Meet the inspiring young Australians making a difference now for the future

She's the most successful Australian Olympian of all time, the greatest female swimmer ever at a single Olympic Games and only the second woman in history to win seven medals in a single Olympics.

So, you could say Emma McKeon knows a bit about setting goals and handling pressure.

Australian swimmers at the Olympics always face lots of pressure and attention during competition, McKeon explains, but "most of the pressure I have experienced is from myself".

"When you are in a sport where things are won by .01 of a second you really have to be a bit of a perfectionist. And even though we're striving for perfection, it doesn't exist."

Setting yourself goals is the key.

"If you put everything you can into trying to achieve that goal, to prepare and to work really hard at it, I think that's what success is," McKeon says.

The 11-time Olympic medallist, whose boyfriend is pop star turned swimmer Cody Simpson, has been out of competition recently to manage a torn muscle under her armpit ahead of Olympic trials for the 2024 Games in Paris in July.

Born and raised in Wollongong, and now based on the Gold Coast, McKeown is Queensland's Young Australian of the Year for 2024 and one of the eight contenders for this year's national Young Australian of the Year Award to be announced by the Prime Minister on the eve of Australia Day.

ACM, the publisher of this masthead, is official media partner of the Australian of the Year Awards, which are presented in Canberra on January 25.

The following profiles and pictures of each state/territory's 2024 Young Australian of the Year have been supplied by the National Australia Day Council, organisers of the Australian of the Year Awards.

Emma McKeon AM is the most successful Australian Olympian of all time - a title she claimed before her 28th birthday.

She comes from a strong family of Australian swimmers. Her father, uncle, brother and mother have all represented Australia.

In 2012, she just missed out on being chosen for the London Olympics. She took a break, but rediscovered her passion and went on to win six medals from six races at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Emma became the first female swimmer and the second woman in history to win seven medals in a single Olympics. She has also broken Commonwealth Games, Olympic and World records.

Now 29, Emma has other titles to her name. In 2022 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia, and in 2023 she was named Gold Coast Young Australian of the Year.

Diagnosed with leukaemia at 17, Nikhil Autar has undergone chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, open heart surgery and survived a life-threatening chronic illness.

As a cancer patient who understands the importance of access for people with disability, he created Knia Maps - "Know In Advance Maps" - which plots accessibility at major Sydney hospitals, universities, public venues and transport, plus hundreds of small businesses.

Nikhil also founded Bheem Health, a social enterprise that provides low-cost medical devices for sick and vulnerable people. His first device, BheemUP, allows any bed to convert into a hospital bed. He's now developing BheemSense, the world's first sensor mat that tracks sleep phases and helps minimise pressure sores.

The medical student has raised almost $500,000 in grant funding and conducted cancer research. A blogger who is also active as a disability advocate and motivational speaker, the 30-year-old's diverse and inclusive hiring practices have given migrants, people with disabilities and student engineers their first jobs.

A Gija woman raised in Hobart, 26-year-old Naarah is making a positive impact through her acting and music.

She has toured in Wesley Enoch's musicals The Sunshine Club and The Sapphires. She played supporting lead Sharelle in the Amazon Prime series, Deadloch. She also co-created a TikTok series, Bad Locals, filmed in Tasmania.

In 2024, she'll be studying musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music in London, after winning an Aurora Foundation Roberta Sykes Scholarship. All this from a "proud underdog" who failed music at school in Hobart.

Naarah uses Instagram and TikTok to spark important conversations about First Nations identity, culture and representation.

She wants children to grow up seeing an entertainment industry full of diversity. To help grow their dreams, she's worked with The Salvation Army Communities for Children music programs in disadvantaged schools, and with Indigenous students at schools in the Northern Territory through the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy's programs.

Caitlin Figueiredo is determined to give young people a say in politics.

In 2015, she worked to bring young people's voices into parliament through a national youth advisory council.

This led to her election to the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) board, a volunteer position that she juggled with university studies and a political leadership group she co-founded called Girls Take Over Parliament.

Caitlin revitalised and transformed AYAC, creating a more diverse board that better represented young people.

Thanks partly to Caitlin's work, in 2022 the Australian Government established a dedicated Minister for Youth and invested $10.5million into youth affairs to ensure young people would have a share in decision-making and policy design.

Caitlin, 28, has addressed the United Nations about sustainable development goals and her previous work on gender equality is ongoing. Her efforts have made a profound impact on more than 4.5 million young Australians.

When he was age just two, Peter Susanto astounded his parents by translating words from Bahasa Indonesia into English. In 2022, aged 15, he started a medical degree at Charles Darwin University.

Peter's intelligence is phenomenal and he's proudly represented the Northern Territory at many competitions. At 12, he won a second place in the RoboCup National in Melbourne, competing against year 11 and 12 students.

He was also the first Territorian to represent Australia in the International Brain Bee Olympiad, a competition about the brain and neuroscience, and came third in the world.

Peter has a generous spirit and love for his community. Since 2015, he and sister Eva have sold Indonesian snacks at Nightcliff foreshore to raise money for charities, including The Fred Hollows Foundation and Indonesian orphanages.

Peter also volunteers with several community groups and is an active member of the Nightcliff Swimming Club.

Better known as Durga, 28-year-old Bhakta Bahadur Bhattarai's selfless actions are a constant source of care and connection among Wodonga's multicultural community.

Born and raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, Durga came to Australia with his family in 2012. He completed high school and then trained as a pharmacy assistant and registered nurse.

Feeling lonely and isolated during his studies, Durga founded the Albury-Wodonga Multicultural Community Events Inc in 2014.

The organisation advocates for, and showcases, multicultural communities and organises help during difficult times.

On top of his work as a nurse, Durga supplied homemade masks to the elderly and emergency food relief during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

He also arranged multiple community wellbeing and entertainment programs, and has raised thousands of dollars for sick young people and disability support.

Among several awards recognising his contributions, Durga earned the Meritorious Service Award from the Government of Victoria in 2019.

READ MORE: One of these amazing over-65s will be our Senior Aussie of the Year

Kate Kirwin founded She Codes Australia in 2015 with the aim of teaching women coding skills, helping them enter technical careers and building a likeminded community.

As a country girl, 30-year-old Kate strongly believes in empowering women from some of Australia's most remote regions.

So far, more than 6000 women from all over the country have learned to code through She Codes.

Kate's work is closing the gender gap in tech, where only 30 per cent of employees are women.

She has sourced more than $1 million from government and industry to support women in STEM.

Kate has also contributed to the growth of Spacecubed, a start-up hub in Perth, and since 2014 has played a pivotal role in building communities and coordinating programs such as Plus Eight and Startup Weekend.

Her achievements have been recognised with the Business News 40 Under 40 Award and The West Australian's Rising Star Award.

A proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman descended from the Kaurareg Nations, Tiahni Adamson is passionate about sustainability.

She graduated from University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Science (wildlife conservation biology) and is now the lead community engagement officer at climate change solutions company CH4Global, where she ensures Indigenous knowledge is embedded into CH4Global's projects.

Tiahni has worked with the CSIRO on Indigenous education programs, trained under Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader in 2019 and fostered relationships between First Nations communities and government.

A regular speaker on the intersection of Indigenous justice, climate change and environmental conservation, 28-year-old Tiahni is also on the national leadership team with Seed, Australia's only First Nations-led youth climate justice group, and a youth dialogue member for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

She was recognised as one of Science and Technology Australia's Superstars of STEM and an InDaily South Australian 40 Under 40 for 2023.