10-Year-Old Girl With Autism Bullied At School — Turns Out Her IQ Is Higher Than Einstein's
Adhara Prez Snchez was an outcast at school. But now, she has dreams of space travel and a job with NASA.
If you reach for the stars, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.
One 10-year-old girl in Mexico is proving that limits and stereotypes are made to be broken.
Adhara Pérez Sánchez grew up In a low-income neighborhood in Tláhauc, Mexico City. At 3 years old, Adhara was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. She was different from most kids, which made her a victim of bullying at school.
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As well as her classmates picking on her, Adhara was having trouble in her lessons.
Her mother Nallely Sánchez, recalls Adhara’s teachers calling because Adhara daughter was falling asleep in class. Nallely noticed that Adhara had already taught herself algebra and was proficient with the periodic table of elements — maybe she was just bored.
Nallely didn’t want her daughter to suffer, so she started taking her to therapy. Shortly after, the psychiatrist recommended the young girl to continue her schooling at the Center for Attention to Talent (CEDAT) — a school for "gifted and talented children."
While at CEDAT, Adhara was confirmed to have an IQ of 162 — higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. In the CEDAT classrooms, students are taught by their ability, not by their age.
Adhara was no longer bored.
At 5 years old, Adhara finished elementary school. She finished middle school and high school at ages five and six, respectively.
She is currently studying two careers online: Industrial engineering in mathematics at UNITEC and systems engineering at CNCI.
Adhara dreams of being an astronaut. She was even named after a star. “My name is a star from the Canis Major constellation,” Adhara says, “Wezen is right above Adhara. Aludra is right below Adhara.”
Adhara was curious about where she could go to further her studies. “Here, there was no astrophysics,” Adhara recalls, “So I looked on the internet where I could study astrophysics and Arizona came out.”
The University of Arizona is a top-class physics school and ranks in the top 10 of planetary science schools in the world. The University of Arizona offered young Adhara a scholarship, which was put on hold as she had trouble obtaining a US Visa.
In 2022, Forbes magazine named Adhara as one of the 100 most powerful women in Mexico. She even wrote her first book, a memoir titled "Don’t Give Up." In the book, she shares her experiences and would like to support boys with autism, as well as try to make science more inclusive to girls. She credits it all to her special gift. “The most difficult thing was breaking the stereotype that children with autism are incapable of achieving things,” Adhara says.
Currently, Adhara’s goal is to one day work for NASA. “I want to go to space and colonize Mars,” she told reporters, “If you don’t like where you are, imagine where you want to be. I see myself at NASA, so it’s worth a try.”
Big dreams for such a young mind. Her potential is limitless.
Adhara Pérez Sánchez went from an outcast at school to the front-runner of space science’s newest generation. Just like her name’s origin, she will reach for the stars.
