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Mhairi Black<br />
Age: 22 Nationality: British<br />
Who: The youngest (and most<br />
outspoken) MP in the country.<br />
After winning her election in Paisley and<br />
Renfrewshire South last year aged only<br />
20, Black’s been a tireless campaigner<br />
for LGBT rights since a Twitter troll<br />
labelled Black (who is gay) a “carpetmunching<br />
bull dyke”. She also works<br />
towards social justice with organisations<br />
such as Oxfam, and her maiden<br />
Commons speech last year, where<br />
she attacked the government’s position on social housing, has<br />
been viewed more than 10 million times across various media.<br />
“Ultimately people are needing a voice,” she says. “People are<br />
needing help, let’s give them it.”<br />
TEMI<br />
MARCELLA<br />
OLATUNDE<br />
Age: 28<br />
Nationality:<br />
British-Nigerian<br />
Who: Financial<br />
whiz-kid.<br />
Olatunde has helped<br />
tens of thousands<br />
of women as a<br />
mentor in the<br />
financial world.<br />
A Goldman Sachs<br />
Global Leader, she<br />
also helped establish<br />
its ‘10,000 Women’<br />
initiative, which has<br />
provided capital to<br />
more than 30,000<br />
female entrepreneurs.<br />
Yusra Mardini<br />
Age: 18 Nationality: Syrian<br />
Who: The modern face of bravery.<br />
Just over a year before she won her<br />
heat in the 100-metre butterfly<br />
at the Rio Olympics as part of the<br />
Refugee Olympic Athletes Team,<br />
she was in the water, literally<br />
swimming for her life. As a Syrian<br />
refugee, Mardini was travelling to<br />
Greece by boat, and when it began<br />
to sink, she got out and swam it to<br />
shore, saving the lives of 19 people.<br />
MELISSA HEMSLEY<br />
Age: 30 Nationality: British<br />
Who: Champion of sensible eating.<br />
If you’re eating courgetti and frying<br />
your eggs in coconut oil, you can thank<br />
Melissa, the millennial arm of the Hemsley<br />
health-food empire that also includes<br />
older sister Jasmine. With two bestselling<br />
cookbooks, a TV show, their own product<br />
range (which includes a spiraliser,<br />
naturally) and a <strong>UK</strong> tour, they are almost<br />
certainly the only reason your dad has<br />
ever heard of a green smoothie. <br />
Andreja Pejić<br />
Age: 24 Nationality: Australian<br />
Who: The woman who diversifies fashion.<br />
Being a political refugee at the age of<br />
eight, fleeing Bosnia-Herzegovina with<br />
her family, Pejić learned all about adversity.<br />
So when she transitioned from boy to<br />
gender-neutral, and finally to trans woman,<br />
she was already a pro at succeeding where<br />
others had not. She’s been the muse of<br />
Jean-Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs and<br />
personified the gender-fluid movement,<br />
having modelled both male and female looks<br />
before her gender reassignment surgery.<br />
She’s also the first trans model with a major<br />
make-up deal, as the face of Make Up Forever.<br />
COSMOPOLITAN · 107
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