The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2017
To determine TIME’s annual list, we consider accolades across numerous fields, global impact through social media and overall ability to drive news. In the past, we’ve recognized everyone from singer Lorde to Olympic champion Simone Biles to political activist Joshua Wong. Here’s who made this year’s cut (ordered from youngest to oldest):
Not many actors can say they got an Emmy nomination, and worldwide fame, for convincing the world that they have superpowers. Brown can, thanks to her role on Netflix’s sci-fi ’80s-nostalgia-fest Stranger Things. She plays Eleven, a mysterious girl—part science experiment, part prodigy, part awkward teen—who uses telekinesis to ward off evil. But there’s remarkable nuance in Brown’s performance, the kind that is able to convey melancholy beneath magic. It has made Eleven the standout character on a show brimming with them, one who inspires Internet memes, Halloween costumes and newfound interest in Eggo waffles (Eleven’s favorite food). Brown’s own profile has risen as well. Since the show’s July 2016 debut, the British actor has rapped at the Golden Globes, signed with IMG Models and appeared on the covers of Entertainment Weekly, InStyle and more. One secret to Brown’s success? Not overthinking her craft. “Eleven is part of me and always will be. I don’t try with her,” she told TIME during aStranger Things set visit earlier this year. “I don’t even know my lines for today’s scene … and that’s what makes it so instinctual.” —Daniel D’Addario
Like most kids her age, Ulmer used to hate bees. “I absolutely despised anything that buzzed,” she says. But shortly after she was stung, twice, in 2009, the Texas native developed a fascination with them. That’s when she learned that honeybees are critical to the ecosystem, and also going extinct. So Ulmer decided to help—with lemonade. Using her great grandmother’s recipe, Ulmer made a blend, sweetened with local honey, to sell at community business fairs, donating 10% of her profits to honeybee advocate groups. By 2014, her side project was a full-blown business. Now Me & the Bees Lemonade is stocked at more than 300 Whole Foods Markets, Wegmans and other grocers across the U.S. and Ulmer runs a nonprofit, the Healthy Hive Foundation, to raise awareness about the plight of the honeybee. Next up: finishing her first children’s book (it aims to teach kids how to start their own businesses) and expanding her company. To that end, Ulmer says, “I just hired my dad.” —Melissa Chan
At age 9, Bridges launched his own handmade bow-tie business from his grandmother’s kitchen table. Now Mo’s Bows is worth about $1.5 million—thanks in part to his 2015 appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank and, more recently, a licensing deal with the NBA that lets Bridges sell bow ties featuring team logos. But the Memphis native has even grander ambitions: he plans to expand globally, breaking into new clothing markets (he just released a line of neckties), while working toward graduating from high school and getting his driver’s license. “My all-time goal is to be a fashion mogul and a good person overall,” says Bridges, who credits his success to his inborn sense of style (he says he would “go to the playground in a suit and tie”). At home, though, his mom is still the boss: Bridges wants a Range Rover for his upcoming birthday, but she has made it clear that he’s “going to get the 2007 Jetta in the garage.” —Melissa Chan