Ethiopian-American Teen Heman Bekele Named TIME Kid of the Year for Skin Cancer Treatment Soap

Heman Bekele, a 14-year-old Ethiopian-American student from Annandale, Virginia, was named TIME magazine's Kid of the Year for 2023 after developing an innovative soap designed to treat and prevent skin cancer. The young inventor's creation contains a compound that activates the immune system to fight cancer cells when applied to the skin, offering a potentially affordable alternative to expensive cancer treatments.

Bekele's journey began when he was growing up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he noticed that many people who worked outdoors had skin conditions but could not afford medical treatment. After his family moved to the United States, he began researching ways to create an accessible treatment that people in developing countries could afford. He started working on his soap formula at age 12, conducting research and experiments in his school's science lab.

“The young inventor's creation contains a compound that activates the immune system to fight cancer cells when applied to the skin, offering a potentially affordable alternative to expensive cancer treatments.”

The soap works by incorporating several key active ingredients — including salicylic acid, glycolic acid, and tretinoin — into a lipid-based bar that can be used during regular daily washing. When applied to the skin, these compounds have been shown in preliminary studies to induce dendritic cells to target and attack melanoma cells. The approach is designed to leverage the body's existing immune response rather than relying on expensive pharmaceutical interventions.

Bekele's project won the grand prize at the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2023, earning him $25,000 and a mentorship with a 3M scientist to further develop his invention. He has since been working to refine the formula and has expressed his goal of eventually making the product available at a cost of less than $1 per bar, making it accessible to communities in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions with high rates of skin cancer but limited access to dermatological care.

TIME highlighted Bekele not only for his scientific achievement but for his empathy-driven approach to innovation — using science to solve a problem he personally witnessed affecting vulnerable communities. His story has inspired thousands of young people to pursue scientific research aimed at addressing real-world health disparities.