Growing Up Fast: The Girl With A Plan!

Whether she’s leading classmates, dreaming of Harvard or designing a planner for her peers, 10-year-old Riona Carlin likes to stay one step ahead. Elizabeth Kerr reports

It’s a sweltering June afternoon. The school year is just winding down and everyone seems to be moving in slow motion through the thick air. So when Riona Carlin logs on to Google Meet, her high-energy greeting and abundant enthusiasm are something of a surprise.

“I’m 10 years old, and my favourite colour is light pink, and I go to Discovery College, and I’m from America,” she begins. The camera propped on top of the monitor moves around almost as relentlessly as she does, careening to take in the cat that walks past, which prompts her to show off the family SPCA membership card, a random sibling (Caia) who’s dropped in to see what’s going on, and her dad, Christopher, quietly sitting in the next chair. Operative word, “quietly”, because Riona doesn’t need his help making conversation. She boomerangs from one subject to the next, occasionally getting sidetracked but usually getting back to the main point. She insists she does have downtime – at 6am.

The oldest of triplets by a matter of minutes, Riona is in the same grade at DC as her sisters Caia and Teagan. They all grew up in Hong Kong where Arizona native and research writer Christopher and his wife Lisa, a Long Island banker, settled nearly 20 years ago. The couple may have been surprised by triplets and Riona, naturally, has thoughts.

“Being a triplet can sometimes be annoying, especially when you don’t get enough attention, but it’s fun to have a built-in friend. Teagan wants a brother but I heard lots of stories from friends at school that have brothers, and they say it’s chaotic.” She smirks a bit and her eyes widen at the thought.

Riona is the embodiment of hyper-at tuned, gregarious confidence, the kind of bold personality that even in 2026 too many of us find charming in boys but “a bit much” in girls. Which is unfortunate because Riona, with her blonde tresses and disarming toothy grin, is also the kind of kid who will have a positive impact on the world one day – because she feels like it.

She’s already been on student council because she thought she’d be a good leader. “I really do like to be in a leadership role. I want to be in charge of planning something so I know it goes well.” And she keeps her grades up because she has her eyes firmly fixed on Harvard and a career in medicine (preferably paediatric research), law or teaching. “Nowadays, they aren’t just looking for great scores. They’re looking for potential and compassion and being a good leader. I think I have all those qualities.”

Riona may be mature for her age, but she walks the walk, boasting just a touch about besting her sisters by grades and dictation marks, which takes her to writing. She has a shout-out for a fourth grade teacher who encouraged her to finish a story about a princess on the Silk Road and submit it to the Hong Kong Young Writers Awards. “I wrote over 1,000 words, and my teacher said ‘You have to shorten it.’ But I did get an honour certificate, which only, like, 10 people got out of the 2,000 that submit ted applications.”

Christopher and Lisa landed in Hong Kong after working in all corners of the globe, from Saudi Arabia to Australia, and when three daughters arrived made their way first to Discovery Bay and then Mui Wo eight months ago, which Riona admits took a bit of adjusting. She wasn’t crazy about leaving behind her army of friends and she changed schools at the same time: Christopher and Lisa couldn’t pass up three slots at DC. But she’s set tling in and finding time to be a “kid” – swimming, biking, listening to music (Sabrina Carpenter, Zara Larson) and get ting into a good book; her current reading list includes Katie Kirby and Elisabet ta Dami, perfect for “a nice and rainy day just curled up on the corner of my bed”.

Here Christopher chimes in, saying his oldest has always been an active reader, and conceding there are first-middle-youngest traits among the girls. Riona agrees. “I like reading. I love doing sports. I really like baseball and softball. I think I’m definitely more the sporty type than my sisters, but I’m also more on the reading and writing side. Caia always has her mind on her next idea. What is she going to create? She’s always making stuff.”

But Riona makes stuff too, and for now her self-published planner for pre-teens is her claim to fame. The idea evolved from her “pretty good English” skills and the daily planner she started posting on her bedroom door. She wanted to be more organised in her habits but when she started looking for some kind of journal to use instead, she couldn’t find one that met her “expectations”. So she decided to make her own. Riona is, if nothing, fastidious and sure of her own mind.

The result was a day planner that worked for her – and would probably work for other kids like her. There was research (with help from dad), design, drawing, re-designing and re-drawing until Riona came up with The DAILY Pre-Teen Planner: A Fun Journal for Big Kids. The diary can be completely personalised, and it’s evergreen; it’s undated, so owners can use it for, say, eight months of the school year and skip organising themselves over summer break. Ultimately, The DAILY will help kids learn about time management, stick to routines, track habits, set goals and build confidence.

Riona has kept it fun with factoids (a recent word of the day was bioluminescence) and a selection of carefully sourced inspirational quotes. “We added a mood for the day, little things to track yourself daily with, where you did well and what you want to improve on tomorrow to kind of set up for the next day. So it ’s like a planner, but not like a calendar. It ’s not like saying ‘I have this or that meeting’. I want to make sure I do everything before I go to sleep.”

The DAILY is a word-of-mouth project right now; both Christopher and Riona admit they haven’t put a lot of marketing into what’s essentially a satisfying labour of love. There’s no reason it wouldn’t take off however, if Riona put her mind to it… after her upcoming summer grandparent tour across Arizona, Idaho and New York. But right now, The DAILY takes a back seat to a mention of how she and her sisters do regular beach clean-ups with the Brownies, and how she’d love to contribute to a cure for cancer. “Everybody should have the chance to not suffer from cancer, because I think it’s a really bad disease to die from.”

Google is on a timer, so as the clock runs down Riona gets a thousand-yard stare, like she’s contemplating whether there’s more information she needs to dish out. “I think I gave you more than what you needed to know,” she says, finishing with a laugh, “You could basically be my biographer from early life all the way to 10.” Come 80 that’s going to be one long, fascinating book.