Natasha Agarwal, a native Floridian from Naples, is a first-year student at The University of Pennsylvania and founder of  BelieveNBooks, a youth-led literacy nonprofit that has distributed 235,000 books to 45,000 youth in need across The United States and Africa. Soon after starting BelieveNBooks, Natasha learned that most recipients lived in non-English-speaking homes.

Children could not make full use of the books being provided, which led her to develop the PageTurner initiative: distributing physical books paired with corresponding YouTube read-aloud videos for preschool students. The author of Tales of African Women Trailblazers, Natasha is also dedicated to inspiring African girls to dream big, challenge existing norms, and break through opportunity gaps.

Under this initiative, she has collaborated with African NGOS to distribute 10,000 copies across Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, and Uganda with ongoing efforts. Through social media, Natasha mentors service-minded youth, several of whom have joined BelieveNBooks’ 25-chapter network. In college, she is involved with Penn Undergraduate Law Journal, Penn Political Review, and The Woodlands Magazine. Natasha is dedicated to exploring the intersection of law, human rights, and artificial intelligence to drive social impact in under-resourced communities. She is on the pre-law track.