Over the last year, our own Contributing Writer Tia Shah, has been writing an amazing column about trailblazing girls throughout history. This new Incredible Girls column is in that vein, only this column is about contemporary girls under the age of 25 who are doing awe-inspiring and significant things in the world. Every Friday in 2019, we are going to post a column detailing the life of an Incredible Girl and why you should know about her. Read on for a glimpse into the life of math genius, Esther Okade.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am, decidedly, not a math whiz. I struggled with math in school — algebra was manageable, but geometry and trigonometry were disasters, complete with some crying, swearing and stress nightmares about state exams.
14-year-old Esther Okade is a bonafide math whiz — she began her education at the age of three and was homeschooled. By the age of four, she had surpassed the basic number skills her mother was teaching her, and had moved onto algebra and quadratic equations. She sat for her first Math GSCE exam when she was six years old, and then took it again the following year and received the A-grade that she wanted. In 2014 when she was 9, she took the Math A-level exam and scored a B-grade.
Esther began her university education when she was 10 years old. According to her, she wanted to start university when she was even younger but her mother, Efe, wouldn’t let her. In a 2015 interview with CNN, Esther talked about her love of math and continuing her education.
“It’s so interesting. It has the type of maths I love. It’s real maths — theories, complex numbers, all that type of stuff,” she said. “I want to (finish the course) in two years. Then I’m going to do my PhD in financial maths when I’m 13. I want to have my own bank by the time I’m 15 because I like numbers and I like people and banking is a great way to help people.”
I am so in awe of Esther and her math brain — she seems like such a smart, confident, happy kid, and I am excited to see where her journey goes from here!
-Sage Daugherty
Associate Editor
Girl Museum Inc.