New Delhi: Oviya Singh is a rising star in her Faridabad society. At 13, she’s already delivered a talk at Oxford University, is a four-time TEDx speaker, edits a youth magazine, fights for the environment, and received the Nelson Mandela Leadership Award. But above all, she knows how to talk.
“Let me tell you something about myself,” Singh opens at the first TEDx talk she delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia two years ago. “I have a lot of talented friends, some can solve Rubik’s cube pretty fast, some have written great books, some have wonderful YouTube channels. So, what is it that I can do? Well, I can talk!”
Singh is one of hundreds of children in India and around the world who’ve become influencers by taking up causes, holding TEDx talks, and doing good old-fashioned networking—all underpinned by public speaking. Her clarity, confidence, and charisma are what every Tiger parent wants for their children.
In 2021, Kiara Kaur, an Indian-American girl, became the world’s youngest TEDx speaker at the age of five. In a TEDx talk with more than one million views, Pune-based Ishita Katyal talks about being an author at age twelve. “Age is just a number!” she declares. Today, at 19, she’s honed her public speaking skills with more TEDx talks, and an active presence across all social media platforms.
Where once parents steered their children toward poetry recitals and elocution classes, now it’s TEDx talks, becoming child ambassadors for organisations like the United Nations, pitching business ideas for Shark Tank-style contests, and taking up causes. Public communication skills now rank close to cricket and coding on parents’ must-have checklists. Ed-tech companies and public speaking trainers are now capitalising on this trend.
Along with coding lessons for kindergarten children and promises to make toddlers prodigies, several companies are now offering courses on personality development. Ed-tech platforms like Preply offer language and communication tutoring sessions. Others like PlanetSpark provide courses on creative writing and public speaking, even hosting ‘Spark Tank’ events where kids pitch business ideas to venture capitalists. It’s for children as young as 4, and prices start at Rs 400 per class. Online learning platforms such as Udemy, too, have started offering public speaking courses for children, priced at around Rs 2,500.
While such exposure can help a child’s cognitive development, life as a TEDx kid could exact a toll. Mental health experts urge caution, especially regarding the pressure of being in the limelight.
“There are many pitfalls to getting into professional and competitive spaces so early. It could add undue pressure for success, make it difficult to accept mistakes, and expose them (children) to higher levels of scrutiny,” said Dr Hemant Choudhary, psychiatrist at AIIMS, New Delhi.
Also Read: Indian American parents have a new task. Teach kids to recognise Hinduphobia, fight it
Finding a voice—young
Oviya Singh’s mother Neetu never imagined her daughter would embrace public speaking like this. Having spent her early childhood in Iran, Singh returned to India with her parents when she was barely five. India was a strange country for the child and she retreated into a shell. That was when Neetu decided to find a personality development coach to help her adjust.
Singh did not just ‘adjust’, she thrived.
This was the start of her speaking journey. During the COVID lockdowns, she enrolled in PlanetSpark’s online classes, which led to her first TEDx talk, ‘Is the world running out of food?’, where she focused on soil conservation. Since then, she’s tackled a range of environmental topics, including lessons from the mythical Kalpavriksha tree to the need for people to unite and save the planet.
Today, the enterprising teenager collaborates with the Save Aravali Foundation for plantation drives, while striving to maintain straight As in the classroom.
“I never get tired of doing this. Sometimes it does get overwhelming, but my friends and family support me, they help me prioritise and don’t exert pressure on me,” she said.
Neetu, sitting next to her, added that the family never coerced her into taking on so many extracurricular activities. It is all in line with Singh’s own wishes and individual choices. Through the conversation, Neetu would often turn to her daughter— almost as if she gets a confidence boost just by looking at her.
“We are known as the parents of Oviya. It is thrilling,” she said.
Delhi-based child psychiatrist, Dr Nimesh Gupta, is largely encouraging of children taking up such activities and exercising their brain power from an early age.
“Sometimes, children speaking in big forums can make the older generation uncomfortable, but it is the natural progression of things,” he said. “Every generation of human beings is more articulate and exposed than the previous one. This generation even more so.”
Parents are increasingly keen for their children to sharpen their communication skills to better navigate the competitive world ahead. There’s a waitlist of children and teenagers for Singh’s classes. It’s not limited to neighbourhood kids. Singh even hosts remote classes for students via Facebook. For now, she’s not charging any money.
One of her students is her neighbour Lavanya Gupta, another 13-year-old. Gupta enrolled because she wanted to shine at the Model United Nations competitions at her school.
“It doesn’t matter that Oviya is my age. She teaches me well and is a good communicator,” Gupta said. “People in school have already started asking me where I am getting this training from, because I have become much better at delivering speeches.” Her younger brother also takes classes from Singh.
“Oviya’s family and mine are friends. So, when my parents saw her excel, they asked her if she could teach me. It has been a fulfilling experience,” Gupta added.
Mastering mics & missions
Singh herself is being mentored by Faridabad-based author and public speaker Priyanka Behl, who describes herself as a ‘personality architect’.
“When people don’t learn how to articulate themselves as children, they grow into anxious adults,” Behl said. A trainer for 15 years, she has held coaching sessions for corporate clients like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and ICICI Bank. But a decade into her work, Behl realised the education system was missing something—teaching students to think on their feet and express themselves confidently.
“I realised a gap in our education where spontaneity is not taught, people are trained to think in pre-written thoughts, there’s a lack of free thinking. I aim to break those shackles, and build a community of intellectual adults.”
Behl—a certified TEDx speaker and trainer—said she currently has six batches with a total of 200 children and holds both online and in-person classes.
“Getting to speak on TEDx is not easy—only 0.01 per cent people are able to. It is only when someone has a cause they associate with closely, and have pre-approval from TEDx to speak there, do I provide training,” she said.
Her programme has different ‘levels’ where students can develop skills such as empathetic thinking, public speaking, and even writing books about their chosen causes. Some of her students, like Singh, have gone on to deliver multiple TEDx talks, while others are working on recipes for vegans or raising awareness about issues like climate change and thalassemia.
Singh started training with Behl at the age of five, and soon after began delivering talks on topics such as saving soil. When she was 11, she took the stage at a Jamia Millia Islamia’s TEDx event, arguing that the next world war would be fought over food.
Her speech echoed many of the points raised by young environmental activists the world over—the urgency to build a safer world for future generations and the shortcomings of past ones. Though her delivery was childlike, with fillers like “well” and “you got that right” peppered throughout the speech, she came across as a sharp student with something important to say.
By then, she had already won a Global Public Speaking Championship organised by PlanetSpark during the lockdown.
Success, however, should not be the only goal. According to Dr Desai, while identifying and honing young talent is necessary, counselling should be set up for the children who don’t succeed.
“Success is worshipped in our society, but we also need to understand how to support those, especially children, who do not succeed. Children put themselves in vulnerable situations with public speaking platforms—they should be supported,” he said.
Also Read: Gentle parenting is here in India. It’s more for the parents than the kids
Training for TEDx
Singh sets exacting standards for herself and her teachers. While PlanetSpark gave her the TEDx opportunity, she said the mentors provided by the company were not always good enough.
“I had to change multiple teachers, and they didn’t change my curriculum from basic to advanced even upon request,” Singh said.
A PlanetSpark spokesperson, however, said that organisation follows a “rigorous, tech-driven” teacher selection process with six stages, including an aptitude test, a video interview, and an evaluation of three mock classes.
“Successful candidates then undergo an intensive training program called C-TEP, which includes two weeks of live online sessions and over 120 recorded lessons on pedagogy, curriculum, communication, child development, and parent interaction. Teachers who do not pass the final exam are not allowed to proceed,” said the spokesperson.
On-the job-evaluations continue even after teachers are onboarded through parent ratings and class audits by senior teachers.
“Low-rated teachers receive feedback for improvement or may be offboarded,” he added.
A former employee of the company told ThePrint that the organisation trains close to 1,000 students to deliver “TED-like talks”. Most don’t get selected.
PlanetSpark’s YouTube channel features videos of several students giving 1- to 2-minute arguments on topics ranging from plastic bans to the relevance of exams in today’s education system. But its social platforms don’t have many videos of student TEDx speakers. “Super Kid” Oviya Singh is the most widely promoted, although there are also posts about school students Neha Shree, who delivered a TEDx talk titled ‘Silencing the Skeptical Mind’ in 2022, and Ammar Alimuddin Islam, who spoke on ‘My Lockdown Experiences Recalibrated My Life’ that same year.
Singh has done particularly well. Over the years, she has delivered four TEDx talks, all focusing on environmental activism and conservation. She also co-edits the magazine Youth Today with three other teenagers. Singh designs the layout herself using Canva and invites articles from students across Delhi NCR. The monthly magazine, circulated primarily via Google Drive, focuses on environment issues, but also features articles on topics such as ‘how to advance career through communication’, ‘empathy in action’ , and the importance of ‘vocational education’ beyond traditional classrooms.
A busy child, Singh hardly gets time to sit idle. But in her ‘me time’, she plays badminton or retreats to her room to paint and draw— activities that help her recharge before she gets back on stage.
Now in grade 9, Singh is not sure if she wants to make a career out of public speaking.
“I want to study science and make a career in that field,” she said. “But public speaking will always be a part of me. This is where I started my life.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)