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Activist Gina Martin , model Adut Akech and singer Billie Eilish have been named among 100 “rising stars” as part of the Time 100 Next list.
The aim of the new list, Time magazine says, is to shine a spotlight on influential individuals “who are shaping the future of business, entertainment, sports, politics, science, health and more”.
Dan Macsai, executive editor of Time who oversees the magazine’s Time 100 franchise, says those included in the latest roster “are driven by hope”.
“They are eager to defy the odds – and fight for a better future,” Macsai adds.
The list ranges in age from 14-year-old American figure skater Alysa Liu, who became the youngest US national champion when she was 13, to 44-year-old Israeli Arab politician Ayman Odeh, who is leader of the left Hadash party.
Notable features on the list include Martin, who successfully campaigned for upskirting – the act of taking a photograph underneath another person’s clothing without their knowledge or consent – to become a criminal offence .
Martin was recently included in the BBC’s list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women around the world for 2019 .
Also featured on the list is model Akech, who was named “Model of the Year” by models.com in 2018.
Time writer Cady Lang wrote a profile of the South Sudanese-Australian model for the list, praising the 19-year-old for “calling out racism and amplifying the stories of her fellow refugees”.
Billie Eilish, 17, has been making waves in the music industry over the past few years, in addition to making headlines for her passionate views on world issues such as the environment .
11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Show all 11 1 /1111 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the 11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Amika George, period poverty activist UK campaigner Amika George has been fighting to end period poverty since the age of 17 when she started a petition that called on the government to provide free sanitary products to all schoolchildren. The petition garnered 200,000 signatures and led to a national #FreePeriods movement and in March 2019, the Conservative Party agreed to fund free menstruation products for the poorest students in secondary schools in England. In 2018 George was the recipient of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campaign award for her work. George is still campaigning to end period stigma by breaking down taboos and is fighting to expand free sanitary product access to all.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Margaret E Knight, inventor Margaret E Knight forged a career as the most successful female inventor of the 20th but her very first innovation came at the age of 12. After beginning work in a local mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, she witnessed an accident where a fellow mill-worker was stabbed by a steel-tipped shuttle from a mechanical loom. Knight promptly invented a safety device for the loom - although it was never patented so the exact details are unknown - that went on to be adopted other mills in the area, saving countless lives. Later, she would find fame as the inventor of the flat-bottomed brown paper bag.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Greta Thunberg, climate activist 16-year-old Greta Thunberg carries a huge burden - she’s reluctantly become the face of a last-ditch effort to raise climate change awareness before the period where global warming can be tackled passes. The Swedish schoolgirl has led a worldwide movement of the largest climate protests on record - mostly spearheaded by teenagers, she furiously admonished a roomful of United Nations leaders for "stealing her childhood”, and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg shouldn’t have to save the world - but she’s doing it anyway.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Jazz Jenning, LGBTQ activist Jazz Jennings became one of the youngest trans individuals to be publicly identified, long before discourse around trans people was mainstream. In 2007, at 11, Jennings was interviewed by Barbara Walters about her experiences growing up trans. The interview introduced many people to a positive representation of trans indentities at a time when such a thing in mass media was few and far between. Since then, Jennings has become a prominent LGBTQ activist and has appeared in her own reality show depicitng her daily life, as well as penning a memoir. She’s been accepted to Harvard University but has deferred for a year to focus on her mental health.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Anne Frank, diarist The Dutch diarist’s record of life in hiding during the Holocaust has given millions of schoolchildren insight into the horrors of the Nazi persecution of the Jewish population during the 1940s. From 1942 until 1944, Anne chronicled her most innermost thoughts and feelings whilst hiding in an attic in Amsterdam with startling precocity, producing both an account of a teenager’s inner life but also a historical document of unprecedented weight. Anne died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, after her family was betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo, but her words have ensured her immortality.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Audrey Faye Hendricks, Civil Rights protester Known as the ‘Youngest Marcher’, in 1963 Audrey Faye Hendricks was the youngest known individual arrested for protesting during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Nine years-old and the only child in her class to participate, Hendricks joined 2,000 high school students in Birmingham, Alabama in leaving school and marching against segregation. Along with many others, Hendricks was arrested and jailed for seven days, during which she had no contact with her parents.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Malala Yousafzai, activist A girl so famous she has reached mononymous status. Now 22, Malala’s activism came to global attention when, at the age of 15, she survived an assaination attempt in her native Pakistan in retaliation for speaking out in favour of female education. Since then, Malala has started an international fund, dedicated to helping girls achieve their goals through education, became the youngest person ever to be a Nobel Laureate and began studying for a degree at Oxford.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Sylvia Mendez , desegregationist While the 20th century black struggle for educational integration is rightly renowned, less is remembered about the fight Latinx students had to undergo to attend “white” schools. At eight-years-old, Sylvia Mendez was one of the key plaintiffs in a suit suing the Westminster district in California for segregating white and Mexican-American students. The 1947 ruling forced the local schools to integrate although it was limited to admitting Mexican-American students only. Mendez grew up to be an activist and in 2010 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work in civil rights.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Emma Gonzalez, gun control campaigner Catapulated to global attention by a horrific tragedy, Emma Gonzalez was 18 years old when a former student killed 17 of her schoolmates at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School. In the aftermath, Gonzalez, alongside other survivors, emerged as furious, rallying beacons, calling for action against guns in the US. Together they led mass protests, including the 2018 March for Our Lives, where Gonzalez gave a tearful speech that was heard around the world.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Barbara Johns, desegregationist In 1951, at 16-years-old, Barbara Rose Johns led 450 black students out of their crowded, segregated school in Farmville, Virginia. They would not return for two weeks, a strike action aimed to secure them better educational facilities like those of the white schools nearby. Nothing happened so instead Johns launched legal action for integration. Her case ended up becoming one of the five suits that would make-up Brown vs the Board of Education - the landmark legal decision that ended educational segregation in America.
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11 inspiring activists who prove there's no age limit on changing the Sophie Scholl, Nazi objector Despite early membership of Hitler Youth organisations, Sophie Scholl became disillusioned with the Nazi party in the mid-1930s, after their nationalist, racist authortarianism swam into full view. While at school she began challenging the prevailing Nazi doctrine but it was upon beginning her studies at the University of Munich that Scholl’s dissent kicked up a gear. Along with brother Hans, she formed the White Rose Group, a resistance collective that circulated leaflets criticising the Nazi regime, the treatment of the Jews and the passive reaction of the German population. In 1943, Hans and Sophie were spotted distrbutting leaflets and promptly arrested. They both defied interrogation methods and refused to name any other White Rose members. On the 22 February 1943, Sophie was executed by guillotine.
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Some of the profiles written for the list were written by famous figures who have previously been featured on Time 100 lists.
For example, American talk show host Jimmy Fallon penned a touching tribute for vlogger and fellow talk show host Lilly Singh, describing her as a “superwoman” for building an “incredible brand” and “millions of fans”.
Meanwhile, tennis legend Billie Jean King wrote about the significant impact of 15-year-old Coco Gauff on the sport, stating that she has “a certain 'It' factor”.
Earlier this year, Gauff became the youngest player to ever qualify for the main draw of Wimbledon in the tournament’s history, eventually being knocked out in the fourth round.
“Because she has proved she is exceptional at tennis, she now has a platform to inspire all of us, especially young people,” King wrote.
Other individuals included on the Time 100 Next List are gymnast Aly Raisman , Last Christmas star Henry Golding , rapper Lil Nas X and US 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg .
To check out the full list, click here .
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