6 October 2025
By Zuri Primos
Contributing Writer
Naomi S. DeBerry first made headlines when she was 7 years old for turning a Carnival-themed school project into a business venture. Now, at age 13, she’s once again in the spotlight, but this time for her advocacy and literary prowess.
This year, Naomi is one of 10 girls worldwide to be selected by LEGO and TIME magazine as part of the inaugural Girls of the Year, an international list honoring girls who are making an impact in their communities. Naomi’s inclusion on the list is due to her work raising awareness about organ donation, work rooted in personal experience.
When she was 6 years old, Naomi’s life changed when her father, reputed New Orleans journalist Jarvis DeBerry, underwent a liver transplant in 2020. After the successful procedure, thanks to an organ donation from a relative, Naomi was inspired to share her experience to advocate for and support those going through similar situations. Her semi-autobiographical book, “My Daddy Needs a Gift,” puts community at the forefront when a little girl brings people together to fortify the family while her father is undergoing and recovering from surgery.
Naomi was inspired to write the book after a coordinator at the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency encouraged her to explain the challenges faced by families in these cases. The book was published in June of 2024.
Through writing the book, the biggest thing she learned was that parents should trust their children with sensitive topics.
“We can trust kids to be resilient enough to be able to handle the truth, and by not knowing the truth, in some cases, that can make things worse by not telling us,” Naomi said. Knowing the truth helped her understand what was happening with her dad, and now she’s sharing the knowledge and advocating for what she cares about to make a difference.
The procedure changed her perspective on life by showing her how common it is to need an organ transplant and the disparity in organ donations, she said. “It’s so many people that are on the waiting list and actually receiving a transplant, it’s very few that are fortunate to receive that,” said Naomi.
Naomi has dedicated herself to making a difference in the lives of those impacted by transplant surgery. She advocates for organ donation and has even made an appearance on “The Tamron Hall Show” to talk about it.
“By bringing awareness to it, people can be impacted in a positive way,” said Naomi. “If we come together as communities, as cities, as states and as a country, we can help more people and spread the word.”
Naomi aspires to be a transplant surgeon and hopes to write a book on transplant surgery from a professional perspective. “I hope it just inspires more people to become donors and to do more research, because most people know someone that has been on dialysis or someone that has gone through kidneys, livers, heart, etc.,” she said.
“I was so shocked,” Naomi said. “I was just so overcome with emotion because I really love Legos, so it was just a really big deal.”
She and her family had no way of seeing this coming, but the list brought her another opportunity to raise awareness about organ donation.
The list is a partnership between TIME magazine and LEGO to recognize the achievements of girls around the world. A global study commissioned by the LEGO Group found that 70 percent of girls have trouble seeing themselves as someone good at building things, and 72 percent of parents feel girls lack visible female role models. The study also found that children are twice as likely to credit inventions to men as to women.
In June 2025, the LEGO Group launched “She Built That,” a campaign to empower girls, inspire them to follow their dreams, and build their futures. The list is an extension of that campaign.
TIME was looking for girls who “challenged stereotypes, tackled problems head-on and sought to build solutions from the ground up,” wrote Dayana Sarkisova, a senior editor at TIME in a TIME article.
Naomi is the only girl from the United States to be selected for the inaugural Girls of the Year list.
The other nine girls selected include, Rutendo Shadaya, a 17-year-old self-published author of two fantasy books from New Zealand; Coco Yoshizawa, a 15-year-old from Japan who took home an Olympic gold medal for skateboarding in 2024; Valerie Chiu, the 15-year-old founder of Teen Animals da Scientists, an advocacy group centered on sustainable development goals from China; Zoé Clauzure, a 15-year-old singer-songwriter from France who campaigns against bullying with her music and advocacy; Clara Proksch, a 12-year-old scientist who put child safety first with her investigation into the cleanliness of sandboxes in Germany; Ivanna Richards, a 17-year-old race car driver who was the first young, Mexican woman to be invited to drive in the F1 Academy; Kornelia Wieczorek, a 17-year-old biotechnician from Poland who co-created a biodegradable fertilizer; Defne Özcan, a 17-year-old from Turkey who became a pilot at age 15 to break gender barriers in the industry; and Rebecca Young, a 12-year-old engineer from the United Kingdom who won the 2025 UK Primary Engineer Leaders Award with her solar-powered backpack with an electric heater to help homeless individuals.
Together, the LEGO Group and TIME Studios created a limited-edition animated TIME cover with the 10 Girls of the Year as LEGO Minifigures.
“These girls are part of a generation that’s reshaping what leadership looks like today,” stated Sarkisova. “Their generation understands that change doesn’t require waiting for adulthood – it starts with seeing problems and refusing to accept them as permanent.”
Humble about her success, Naomi attributes it to her biggest supporters: God, her church, Christian Unity Baptist Church, the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, the Community Book Center and Congo Square.
“I’ve always been there, and people have always called me the community baby,” she said.
Naomi’s recognition in TIME magazine is a reflection of New Orleans and the community that raised her.
“It’s a win for all the people that have invested in her culturally, spiritually, who have taken time with her. New Orleans is the place where her dad had the transplant. It’s the place that stood by the family,” said Naomi’s mother, Kelly Harris-DeBerry. “To have this recognition really is mirroring back what New Orleans can produce in our young people.”
This article originally published in the October 6, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.