From an 18-year-old Grammy-winning musician, to the world’s youngest prime minister, these are the strong, independent badass women, who are making strides in their respective fields and taking the world by storm, to watch in the coming year.
At just 34 years old, Sanna Marin is the world’s youngest prime minister – she was elected to office in December 2019 in Finland, where she leads a female-majority cabinet.
And that’s just the start of her progressive politics – Finland has just introduced 7 months of paid parental leave for both parents, as it believes raising a child is not just a mother’s job; and she is also encouraging debate on a four-day work week.
Raised by her mother and her mother’s female partner, and just recently a mother herself having given birth to her baby in 2018, Sanna believes her family dynamic has helped shape her beliefs: “For me, human rights and equality of people have never been questions of opinion but the basis of my moral conception.”
In a time of divisive rhetoric and fear-mongering politicians, we can’t help but feel buoyed by such forward-thinking optimism. Watch this space!
OK boomer, eat your heart out -18-year-old Billie Eilish is the youngest person and first woman to scoop up awards across the four main Grammy categories, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year all in the same year (2019, for anyone living under a rock). And sharing almost equal limelight that night was her series of hilarious facial reactions to various key moments throughout the “establishment” media event, spawning innumerable memes.
Eilish’s debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? became the best-performing album of 2019 in the US, making her trademark brand of whispery synth-pop the unmissable sonic backdrop of last year.
Growing up in LA and home-schooled by her musician parents, Billie started writing music with her brother Finneas, and released the song Ocean Eyes on Soundcloud, which got them noticed by radio stations and media outlets.
Billie’s distinctly rebellious style, which consists of oversized, baggy outfits (read: comfortable!) and home bleached neon hair, is holding up two very unapologetic fingers to the body-shaming beauty conventions of what now feels like a very distant past.
With her breakout Hollywood role as the sword-flashing titular character in Disney’s Mulan due to be released in March this year, Western audiences will finally be introduced to Liu Yifei, or Crystal Liu – but she’s been a popular face in China for more than a decade.
No stranger to the wuxia genre of martial arts heroes in ancient China, Liu Yifei has cut her teeth on roles in such TV series as Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils and The Return of the Condor Heroes, as well as films such as The Forbidden Kingdom and The Four trilogy.
Not only is she skilled in sword-fighting and martial arts, she’s also a classically trained pianist and was signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan 2005, even releasing a Japanese language single that eventually became the theme song for the animation series Powerpuff Girls Z.
In China, she’s been given the endearment of “Fairy Sister” for her ethereal sweetness, and is considered one of China’s sweethearts and a top actress of the new generation.
After a decade of hustling, 2019 was Lizzo’s year – garnering 8 Grammy nominations and sweeping 3 of them, namely Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Traditional R&B Performance and Best Urban Contemporary Album. And anyone who has blasted Lizzo’s Truth Hurts at top volume, scream-singing along in your head: Yeah, I got boy problems, that’s the human in me / Bling bling, then I solve ’em, that’s the goddess in me knows it’s been a long time coming.
Loud and proud, the 31-year-old singer grew up in Detroit, where she used to call up local radio stations to show off her freestyle rapping skills – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of her abilities. She is also a classically trained flutist (marvel at her Instagram stories), an actress (she’s in Hustlers), and the endlessly optimistic, free-spirited, body-positive voice of her generation.
The plus-sized celebrity recently posted a series of artfully arranged nude shots on Instagram, saying: “I think it’s healthy to have a relationship with your naked body, even if no one ever sees it… But I’ve always felt the need to share it.” Come worship at the church of self-love.
California-born, Berlin-based artist Christine Sun Kim shared a brilliant moment with the deaf community across the world when she was invited by The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) to sign on both America the Beautiful and the national anthem during Super Bowl in February 2020, which was watched by more than 102 million viewers.
“I want people to start thinking about what deafness means, and maybe that will reduce the stigma and society will be more inclusive of people with disabilities,” says Kim, who was herself born profoundly deaf to hearing parents.
Using her unique perspective on sound as a starting point for much of her work, Sun Kim often combines references to the body, musical notation, written language, and American Sign Language (ASL).
Her work has been exhibited in major cultural institutions internationally, including in the Museum of Modern Art‘s first exhibition about sound in 2013 and the Whitney Biennial in 2019.