At 11 years old, most younger girls spend their school days learning a basic education curriculum like multiplication tables, followed by playing with friends during recess.
But 11-year-old Mexican native Adhara Pérez is different. When she was three, she learned how to read, studied algebra, and put together 100-piece puzzles. And by age five, Pérez was finished with primary school and earned her high school degree by age eight. To pass time, Pérez enjoyed studying the periodic table at home and has dreams of being an astronaut and colonizing Mars. And right now, she is on the right path to fulfilling those dreams.
At primary school, Pérez was bullied by peers for being different and didn’t show interest in lessons designed for other children her age. She has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder that causes young people to have a difficult time relating to others socially. But that hasn’t stopped Pérez from achieving milestones in her life that are unheard of for someone her age.
Pérez already has two engineering degrees that she earned at the Technological University of Mexico and Systems Engineering at the CNCI University in Mexico. Today, she is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the National Polytechnic Institute.
After seeing doctors, therapists, specialists, and psychologists, Pérez was given an IQ test, revealing that her IQ is 162 — a higher score than well known geniuses like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Pérez’s story has made its way around the world, including Forbes Magazine where she was listed as one of the 100 powerful women in Mexico in 2019. She’s even wrote a book called “No Ten Rindas” (Do Not Give Up) where she discussed her experiences being bullied and being a genius with Asperger’s.
So far, Pérez has given a presentation at an event organized by the Institute of Art and Culture on black holes at Tijuana, Mexico, has traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas, and was a guest at a conference at Oxford. Pérez was also invited to a science and technology conference in Russia to meet Yuri Gagarin’s grandson. Gagarin is the first man to travel to space.
Today, Pérez is developing a smart bracelet that can monitor emotions of children with disabilities as one of her goals is to support children with autism. Pérez presented her bracelet at an event in Dubai and is still in the process of developing the technology. She also has her sights on studying astrophysics at the University of Arizona and has already been offered a scholarship by the school.
While Pérez is certainly unique, other children have scored similar IQ tests. In 2019, 10-year-old Freya Mangotra scored a 162 IQ test. Yusuf Shah, an 11-year-old from Leeds also scored 162 on an IQ test.
Pérez does have the intellectual means to offer great inventions and knowledge to her country and the entire world.
