The Most Influential Teens of 2016: Amandla Stenberg, Kylie Jenner and Maisie Williams Lead The Pack
Success has no age limit
From the Obama sisters to Jaden Smith, TIME has released its annual list of the most impactful teenage celebrities transforming the world
Kylie Jenner, 19
With a childhood growing up in front of the camera's of her family's reality show 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians', Kylie has gone onto carve out a career of her own with her own make-up line and millions of social media followers who follow her A-list lifestyle and make-up tutorials.
Malala Yousafzai, 19
After being shot by the Taliban in 2012 for speaking out against its ban on female education, the Pakistan-born student has gone onto become the the youngest Nobel laureate ever at the age of 17 and launched the Malala Fund to campaign to make education for girls compulsory around the world.
Chloe Grace Moretz,19
With 55 film credits under her belt, Moretz is one of the most in-demand actresses of our generation. She has gone onto speak at the Democratic National Convention earlier this summer in support of Hilary Clinton and has decided to take a break from acting to reassess who she is after realising she was finally in a position to 'solo down'.
Simone Biles, 19
The Texan-born gymnast has won three consecutive World Championships and four gold medals in the 2016 Rio Olympics, making her one of the greatest gymnasts in history. She's most recently appeared in a the new video for American singer Jake Miller's new single 'Overnight'.
Maisie Williams, 19
Known best for her role as Arya Stark on HBO's Game of Thrones, the actress has gone onto become one of Twitter's most loved celebrities and has spoken out on subjects such as the refugee crisis and feminism around the world. 'You are either a normal person or a sexist,' she once said.
Luka Sabbat, 18
Complex magazine recently called Sabbat 'the Internet's coolest teenager.' The New York-born model has posed for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Hood by Air and notes fellow A-listers Zoe Kravitz and Kanye West as friends.
Katie Ledecky, 19
As one of the greatest swimmers in history, the Stanford student has given up the chance to earn millions from promotional deals to focus on college for the next few years. She has set world records, not once, but twice.
Yusra Mardini, 18
The Syrian-born swimmer became a member of the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team at this year's Olympics in Rio. Her swimming prowess was born out of the need to survive when Mardini, her sister and two other refugees had to swim for three hours in the Aegean Sea, pulling a broken dinghy to safety to the shores of Lesbos.
Jaden Smith, 18
The famous child actor has launched his own clothing line and arts collective called MSFTrep in order to break own gender norms, a sustainable water bottle company called JUST and appears in Netflix's current drama, The Get Down.
Zara Larsson, 18
Having won the Swedish version of Britain's Got Talent at the age of 12-years-old, Larsson has risen to success with singles 'Never Forget You' with MNEK and 'This One's For You' with David Guetta.
Amandla Stenberg, 17
ELLE's September Issue cover star first came to our attention with her role as Rue in the first Hunger Games. Since then she has become one of the 21st Century's leading social activists and has earned the praise of feminist Gloria Steinem and Beyoncé who admitted she wanted Blue Ivy to become 'just like her'.
Kiara Nirghin, 16
The scientist won top honours at 2016's Google Science Fair for her experiment into creating a superabsorbant polymer that could be sprinkled over dirt to make it store water like nappies. She found environmentally friendly fruits such as avocados and oranges could become polymers when UV light and heat is applied in certain quantities.
Sasha (15) and Malia Obama (18)
From helping the First Lady promote women's education in Liberia and Morocco to fan-girling over Ryan Reynolds, these intellectual and badass teens are our American idols.
Gaten Matarazzo, 14
Haven't seen Stranger things? Well, what's wrong with you? For fans of the Netflix show, you'll recognise this adorable face as Dustin, played by Matarazzo who is seising her newfound fame as an opportunity to highlight the need for self-acceptance given his mild case of cleidocranial dysplasia, which stalled the development of his teeth 'People tell me I'm like everybody else, but people who have [cleidocranial dysplasia] know they're different. I want them to know there's no problem being different,' he once said.
Maddie Ziegler, 14
The Pittsburgh-born dancer is best known as pop singer Sia's 'mini-me' in videos such as 'Chandelier' and 'The Greatest'. She first found fame on Lifetime's reality hit show Dance Moms and has become the youngest-ever judge on Fox's 'So You Think You Can Dance'.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
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