Having gone to college at the age of 13, Kelly is one of the youngest graduates of Harvard Law School. Upon graduating from HLS, Kelly left law to pursue her dream of teaching. In 2005, she launched The Kelly Yang Project with a vision to inspire kids in Asia through creative writing and critical reasoning. Today, KYP serves 300 students and is a busy hotspot for creativity, debate, public speaking, SAT and great writing.

KYP is also the publisher of many student publications and hosts Spellbulary, Hong Kong’s annual spelling bee. Kelly is also the author of two books of creative short stories for students in China. Kelly has won some of the most coveted awards in the United States for her efforts in education including: California Legislature's 2000 Woman of the Year; USA Today All-USA College Academic 1st Place Team; Los Angeles Times Scholar; Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education Scholar; Asian American Journalists Association Scholar and; CosmoGIRL! of the Year from CosmoGIRL! Magazine.