.

-And it gets the message across really quickly...

-Yeah.

-And it's really, like, juicy, and you want to share it...

-Ding!

Yeah, and you literally want to be like, "Mum, look at this!"

Get on social media. Because you're already passionate about it,

then it's going to come across when you're talking online,

so people will believe you and they'll want to know more, right?

-Yeah.

-Because if you're doing some kind of business where you're

helping people, but also you're passionate because you've

experienced something similar,

basically it will sell more because it's believable,

because it actually flipping happened.

But I'll show you the difference in the kind of posts you'll be posting.

-You can take the picture.

-All right.

Oh, you already took one.

Here you go.

Oh, hi, guys.

I'm just learning all about the new app, and hopefully...

-When's it going to be out? Oh, do they not know that yet?

-No.

It's a secret.

Keep posted.

Maybe Monday.

You just told everyone!

LAUGHTER

See? Behind the scenes, look.

-Bye!

-Bye, thank you.

-Nice to meet you. Good luck.

-Thank you.

-And you can DM me if you have any other questions.

-OK.

-Here with Kashmea, who...

-Hi!

..is only 12 years old,

and she's come up with a genius app called Speciall UK.

Coming out soon.

Stay posted on the pages I tag to find out more.

I made a cool new friend.

Yay me!

Meeting Dina was so cool.

She put up a post of our chat,

and YouTube's official account reposted it.

There were over 85,000 likes.

The next thing I need to do is launch it officially.

Yeah, I think it's quite nerve-racking just going by myself

and explaining to them what I'm doing.

And usually in a bigger company, there'd be...

There'd definitely not be one person doing it,

there would be like a team of people.

I think it's quite overwhelming talking to adults.

And, you know, it's really, really hard to transfer ideas

that you've got in your head and try and explain them word for word,

in detail to other people.

I'm getting ready for the launch of the app Speciall today.

It's really, really important because, well,

hopefully for me it's going to be the start of something,

and this is basically launching it.

Hi, everyone. Thank you all for being here

at the launch of Speciall today.

To prepare for the launch, I practised my speech a few times.

Obviously, like, I've got my dress and I'm going to get my hair done.

So, yeah.

A few suggestions.

The first thing is, like, you need to slow down a bit.

You need to be more energetic.

You know, you say Dina talk to you, you like her.

The way that energy she had, that positive energy, bring that.

That will be very, very helpful.

What usually happens is when I'm nervous, I just skip...

I just speak really, really fast and I skip tonnes of the speech.

I think I'll have to do a bit, just completely go like,

"No, slow. No, slow."

One hour left till I'll be there,

so two hours left till the launch, basically.

Posted on social media like, "Ooh, one hour, 43 minutes left till..

"..the launch."

We've booked a hotel room in central London for the launch,

and we want to get there super early to make sure everything is

just right for the biggest thing I've ever done.

Ideally, today would go smoothly.

Everyone would say, "Oh, wow, this is such a great app.

"I'm going to download it, I'm going to review it,"

"I'm going to say it's amazing, cos I think it's amazing."

Worst case scenario, everyone's like,

"Oh, so this is the app,"

and are just unimpressed by it,

and start asking too many questions that I don't know.

With guests beginning to arrive,

I'm really starting to feel the pressure.

And we're just minutes away from my speech.

-Hi, I'm Kerry from the Anaphylaxis Campaign.

-Hi, my name's Kashmea.

-Really good to meet you.

-Thank you so much for being here.

-Of course.

As well as family and friends,

there's a few industry figures here, too.

And now is the time for my big moment.

I don't want Nainika's story to repeat again.

Hi, everyone. Thank you all for being here to support the launch of

Speciall today. The sole purpose of the app is to bring the needs of

certain people centre stage.

We have decided to dedicate the app to the fantastic children

at St Giles', and Nainika, a brilliant individual.

Noticing that there was an overlapping need of information

about venues on the internet,

between allergy sufferers as well as wheelchair users,

the feature allows Speciall to become a platform for multiple

different charities to showcase any events that they're hosting,

and also allows any user of the app to join in the fun.

The whole journey of bringing

Speciall alive has been an amazing experience. Thank you.

APPLAUSE

-Thank you. Good to meet you.

-Yeah, best of luck, we'll be in touch.

-OK.

I'm super pleased with how the speech went.

But there's one person whose feedback means the most to me.

So, at 12 years of age, you've got this app now,

it's a great business idea, as well as, it's a very, very noble thing.

I mean, we as parents of somebody who has suffered from allergies

all her life... Well, the short life that she lived.

What sort of feedback have you got and where do you aspire to take this

app going forward? Or do you have any other ideas in mind?

Allergies and disabilities are not a thing just specific to UK

or London, it's just a worldwide issue.

So, obviously it's nice to make this global.

Also, when we went to St Giles',

there was a girl and her first language was Portuguese,

and so when she just came to London, she didn't know any English.

So, having the app in different languages, because, again,

it's a right that people have.

It's not something that should just be available to English speakers.

This isn't something I'm going to probably just do throughout

Year Eight or just throughout school,

this is something I do want to take for as long as I can, basically.

I'm really impressed by how prepared you are.

At 12 years, I don't think I knew what to do.

Thank you, yeah.

So, it's been five weeks since the app has been launched,

and there's been interest in the app because of social media followings.

So, the feedback from random people that I don't even know has been

exceptional, because they don't have to be saying those things to me.

Even if this doesn't work for me, it's like...

this message is still important for me to get out.

And if it's not working to get out in this form,

I'll just have to use another way to get people to know about it.

I met some amazing people on this journey,

and even though there's still so much more to do,

I'm proud my app is finally out there.

I'm so pleased that soon all of my new friends, like Clara and Alfie,

will be able to use it.

And I hope Nainika would be proud of me.