Preteens Build Top Selling iPhone App

A great little article published by Inc. Magazine yesterday tells the story of Finn and Owen Voorhees, 9 and 11 year old brothers who recently designed an iPhone application that became one of the top selling apps.

The application was pretty simple. Called MathTime, it's a math drill program that allows people to practice their math skills in a rapid paced, fun environment. Owen taught himself how to do the coding and had his younger brother Finn design the logos in Photoshop.

Of the experience, Owen said: "I thought it would be cool...It's really cool to make something work, to make a little money, to do something like this and see it up..It started booming...I woke up and I was like, I'm an entrepreneur now."

I like this story for a couple reasons.

First of all, it's such an affirmation of the creativity and capacity of young people. If you encourage them to explore instead of boxing them into stereotypes of what they can achieve, amazing things can happen.

The other piece of this though is how different it is for these young creatives to have a platform for their work. Photoshop and the Apple App store coding platform gave them the tools they need to build something; the App Store gave them a place where they can be affirmed for their good work and where they value they created could be accessed by others.

This is one of the powers of technology that I've been most excited about. I've had the lens of an extremely precocious younger brother to see just how both hardware and software can unleash creativity.

I think it's worth thinking dilligently about the platforms for socially impactful creativity we encourage with young people as well. I love that groups like Do Something and Ashoka Youth Venture promote, reward, and highlight exceptional work of young leaders, but I want to see that facilitation of youth creative towards social problems institutionalized in schools across the country.

Are there good examples of where this is happening?