DEMO REEL
BIO
Vedant Gupta, age 16, started Global Kid Media as a platform to motivate kids to succeed early in life and convince kids / parents / society that the conventional way of waiting doesn't have to be a box we resign to. Stepping out of the box can lead to amazing things learning skills and life lessons from communication to networking to partnerships to outreach to celebrity production / hosting content.
From his start at age 9 reading a motivational poem in 4th grade on his high school announcements to helping with teenage mental wellness and a unique reverse mentoring angle, the growth kept coming as you can see on his resume with speech competitions and presentations well above his age to media events being covered doing star interviews and then a show launched. Along the way came partnerships to be able to cover major events like the Super Bowl and expansion of the kid entrepreneur concept.
Vedant has now done about 1,500 star interviews and hosted shows on his Instagram Live. The stars he has talked to include the biggest names: Patrick Mahomes, Zion Williamson, Magic Johnson, Dierks Bentley, Snoop Dogg, Martha Reeves, Coach K, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jack Nicklaus, and many more. His partnerships have included MSC Cruises for the Super Bowl, hotels across the country from AC Hotels to Fairfield Inn properties to cover the Final Four to restaurants in Atlanta and Holyoke / Springfield to cover the NCAA football semifinals plus Hall of Fame ceremonies to destination and attractions like Mall of America and Splittsville Entertainment while driving through Canada making literally 100 calls to find partners even when meeting CBS executives such as in New York. He also recently won the 10k first place prize in the Youth category for the Rocket Mortgage Detroit Demo Day entrepreneur competition as a 10th grader along with having placed in other entrepreneur competitions going back to middle school. He has earned about 25k between revenue and partnerships.
His book will include the stories of his incredible grit to make luck happen often driving cross country [including interviews in 14 different states and counting!] even with no access with almost a dozen roundtrip drives of over 20 hours to get work in often waiting hours in the cold. He has missed over 50 days of school while still being a good student taking classes mostly 2 years above grade level while playing sports year round including quarterback and on the basketball team. Vedant has also battled the weather with narrow escapes plus difficult media gatekeepers and security where reverse age discrimination is a very real thing for often the only kid in the place battling the adult media for access or seeking his own opportunities in life. See his DEMO REEL above to see all the work. Hear his journey by doing a search of "NPR Only A Game Global Kid Media" Few by age 16 are supposed to be doing all this which includes hosting a show with over 300 episodes to date and deep star discussions including hot topics of the moment. Yet if it is up to Vedant, this will become the norm where kids follow their own passion and build their brand from elementary school as he did. The proof is in the work and that is the whole goal of Global Kid Media: To inspire millions of kids and families. See it here. For companies / sponsors / partners, let's talk.
EDUCATION
10th Grade
In between Junior Varsity sports including playing quarterback on the football team, I started the fall year with winning 1st place in the Youth category of the Rocket Mortgage Detroit Demo Day entrepreneur competition (including pulling some late nighters!). Next came a busy winter of covering the College Football Playoffs championship game of Georgia vs. Alabama interviewing players / coaches of both teams in Indianapolis along with the NBA All-Star game in Cleveland sitting down with some NBA superstar talent and more. There was also the Super Bowl in Los Angeles covering the red carpet at the Leigh Steinberg agent Hollywood party and covering the NFL Off the Field Players' Wives Fashion Show. In spring came the next trip to New Orleans to cover the Final Four doing championship Kansas team interviews and catching up with various top coaches and players. Summer involved finishing writing my book looking forward to next publishing steps soon and also working with Successful Jocks foundation led by Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Sean Murphy-Bunting and his Mom Kim Murphy coming out to Tampa Bay to cover the Buccaneers vs. Dolphins game interviewing dozens of players and others along with covering the big Neiman Marcus fashion event there. Getting ready for varsity football with lifting and practices throughout summer as a new season dawns!
9th Grade
I continued to adapt to Covid life without in person interviews by building up more show content and partnerships. This included shows with the likes of Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward, Dwyane Wade's Dad, NBA stars like JJ Redick, NFL stars like Mark Sanchez, national media personalities like NBC's Michele Tafoya, CBS's Nate Burleson, and ESPN's Rece Davis / daughter and Jay Bilas. The show content also went beyond sports expanding to including guests from Academy Award winning directors and actor / actresses to authors, entrepreneurs, tv show hosts, and more. The school workload virtual with Covid and to adapt to the busy show schedule included Chinese 2, Spanish 4, AP Language, Honors Chemistry, World History, and Honors Algebra 2. Sports included playing 9th grade quarterback and making the cut to be roughly 1/3 of the kids to play on the 9th grade basketball team. I also worked with book mentor Janine Hernandez to write my book working weekly with her for months. New partnerships also were formed including with Rukus Avenue Radio which is called the #1 South Asian podcast network in the world with 30 millions listeners globally partnered with DASH radio.
7th & 8 Grade
In a busy past 2 years, I took primarily 9th and 10th grade high school classes including attending my high school in the morning while also playing sports (football, basketball, and track) in the school team year round along with volunteering with the varsity football and basketball teams. Primarily though, I built up my media company by securing about 1,000 interviews covering the NFL, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, PGA, MLB, and more partnering with sponsors creating unique content as well building up my media company to attain my short-term goal of being a kid visible on tv to inspire youth and families. I traveled to cover the NFL Pro Bowl, Duke basketball, Final Four, games and events across the state of Michigan, Baltimore Ravens camp, and more. I am on track to graduate high school 2 years early if desired. With Covid, I have also started hosting my own show “Global Kid Power Hour” with special guests from ABC, NFL players, etc,. to keep the content coming during the sports shutdown.
6th Grade
I started to accelerate in the educational curriculum through an experimental seat time waiver to do all online classes including some high school subjects like Expository Writing and IPS 3 years or more above grade level. I also started to form the roots of my business by calling University Presidents persistently eventually getting help despite the long odds with access to the NCAA Tournament covering the entire tournament first 2 rounds over 4 days. Additionally, I did a long live phone interview with sports mogul Brandon Steiner on his national show.
I also worked with my sister on 2 projects. One was a Design for Change volunteer project communicating our work with the homeless, environment, and the help for my cancer classmate. The other was a partnership exploration with a cruise line where we created a video to engage kids showcasing some hosting / writing / producing.
5th Grade
I started to develop an interest in community and business through working with a couple classmates to raise 6k for a cancer classmate as a schoolwide effort and recruiting help from local businesses. I took leadership to initiate at the beginning of the school year a video for her, and later our group together worked on the school wide walk and fundraiser going business to business for fundraising
4th Grade
I started to develop my talent and passion for communication. This included trying to prevent teen depression by speaking on the high school announcements, placing among the top in speaking competitions like Midwest Business Professionals against mostly upper middle school students, and doing presentations at my Sunday classes.