Artists typically undergo years of instruction and training, imitating the styles of established masters before emerging into their own unique style, if they make the transformation at all. Kevin Oswald decided not to wait: He picked up a brush for the first time at age nine and now, by age 14, has created more than 100 works. His paintings have been displayed at gallery shows in Chicago and Blue Island , and some have sold for upwards of $650. “I paint pictures I see in magazines or on line, not something going through my head,” Oswald said of his inspiration. “I let it come to me because some days you don't feel like picking up a brush and other days you can't stop painting.” Oswald said he turns over a portion of all his sales to two charities: Joliet 's Guardian Angel Home for abused women and children, and the Nazareth Home, a Northwest Indiana-based agency that takes in orphaned babies. “Where you hear some parents tell their kids to go practice the piano for an hour, I don't think I've once ever had to tell Kevin to go do art,” Oswald's mother, Patty, said. “If anything, I worry about him spending too much time in the studio and forgetting about his other school subjects.”

More info: http://www.kevinoswaldgallery.com/

While many of us may vaguely claim that the children are our future, Eboo Patel has a more specific view: “Kids have the opportunity to create or destroy,” he commented in an interview with Conscious Choice, a healthy-living journal. “If you don't give them the opportunity to create, they will destroy.” In the hopes of helping children of all faiths to create profound social change, the 26-year-old founded - and is now the executive director of - Chicago 's Interfaith Youth Core, which brings together children of different faiths for the sake of social projects. Patel was cited as one of 30 social visionaries under 30 changing the world by Utne Reader in 2002, and his essays have appeared in Spiritual Perspectives on America's Role as a Superpower, God Within , Global Uprising, Initiative and Interreligious Insight. Patel received his doctorate from Oxford , where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He also speaks on interfaith issues worldwide.

More info: http://www.youthactivism.org/EbooPatel.html

Newspapers are in an interesting position: on one hand, they have to objectively report the news, but on the other, it's just human nature to put together some sort of commentary on any number of topics. Hence the role of the columnist. Interviewing can be tricky, however, since “so much of it is about whether you have your clients' confidence and whether they're willing to listen to you and accept you as an expert,” she says. Pickett came to Chicago five years ago, and is currently something of a journalistic celebrity for her “Sunday lunch” pieces where she mixes questions with self-referential commentary a standard news reporter couldn't pull off. For example, when discussing John Elway's endorsement contract with Prilosec, she wonders whether or not to make a drinking game out of the phrase “road to relief.” She's now in-demand enough to begin penning book-jacket reviews, like she did for the recent “The Family CFO,” where her personable writing style remains intact. “One of the things that's been really emphasized to me is how important it is to get out,” she says, “to be in the city and be in the world, and be writing about things that are happening, things that are out there.” She's doing a good job of that.

More info: http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/sept11/voices/cst-nws-911pickett08.html

Ten years ago, Amy Schroeder created the first issue of Venus Zine in her dorm room, done entirely in one night using a word processor, a glue stick, a few photos and a copy machine. Once she discovered her niche market of “ample coverage of lady rockers,” as she calls it, it was all uphill from there. Today, Venus has established itself as a major magazine, covering the role of women in the arts and entertainment fields, boasting an international circulation of over 60,000 while remaining an entirely independent entity.  She credits the city of Chicago with the magazine's growth, not having to deal with the sheer numbers of publications in the Bay Area or the high cost of production in New York . The key to her success?  “We haven't compromised our vision or our content as we continue to grow,” claims Schroeder.  “Each new issue of Venus gets better and better and all of the editors and contributors see it as an ongoing project.”

More info: http://www.venuszine.com/

At 21, most of us were stressing over college finals and research papers. At 21, Alpana Singh was passing the advanced test of the Court of Master Sommeliers, the international examining body for wine and beverage service, becoming the youngest to do so. At 27, she manages the wine selection at Everest, the four-star restaurant atop the Chicago Stock Exchange. “My job is not to pick the wine for them, but to help them pick a wine for themselves,” she says. As an additional honor, Singh was one of Restaurant and Hospitality's Rising Stars in 2001 and has been named as the new host of WTTW's restaurant-review show “Check, Please!” She is currently preparing to earn her master sommelier diploma, a test which has only a three percent pass rate. As it stands, the youngest person to pass the test was 27. Only 11 of the few who have graduated are women. Talk about the wine glass being half-full.