Media mogul Oprah Winfrey to body-confidence icon Lizzo — these celebs are changing the game for women everywhere
THEY'VE made their names and fortunes in the worlds of sport and entertainment, but these female celebs have offered so much more.
From helping to close the gender pay gap to calling out sexual predators, these A-list trailblazers are changing the game for women around the world.
The athlete: Dina Asher-Smith, 24
Power move: The British sprinter has been hurtling towards greatness since childhood. At 13, Dina set the world record for her age group when she ran 300m in 39.16 seconds.
At 17, she became the youngest athlete selected for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Squad for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, won the 2016 Olympic bronze medal at Rio, then gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
Last year, Dina made British history when she won a gold and two silvers at the World Championships in Doha and became the fastest woman in the world at 200m (clocking just 21.88 seconds). Astounding!
She said “I never thought about quitting, never ever. I run for not just championships. I run just because I want to see how fast I can go, and that journey just never stops.”
The Media Mogul: Oprah Winfrey, 66
Power move: Overcoming a childhood of poverty and sexual abuse, which led to a pregnancy at 14 and death of her premature son, Oprah’s achieved living legend status.
The Oprah Winfrey Show grossed over £100million in its first year in 1986. In 2003 she became the first female African-American billionaire – and the only African-American billionaire for three years running. After 25 series, her show came to an end in 2011 and Oprah created her own channel, OWN.
Her charity Angel Network raised more than £60million for charity programs, before she dissolved it in 2010. Meanwhile, Oprah’s Book Club is thriving, as is her monthly glossy O, The Oprah Magazine, all going to show that whatever Ms Winfrey touches turns to gold.
She said “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
The Equality Crusader: Michelle Williams, 39
Power move: The Oscar-nominated actress’ ongoing fight to close the gender pay gap is awe-worthy. In 2018, she revealed she received less than £1,000 for reshooting scenes for 2017 thriller All The Money In The World, while her co-star Mark Wahlberg was paid over £1.2million, leading to the creation of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Last year, as she accepted the Outstanding Lead Actress award at the 2019 Emmys for her role in drama series Fosse/Verdon, she addressed the industry with her “Believe her” speech that went viral, saying it would benefit more from paying women fairly than to continue to degrade their value. Word.
She said “I see this as an acknowledgment of what is possible when a woman is trusted to discern her own needs, feels safe enough to voice them and respected enough that they’ll be heard.”
The Activist: Rose McGowan, 46
Power move: For years she was best known for her roles in TV shows such as E4’s Charmed and 2007 movie Grindhouse. More than a decade later and her name is now forever linked to one of the world’s biggest feminist movements to date.
After years of using her Twitter platform to speak out against sexism and abuse in Hollywood, Rose rocked Tinseltown to its core when she alleged in a 2017 New York Times article that she had been raped by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 1997.
She released her no-holds-barred memoir Brave in 2018, and spearheaded the #MeToo movement, which spread globally to encourage and support women to speak out against sexual harassment.
She said “Call what I’m doing a public service and you’d be correct. It is. Hollywood is a dirty town up to some dirty tricks. This is not a tell-all. This is a tell-it-how-it-is.”
The Musician: Rihanna, 32
Power move: From growing up in Barbados with an alcoholic father to becoming the richest female artist in the world, RiRi is a force to be reckoned with. The star moved to the US and signed to Jay-Z’s former label Def Jam, releasing her first single Pon De Replay in 2005, which hit the Top Five in 15 countries – and that was just the start.
After more than a decade of dominating the music industry with eight huge albums, including collabs with Eminem and Drake, and winning nine Grammys, she branched out with make-up brand Fenty in 2017, and lingerie line Savage X Fenty the following year.
All of this helps make up her reported eye-watering £486million fortune. What a boss.
She said “Every time it was about challenging myself: I have to do better. And what’s next?”
The Body-Confidence Icon: Lizzo, 32
Power move: She exploded on to the music scene in 2016 with her contagiously empowering track Good As Hell, a message to women to pick themselves up and walk away from the people who don’t treat them properly.
Embracing her curvy figure, Lizzo has also flown the flag for body confidence, reminding women that sometimes all it takes is a hair flick and an injection of self-belief to realise our own worth.
Follow-up tracks Juice and Truth Hurts spread her message even further, and last year at Glastonbury she gave an epic performance and speech that made us all want to be that bit kinder to ourselves.
By teaching women globally to not only love themselves, but to also own their confidence and power, Lizzo has become an international symbol of fierce femininity.
She said, “Who I am, and the essence of me, and the things that I choose to do as a grown-ass woman, can inspire you to do the same.”
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