TIME Magazine’s Influential Teenagers
TIME Magazine each year publishes many lists exploring the most influential people in various categories. The Top 100 Most Influential People comes out in April but this past week they published a list of the Top 30 Influential Teenagers.
These past 12 months has seen the world take on a very complicated interest in political debate around the world. However, amongst this chaos, we have also witnessed the rise of a diverse list of candidates that have influenced our teenagers over the past year; young adolescents that we should all be watching for the large impact they will make on us and our children in the near future.
The list considers accolades from numerous fields such as their social media accounts, their ability to drive news and draw attention to either their accomplishments or their causes. With a diverse range of teens starting at 13 up to 19 years old, we selected a few that may have caught the attention of our young teens.
Top teenage influencers
Kaia Gerber
She is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable names on the list. Daughter of one of the original supermodels Cindy Crawford, at just 16 years old she has already graced the cover of Vogue magazine (at 14 no less), and taken over the Vogue US Instagram account to document her foray into NYC Fashion Week in 2017. With her stunning good looks, our teenage boys want to date her and our girls want to look like her.Brooklyn Beckham
Yes, another teenager of well-known, successful parents. This young one is riding the wave of a fortunate upbringing. Though dressed in fashion labels (mum Posh Spice is now a renowned fashion designer) and excelling in sport (thanks to Dad David Beckham), Brooklyn notes the importance of education having recently enrolled in photography school at 18 years old.Hu Ranran
This teenager is making a face for herself addressing issues that are still very strict and foreign in Western China. Creating a 75-minute film ‘Escape’ which addresses the difficulties faced by young Chinese and the transgender community, Hu is making waves with trying to normalise groups of people who are made to feel very different in society. An English version will hopefully be put on You Tube soon for us. It creates awareness among our teenagers towards the issue that we are not all simply the same. Diversity exists everywhere we go.Muzoon Almellehan
At Edstart, the importance of equal opportunity and education carries no limits. So, this incredible teen is notably our favourite on TIME’s list. Living in Australia we note how fortunate we are to have access to clean water, education, and provide shelter for our families. However, for millions of children all over the world, what we consider basic necessities, are bare luxuries for refugees. Muzoon, who fled her home country of Syria in 2013 for Jordan, is standing up to the fight. This year she became UNICEF’s youngest ever goodwill ambassador and focuses on the importance of education for young children and teenagers in places like Chad, where militant groups have forced them out of their schools, denying them to their right to education.
This list of influential teenagers from TIME shows our teenagers the level of diversity and success around the world that can be achieved at a young age. It opens our eyes to who is making the media and the messages they are spreading. This list can help our own teens create further goals for themselves based on the achievements of people their age.