TIME has published its annual TIME100 Next list - an expansion of the prestigious TIME 100 list - and the nominees feel expectedly very Gen-Z this year. The TIME100 Next list is angled towards up-and-coming figures rather than established visionaries and artists, with each nominee being selected by TIME alumni, honouring the way that influence and admiration spans generations.
This year, the publication has named emerging forces across five categories: Artists, Phenoms, Leaders, Advocates, and Innovators. Among which, are artists Hunter Schafer, Dua Lipa, Phoebe Bridgers and Chloe X Halle. For Phenoms, we saw inaugural poet Amanda Gorman nominated by actor, composer and director Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote in his tribute that she was “clear-eyed hope.” Alongside Gorman was Doja Cat nominated by Lil Nas X, The Queens Gambit star Anya Taylor Joy nominated by Gary Casparov, and Bridgerton hunk Regé-Jean Page as nominated by Shonda Rhimes.
For the Leaders category, 24-year-old Uganda-based Vanessa Nakate, whose Rise Up movement focuses on the disproportionate impact of climate change on the African continent and the Global South. “In this moment of intersecting crises—from COVID-19 to racial injustice, from ecological problems to economic inequality—Vanessa continues to teach a most critical lesson,” Greta Thunberg, who nominated Nakate, writes. “She reminds us that while we may all be in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat.” Alongside Nakate was Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr nominated by Idris Elba, and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson nominated by Gina McCarthy.
In the category of Advocates, supermodel Paloma Elsesser is nominated by Ashley Graham, alongside Ijeoma Oluo by Ibram X. Kendi and Dairon Elisondo Rojas and Cuban doctor who, as Joaquin Castro writes, is "a ray of hope" in a sea of despair. "Dairon Elisondo Rojas, himself an asylum seeker, provides lifesaving care amid the continued effects of the Trump Administration’s inhumane immigration policy." he says.
For the Innovators category, Solange Knowles nominates designer Telfar Clements, with Knowles writing "Telfar’s approach to business and art is an affirmation of how we can fully and confidently show up in the world while uplifting those who have made us who we are." Alongside Clements, is Kizzmekia Corbett as nominated by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the scientific lead of the Vaccine Research Center’s coronavirus team at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and is "widely recognized in the immunology community as a rising star" as written by Fauci.
You can see the full list of TIME100 Next nominees via the TIME website.
Images: @palomija, @hunterschafer
