Allison Hazel Liévano Gómez is a 12-year old from Mexico.

Allison is in year 5 at the Edron Academy in Mexico City where she is a top tier student. She particularly excels in Literacy, Maths and Art. She is fluent in Spanish and English and has dual Mexican and United States citizenship.

Allison is an avid reader. Her favorite author is Malala Yousafzai but she enjoys books from diverse authors including Roald Dahl, Joaquin Salvador Lavado (Quino), J.K. Rowling and Nick Vujicic. Allison is also a prolific author. In 2015 when she was 9 years old, she won a gold award for Latin America from Voices of Future Generations, a United Nations programme to promote and publish stories from child authors from all over the world on topics related to the Rights of the Child and Sustainable Development. Her Story, “The Sisters’ Mind Connection”, has been published in English and Spanish and presented at the Houses of Parliament in London in the summer of 2016. It is an imaginative tale that deals with the subject of inclusion of children with disabilities, inspired by Allison’s experience of growing up with her older sister Daniela who has Down’s Syndrome and Autism.

Drawing from her life experience, Allison is passionate about advocating for children with disabilities. Her work with Voices of Future Generations is giving Allison an exciting outlet and platform to further this passion and to delve more broadly into issues related to the Rights of the Child and Sustainability: she was a child delegate to the Children’s Summit on Sustainability and the Rights of the Child in 2015 in New York. She has had the opportunity to meet key and influential actors involved in these topics, including Irina Bokova, Director- General of UNESCO, Emb. Jorge Montaño, permanent representative of Mexico at the United Nations and Marcela Orvañanos de Rovzar, President of the Consultative Board of UNICEF Mexico. Allison has given interviews to various media including major Mexican Newspaper Reforma and international blogs. 

In August 2016 Allison won first place in her category (freestyle under 18) at TRYTA, the international robotics competition organized by Mexico’s Instituto Politecnico Nacional. Allison won with her robotic dog Suki, an educational robot she designed and programmed in order to get more young girls interested in STEM education, which is one of the goals set by UNESCO.

Allison is partnering with UNICEF, UNESCO and various NGOs to immerse herself in the challenges facing children in Mexico and Latin America. She hopes to use this knowledge for future stories to be published by Voices of Future Generations.

Allison has been appointed a member of UNICEF Mexico’s consultative board (and the sole child board member) for the 2017-2019 period.

In February 2017 she was a speaker at the Forum on Preschool Math Education with a focus on Gender organized by UNESCO Mexico at the Museo del Barroco in Puebla, Mexico.

Allison is currently working on various projects. She is writing her second book, a children’s story dealing with migrant child issues, to be published as part of the Voices of Future Generations Series. Allison’s first two stories alongside the other Child Authors’ stories will also be anthologised by Bloomsbury Publishing. Allison was been invited to speak and present her robot Suki at the Papalote Museo del Niño as a featured invited creator in June 2017. Allison has also started composing songs and is working on an original piece of musical theatre.

Allison lives with her parents, Hazel and Octavio, her sister Daniela (15), her brother Gustavo (5) and their two dogs: Chestnut, their Chihuahua and Ginger, their toy poodle.