Miles Wu

No matter what, I'm always folding.

Give me any scrap of paper, and I'll challenge myself to turn it into something.

It's this process of turning nothing into something that sparks my imagination and draws me to origami.

Origami is fun, but playing with paper has also shown me that origami has the power to stretch my creativity, help others, and even lead to new discoveries.

It's amazing that something can be so strong and yet so lightweight at the same time.

And it's exciting to think about what potential applications a fold like this could have.

And now, our TED Talk of the day.

I love origami.

I love the way I can transform a simple piece of paper into almost anything, like a wheelbug, my grandparents,

or even a neuron cell.

I'm 14 years old, I live in New York City, and I'm in ninth grade, so I'm usually busy with homework or after-school activities.

But in my free time, I really enjoy doing origami.

Origami is fun, but playing with paper has also shown me that origami has the power to stretch my creativity, help others, and even lead to new discoveries.

And today, I'd like to share one small discovery that I made and how I got there.

So I started folding origami over seven years ago, making ornaments for my family's tiny Christmas tree and getting in trouble in class for turning my worksheets into ninja stars and paper claws.

As you can imagine, my teachers were less than overjoyed, but I told them I was making academic weapons.

Over time, I began folding more complex origami and even designing my own models.

But no matter what, I'm always folding.

Give me any scrap of paper, and I'll challenge myself to turn it into something.

For example, if I'm waiting in line at Trader Joe's, I might turn a sample cup into a crane.