Avni Agrawal

Brainstormer, Concerned citizen, Event planner, Foodie, Student, Writer/Editor

I’m a student, author, organiser, and someone who has always been fascinated by ideas and the people behind them. I’m currently a Class 12 commerce student at Nath Valley School, where I’ve had the opportunity to explore leadership, writing, public speaking, research, and community-building in ways that constantly push me outside my comfort zone. I’m the author of Pressure Cooker, a book written for teenagers about expectations, comparison, identity, relationships, and the often-unspoken pressures of growing up. I also served as the Student Lead Organiser of TEDx Nath Valley School Youth 2026, our school’s first TEDx event, where I worked with a student team to bring together speakers and an audience around the theme “I Think, Therefore I Am.” Beyond this, I’ve been involved in Model United Nations, student leadership, social initiatives, research, writing, music, and a rather random collection of interests that I’m still figuring out how to connect. At the heart of it all, I enjoy creating things that make people stop, think, question, or simply feel a little less alone.

I’m passionate about stories, ideas, and creating spaces where people feel comfortable sharing both. Writing has always been one of my favourite ways of making sense of the world. It eventually led me to write Pressure Cooker, a book about the experiences and pressures that many teenagers quietly carry. I’m equally drawn to conversations, especially the kind that challenge assumptions or make you look at something familiar differently. I’m passionate about youth leadership and giving students opportunities to build rather than simply participate. Organising TEDx, working with student teams, being involved in MUNs, and building youth-led initiatives have shown me how much young people can create when they are trusted with real responsibility. I’m also passionate about learning things simply because they interest me. Music, languages, research, reading, cooking, art, and even the occasional completely unnecessary rabbit hole on the internet have all taught me that curiosity doesn’t need a practical justification. More than anything, I’m passionate about staying curious and helping other people stay curious too.

We often tell young people to “be themselves,” while simultaneously giving them a very specific idea of what that self is supposed to look like. Good grades. The right college. Impressive extracurriculars. A successful career. A polished social media presence. The ability to have everything figured out before we’ve even had the chance to figure out who we are. I think we need to make more room for uncertainty. Young people should be encouraged not only to achieve, but to question what they are achieving and why. Not every interest needs to become a career. Not every failure needs to become a lesson immediately. Not every passion needs to be monetised. And not every teenager needs a five-year plan. There is immense value in giving ourselves permission to explore, change our minds, make imperfect choices, and define success on our own terms. The idea I want to keep spreading is simple: a meaningful life is not built by becoming the person everyone expects you to be, but by having the courage to discover who you actually want to become.

Event Organisation, Model United Nations, Public Speaking, Storytelling, Student Entrepreneurship, Writing, Youth Advocacy, Youth Leadership

My TED story really began with a question: what happens when students are given the opportunity to create something meaningful, rather than simply attend it? That question eventually became TEDx Nath Valley School Youth 2026. As the Student Lead Organiser, I had the opportunity to help build our school’s first TEDx event from the ground up. From developing the vision and working with a 40-member student team to coordinating speakers, planning the experience, and navigating the countless small things that nobody sees on event day, the process taught me far more than event management. It taught me what leadership looks like when there is no single textbook answer. It taught me to listen to people with completely different working styles, to trust a team, to solve problems without panicking, and to accept that sometimes the best idea is the one someone else brings to the table. Most importantly, TEDx changed how I think about ideas. An idea doesn’t have to come from someone famous, experienced, or conventionally successful to matter. Sometimes the most powerful ideas come from ordinary experiences that someone has taken the time to examine differently. That is what I hope to carry forward from TEDx: the belief that every person has a story worth hearing, and that a good conversation can be the beginning of a very different way of seeing the world.

Connecting seemingly unrelated things. I tend to collect interests rather than specialise in one. I can spend an afternoon thinking about a business idea, switch to writing, get distracted by a piece of music, and somehow end up researching something completely unrelated. For a long time, I thought this meant I lacked focus. I’ve gradually realised that it’s also one of my strengths. I enjoy finding connections between ideas, people, and disciplines, and turning those connections into something tangible. I’m also surprisingly good at making things happen with very little to start with. Whether it is putting together a student initiative, bringing a team together, writing a book, or figuring out the hundred little details behind an event, I enjoy taking an idea that exists only in someone’s head and turning it into something real. And, perhaps less impressively but considerably more useful, I’m pretty good at making things from scratch, whether that means a meal, a project, a speech, or a last-minute solution to a problem nobody saw coming.