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The teen vocalist and aspiring oncologist started a local student group to mix her passions.
Now a senior at Liberty High School, Mahima Menon has been belting songs from the top of her longs since she was 3-years-old.
“Singing has always been such a big part of my life,” Menon told the Reporter in an interview.
Menon said her parents channeled her energy into classical training early on, signing her up for classes in the Carnatic-style hailing from South India. Once Menon was 5 years old, she started to also learn Western techniques of American pop artists like Katy Perry.
The unique skills Menon learned from Carnatic music set her apart from other vocalists, she said, like developing her lower vocal range, but it can be tricky to keep things straight between the two styles, which emphasize different consonants.
“The two genres I’ve been in all my life sometimes connect me so well and sometimes they pull apart so intensely,” Menon said.
Menon started to gain success for her vocals at age 12, when she was selected to record a song for the 2025 sequel to a famous Bollywood thriller movie, called “L2: Empuraan.”
The song is sung in Malayalam, which Menon calls her native language as it is the predominant language spoken in Kerala, the part of India where her father grew up before he and her mother moved to the US, settling in Renton when Menon was 3 years old.
Growing up, Menon’s parents only spoke Malayalam at home, confident that Menon and her sister would pick up English living in Renton and going to predominately English-speaking schools.
“My parents have always been big on ensuring me and my sister learn how to speak [Malayalam], because it’s a part of where we come from,” she said. “My mom always said whoever doesn’t know their language doesn’t really know their own home.”
Menon said speaking Malayalam at home made her feel connected to her culture. And now, when she returns to India to visit her grandparents, she loves that she is able to talk to the neighbors.
Speaking Malayalam has also helped Menon’s singing career. The song she recorded for the Bollywood movie went “mega-viral,” as Menon put it, when Menon was 15-years-old. Now at almost half a million listens on Spotify, Menon’s song became used as the sound for thousands of Instagram reels when Menon was a sophomore in high school.
Looking at comments on the song, Menon said many people thought the artist on the track was a 50-year-old man, not 12-year-old Menon. “I can sing very low,” Menon said. “Originally the song is sung at a very low scale. It’s supposed to sound like a male.”
At the same time that Menon was going viral for her vocals, she was also hitting the books. She particularly loved the Advanced Placement (AP) Biology class she took her sophomore year. Noticing her interest, Menon’s AP Biology teacher recommended an opportunity for her: Girls Who Code for Cancer, an after-school club at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle where high schoolers meet up, learn basic codes and discover how they transcend into the study of cancer.
“That’s how I fell in love with oncology,” Menon said. It’s also how she realized she wanted to dedicate her life to becoming an oncologist to help cancer patients. Frustrated with the amount of pain and heartbreak that cancer causes for so many, Menon said she feels motivated to study it.
She also thinks it’s interesting. “We know so much about biological systems, but everyday we find something new that challenges our understanding,” Menon said.
Thinking of ways to blend her dual passions for cancer research and music, Menon dreamt up “Ignite the Mic,” a student organization that educates and fundraises for cancer awareness through events that incorporate the students’ musical talents.
The group consists of 12 Liberty students Menon selected through an application process. As their fearless leader, Menon spearheads regular meetings and delegates tasks like social media, event planning and performer outreach to different students based on their strengths.
Menon said being a leader has always come naturally to her.
“Ever since elementary school, I always wanted to be the line leader, I was always the head of group projects,” Menon said. Leadership roles match Menon’s aptitude for talking to people, figuring out their strengths and weaknesses and finding roles to match them, she said.
While she leads in many areas in her life, Menon said she still leans on her older sister, like when she’s trying to find a parking spot.
Ignite the Mic got busy in early August, putting on back-to-back events for the community.
The group made a showing at Lake Boren Park in Newcastle, which hosts local bands, vendors and organizations in the summer, setting up crafts for kids to decorate little microphones and facilitating a cancer-themed “myth vs. fact” game that Menon created.
They also hosted an event called “Youth Unplugged” at The Garage, a teen cafe in Issaquah that offers a safe after-school space for local teenagers with free food, activities and mental health therapy. Eight vocalists, all high school students from Liberty and high schools in Issaquah and Sammamish, performed at the event, followed by a cancer awareness bingo game Menon created and led using facts she learned from an oncology program she participated in at Columbia University.
At the end of the event, Menon prompted each attendee to write a motivational song lyric for patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Youth Unplugged had 30 attendees, mostly people from the Renton community, Menon said. Menon said her team promoted it mostly on social media, putting together reels featuring interviews with students and oncologists.
Ignite the Mic’s social media presence has once again put her into the spotlight, she said.
“People recognize me as the Ignite the Mic girl, because on the face of every reel I’m usually the one asking the question,” Menon said.
Also in August, Ignite the Mic traveled to Seattle Children’s for what Menon called a “karaoke party,” singing cancer patients their favorite Disney and Taylor Swift songs. Menon said one girl sang with them the whole time, not ready for them to leave.
“She really loved singing with us,” Menon said. “We loved singing with her.”
Their work is not done. Ignite the Mic plans to start a podcast, where students will interview oncologists to share information about cancer. It is also planning a panel, where local high schoolers and members of the community can ask questions to a group of oncologists from the Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
“I never imagined Ignite the Mic would be this big,” Menon said. “I’m just really happy to see where it’s going.”
