We do sure hope that the past few decades were brimming with teenagers doing incredible things, just that we were too busy doing quite normal mundane things (like getting drunk on park benches) to notice. Because Time’s list of the most influential teenagers is making us in our mid-20s feel a bit inadequate right now, and we’d like to think that these incredible Generation Z-ers just the freaks of nature you get in every generation.
Much has been made of Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s inclusion on the list – critics say that they shouldn’t be influential. However, other critics have had a bash at the magazine’s decision to include Sasha and Malia Obama in the list – as influential as they could become, all they are at the moment are daughters of the President, they don’t actually do anything, which, surprisingly, you can’t actually say of the Jenner sisters.
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Other celebrities on the list include Lorde, Tavi Gevinson, Chloe Moretz, Jaden Smith, Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka, Justin Bieber-usurper, Austin Mahone and rapper-singer Becky G. Oh, and of course, Malala Yousafzai, the one who just got a Nobel Peace Prize.
But these are the bits of the list that piqued our interest the most:
The girl who's cycling against sexism
As well as 13-year-old Little League-r Mo’ne Davis and golfer Lydia Ko, 17, there’s 17-year-old Salma Kakar. She’s a cyclist from Afghanistan. So not only does she deal with the day-to-day of the country being a bit of a post-war shambles, she’s also part of a culture that’s a bit iffy about letting women cycle. Proving the haters wrong, she’s not only cycling, she’s making a stand against a pretty sexist status quo.
Time's ability to totally contradict itself
Time went for a weird one here. On the one hand they have Jazz Jennings – who looks like any actress or singer on the list, all glossy hair and perfect brows – and is, encouragingly, a 14-year-old transgender vlogger. Unfortunately, all the kudos they get for her inclusion, it’s sharply undercut by the fact Nash Grier gets on to the list. Though the 16-year-old is a hugely successful Viner, with sponsorship contracts to boot, he's been pretty racist and homophobic in the past. Not cool.
The girls who might save the world
Ciara judge, 16, Émer Hickey, 17, and Sophie Healy-Thow are three Irish schoolgirls who discovered a new bacteria which could actually help solve the impending global food crisis. Seriously.
The girl who's saving other girls from an adolescence of embarrassment
As well as vloggers and Tavi, there’s Megan Grassell, a 19-year-old who, fed up with all training bras being so sexualised, decided to make her own range, Yellowberry, to give an alternative.
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The boy who could help Hong Kong become a democracy
And then there’s Joshua Wong, the 18-year-old who helped lead the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. He’s sort of become the face of the movement which has seen mass youth involvement.
If this all makes you feel a tiny bit inadequate, take a little solace in the fact that you’ve probably got a better quality of life than Salma Kakar, those Irish scientists will potentially save your life and at least you’re not Nash Grier.
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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.