Emma Watson has been recognised by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Not bad for a young woman who just celebrated her 25th birthday.
Watson is one of four Brits on the Time list, with Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the former Argyll salmon farmer who founded the charity Mary’s Meals, which sets up school meal projects in some of the world’s most deprived communities, also making his first appearance.
Gordon Brown, former U.K. Prime MInister and now UN special envoy for global education, penned the tribute to MacFarlane-Barrow: “His work began in Bosnia, but a visit to Malawi, where a child told him his dream was having enough to eat, cemented his mission: to get thousands of girls and boys to come to school by providing a meal. The impact has been breathtaking. [School] attendance figures have risen, by as much as 50 per cent in some areas.”
Watson’s tribute came from former New York Times editor Jill Abramson, who praised the former Harry Potter star’s “gutsy, smart take on feminism” and highlighted her impressive speech at Davos and her “confident and cool reaction” to those who threatened to release (non-existent) nude pictures of her: “If they were trying to put me off, they did the opposite.”
More: 10 Things we learned from Emma Watson’s live Facebook Q&A
Also representing the U.K. on the Time list are John Oliver, the comic who hosts a popular satirical evening U.S. television show, and painter Chris Ofili.
This year’s list is topped by Kanye West and also includes President Barack Obama, actress Reese Witherspoon, attorney, politician and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, ballerina Misty Copeland, tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and microbiologist Martin Blaser.
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