Britain’s 25 most aspirational and influential women have been named by magazine Vogue — and there are some very familiar faces on this list of global citizens.
Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, Amal Clooney, and J.K. Rowling, who in their own ways embrace global citizenship, are all featured in what the magazine described as an “extraordinary cast of leaders defining — and redefining — the way we live now.”
The inaugural “Vogue 25” list features artists, actresses, scientists, politicians, and more, as it seeks to highlight the women who are “shaping 2018.”
“Power and influence now take many forms,” it reads. “It does, however, still require an eye-watering level of achievement…. It also demands the ability to inspire, and the clout to change the conversation,” said Vogue.
According to the magazine, Meghan “captured the public imagination like no other this year” and is, thanks to her acting career, activism, and a recent royal wedding, one of the most recognisable women in the world.
Clooney meanwhile is “one of the world’s most respected human-rights lawyers” who has championed and drawn the media spotlight to the plight of the Yazidi women kidnapped by ISIS, and the detained Reuters journalists in Myanmar.
The list also named activist and model Adwoa Aboah, who hosted Global Citizen Live at O2 Academy Brixton in April, and, through her platform “Gurls Talk”, has “reinvented what it means to be a supermodel in 2018.”
The youngest on the list, at just 22, is Dua Lipa, who was the most streamed female artist in Britain last year and won two Brit Awards this year. Vogue described her as a “culture definer” whose song “New Rules” is “an anthem of female empowerment” that has brought in more than a billion views on YouTube.
Letitia Wright was also named, following her breakout role as Shuri in “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Meanwhile, the only politician featured on the list is Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives. She made the list thanks to her “spectacular gains” for her party in the last Scottish elections, and is described as a “beacon, thanks to her relatable personality and progressive ideas”.
On environmental issues, Stella McCartney, who has been “championing conscious consumption for years”, and Orla Doherty were named to the list.
The other truly inspirational women on the list are:
- Hannah Anderson, co-founder of Manchester-based social media marketing company Social Chain
- Maria Balshaw, director of the Tate art museums
- Karen Blackett, advertising director
- Journalists Carole Cadwalladr (the Observer journalist behind the Cambridge Analytica story), Amelia Gentleman (who broke the Windrush scandal in the Guardian), and Katharine Viner (the Guardian editor)
- Edie Campbell, model
- Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of London’s Royal Court theatre
- Priyanka Joshi, biochemist, working on Alzheimer’s research
- Natalie Kingham, buying director at Matches Fashion
- Grace Ladoja, music executive
- Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive
- Sue Y Nabi, beauty innovator
- Yana Peel, chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries
- Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Department for International Trade
- Collette Roche, Manchester United’s chief operating officer
- Baroness Hale, Supreme Court president
Read more on globalcitizen.org.
