“I had been following the Flint, Michigan, issue for about two years. I was appalled by the number of people affected by lead contamination in water, and I wanted to do something to change this.”

These were the profound words spoken to ABC News by 11-year-old Gitanjali Rao. Named "America's Top Young Scientist" for developing a device to quickly and simply detect lead levels in water, this young woman is at the forefront of change for the city in Michigan that has gone without clean water and large-scale resolutions since roughly 2014.

Gitanjali, a seventh grader, was able to witness just how difficult testing for lead could be through the demonstrated attempts of her parents Bharathi Rao and Ram Rao, both engineers, who'd begun testing water in their own home, in Lone Tree, Colorado.

Gitanjali vetted the assistance of her parents and teachers to get her experiment off the ground. For months, she contacted local high schools to get access to labs to continue the research and experimentation, but settled for working in the science room in her own home. Thankfully, help came in the form of Big Science. Gitanjali was named a top 10 finalists in the 2017 Discovery Education, which afforded her the opportunity to partner with a 3M scientist to help develop her innovation.

Now, Tethys exists to help detect water lead levels faster than any other tool currently on market. Find out more about Gitanjali's new development at ABC News.