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Published 05 Jan, 2019 07:14am

The weekly weird

Teenager with the longest hair

A 16-year-old girl who had a bad haircut 10 years ago has been growing out her hair ever since and now has a Guinness World Record.

Nilanshi Patel, of Gujarat, India, was awarded the Guinness World Record for longest hair on a teenager after her brown locks were measured at five feet, seven inches long.

Patel said she started growing her hair out after a bad experience with a hairdresser when she was six.

Patel, whose friends nicknamed her Rapunzel, said her parents are supportive of her style.

“People think that I face so many problems with my hair, but I don’t face any problems, I do sports and all the things with my hair. It’s a lucky charm for me!” she said.

“I style it is as a long braid or as a bun on the top of my head. When I am going to an occasion, or when I am playing table tennis, I bun my hair on my head so that it is comfortable for me,” Patel said.


Sixteen-year-old to graduate high school and Harvard together

Braxton Moral was deemed “really, really gifted” from a young age. So gifted, it seems, that this spring the 16-year-old is expected to not only pick up his high school diploma, but a degree from Harvard, too.

The Kansas teenager is set to graduate from Ulysses High School on May 19, 2019, then attend university ceremonies on May 30 to receive his Harvard undergraduate degree, he confirms to TIME.

Since middle school, Braxton has been studying at the Harvard extension school, taking many of his courses online and attending classes on campus during summers in high school. He will graduate with a BA, having majored in government, with a minor in English.

He says he started taking the extra classes primarily as a way to challenge himself.

Braxton’s ambition does not end with earning a college degree before the age when most students graduate high school. He hopes to be admitted to Harvard Law School, and then to pursue a career in national politics.

“I just really want to be influential and change the world how I believe it should be changed,” Braxton says. “I’d like to solve problems for people.”

Despite his achievements, Braxton is in many ways a normal kid. He hangs out with friends, sees movies, and plays video games. Braxton’s accomplishments were self-motivated. He says that his parents were always there for him, but the drive to finish college and high school at the same time was his own.


Fox naps on a microwave

A family in London called animal rescuers when they came down for breakfast and discovered a fox sleeping on their microwave.

Kim Fryer said her daughter was the first one to spot the fox sleeping in the kitchen.

“My daughter found him at 7am and called up to me. I came down and spotted this little fox curled up on top of the microwave!” she said. “I have five cats and a dog so obviously I have a cat flap. He must have crawled under the gate and through the cat flap!” Fryer said.

He had got in through the cat flap and found a nice warm spot to sleep in. The animal was taken to an animal hospital for examination and seemed quite happy to be brought in to the hospital for a health check, but was understandably not keen on being in a cage.

After a thorough check over, he was released back to the area he was found in by one of the hospital staff, a hospital representative said.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 5th, 2019

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