PEOPLE Magazine’s Women Changing the World

Every year, PEOPLE Magazine highlights women who are making a major difference in the world, take a look at this year’s honorees…

Vanessa Bryant

Bryant, who tragically lost husband Kobe Bryant and their daughter Gianna in 2020, is honoring her loved ones’ memories through the newly relaunched Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. The organization is dedicated to creating equal opportunity for underserved athletes and young women in sports. “As with so many industries, women aren’t prioritized as athletes,” says Vanessa, who serves as president of the board of directors. “We want to provide girls with opportunities to showcase their talent — and to feel just as important as boys do, because they deserve it.”

Marisa Hamamoto

Hamamoto grew up as a ballet dancer, but a rare form of stroke left her temporarily paralyzed from the neck down in 2006. After she walked out of the hospital, she decided she wanted to re-dedicate her life to dance, but in a different way. She discovered wheelchair dance, and in 2015, founded Infinite Flow, a professional dance company that employs dancers with and without disabilities. (Pictured, Hamamoto dancing with partner Piotr Iwanicki.) “We’re changing the narrative around disability, around diversity and inclusion, using dance as a way to dismantle stereotypes,” she says. “I know I’m standing up for the right things.”

Amanda Gorman

Gorman created one of the biggest moments of the 2021 presidential inauguration when she performed her poem, “The Hill We Climb.” And the former National Youth Poet Laureate is just getting started. Considering a political career of her own, she tells PEOPLE, “You have to speak to the world you want to see before you create it.”

Camila Cabello

In January, the singer announced the Healing Justice Project, in partnership with the nonprofit Movement Voter Fund, to provide grants to 10 BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and youth-led organizations to cover six months’ worth of mental health support for their workers. “It’s awesome to be able to say, ‘I need you to take a moment and step back,’ ” says Gabriella Rodriguez of QLatinx, one of the organizations Cabello helped support.

Check out the full list of honorees, click here to view the PEOPLE article!