When design was too complicated, a 19-year-old student decided to fix it. That idea became CANVA.

Back in 2007, a 19-year-old Australian student named Melanie Perkins noticed something: design was too complicated.

At the time, if you wanted to create a poster, a flyer, or even a simple presentation, you had to spend hours learning tools like Photoshop. And for many, it felt overwhelming.

Melanie thought — What if design could be as simple as dragging and dropping?

Together with Cliff Obrecht (her co-founder and now husband), they started with a small idea called Fusion Books, a tool to help schools design yearbooks easily.

It worked so well that teachers and students loved it.

That little project became the foundation for something bigger: Canva.

Launched in 2013, Canva gave the world a simple, user-friendly way to design anything — from social media posts to resumes to business cards. No design degree needed.

Today, Canva is valued at over $25 billion and is used by more than 135 million people worldwide.

All from a 19-year-old student’s frustration with complicated design software.