TOP 20 GAME CHANGERS OF 2020
Adwoa Aboah, Activist, model and founder of Gurls Talk
“It has created a new fire in my belly,” says Adwoa Aboah speaking about Gurls Talk, the online community she built. The concept of connection and empathy for one another is something the 28-year-old British mental health campaigner and model has for a long time known the importance of. “It has reiterated to me that I’m not alone in what I want and what I feel.”
Across podcasts, articles, videos, social media and recently an ambassador program that will allow input on programs and initiatives, Aboah has mulled education, sexuality, mental health, gender equality and racism, through good old-fashioned conversation. With a crucial focus on the mental health effects of the pandemic, she continues to reset the agenda.
Breaking into the modelling world with a 2015 Vogue Italia cover, and since fronting campaigns and walking for major houses, these days she’s as likely to grace Vogue as she is Time magazine.
In her work, she keeps in mind Rebecca Solnit’s words: “We are, as a culture, moving to a future with more people and more voices and more possibilities. Some people are being left behind, not because the future is intolerant of them but because they are intolerant of this future.” Alice Birrell
Edward Enninful OBE, Editor-in-chief of British Vogue
Expanding the prism of voices that filter through the Vogue universe to reflect the rich scope of modern society has been Edward Enninful’s great work. As the first black editor of the magazine, the Ghanaian-born, London-raised Enninful was awarded an OBE for services to diversity in 2016 – the year before he even took the leadership at British Vogue . He knows it is about perspectives in front, and behind, the camera. “I have an incredible team, which is filled with fierce and unique talent. We let our imaginations thrive, spark compelling conversations, and challenge the status quo,” he says.
His work has engendered an authentic connection with contemporary readers and fostered a community whose beliefs and values inform the historic pages. It is that communion, between reader and editor, that has redefined what the modern Vogue brand signifies.
Universality is another key tenet – Enninful noting that our lives are increasingly intertwined, demonstrated when he placed the spotlight on the Australian bushfires, and celebrated our local talent in a shoot on a visit hosted in Sydney by Vogue Australia. “We are global citizens, and if there was ever a year to affirm this, it has been 2020. We are united in many ways, not least by a global pandemic, social and political injustices, and the climate crisis,” he says.
Momentous occasions abound under his watch,
