Top 10 Women Changing The World
Famous people aren’t all bad. In fact, some of them, despite their shortage of time and debilitating desire to be caught on film doing weird, immoral things, actually dedicate their time to helping other people instead of themselves. The trend of celebrities getting involved in charity work seemed to spin out of control once Angelina became such a saint, and now it seems like it’s another Hollywood trend to get involved in making the world a better place. But what can we say? If they’re doing it, they’re doing it—who cares if it’s all for good press? The following list looks at some of the best women celebrities who have put their time and money into making the world a better place, whether it’s through education for poverty-stricken children or a dedication to relief efforts in Haiti. This list may have you motivated to get involved, or maybe it’ll get you interested in watching other great women do cool things on the show PUSH GIRLS, which airs on June 5th. Either/or, the choice is yours.
10. Madonna
As it turns out, she isn’t just a material girl. (Bad joke? I guess that’s referencing a song from, like, thirty years ago.) Regardless, the skeletor queen has been using her spiny hands not just to rub up against young men, but also to do good deeds to help save the world.
She has been a leader in funding and fighting for the millions of orphans that have been living in Malawi without help due to extreme poverty with her foundation, Raising Malawi. In 2008, she put out a documentary called I Am Because We Are that drew attention to the crisis of orphans of HIV/AIDS. Her most recent endeavor is the goal to build 10 schools that will serve over 1,000 children in Malawi.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images9. Alicia Keys
Songstress and all around gorgeous woman Alicia Keys is no stranger to helping the world. Keys is involved with and has donated to over 22 charities, but dedicates the majority of her charitable efforts to the Keep A Child Alive foundation and has traveled to places like South Africa and Kenya to meet with families whose households were headed by young children due to their parents’ dying from AIDS.
She is committed to spreading preventive education of HIV and continues to fight for the causes she believes in, even after being busy with her tiny little baby, Egypt. She’s a powerful woman and she’s making it work.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans8. Mia Farrow
Farrow has dedicated the half of her life that she hasn’t spent dating Woody Allen or married to Frank Sinatra or being a total hero on screen to instead being an amazing humanitarian. She was named a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and has done aid work all over the world in places like Darfur and Chad.
She is particularly involved with the conflict in Darfur and has published several editorial pieces about how we should all be working to help those who were affected by the genocide there, and at one point initiated a water-only fast that lasted for twelve days to draw attention to Darfur’s horrifying conflict. She’s truly a lady committed to her causes and won’t stop until the horror stops with her.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans7. Mary J. Blige
Everyone’s favorite soulful lady has a heart as big and powerful as her voice. Mary J. founded FFAWN, a charitable organization dedicated to helping women achieve success through educational opportunities and self-help workshops. Their first partnership is with the Mary J. Blige Center for Women, which opened in Yonkers recently, and it is dedicated to helping women “achieve their full potential.”
She is outspoken on causes like HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, and women’s rights, and she all does it while looking flawless and put together. We can’t wait to see what FFAWN—and Mary J.—have in store.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans6. Melinda Gates
Maybe she isn’t considered mega-famous like Angelina Jolie or Madonna, but her husband certainly is . . . just a different kind of famous. Melinda Gates, wife of Bill, after years of running a little multibillion dollar company called Microsoft, decided to invest in a bigger role: that of helping change the world.
The goals of the foundation are enormous, and their work is seemingly endless, as they attempt to reduce extreme poverty and increase access to healthcare worldwide. They have traveled all over the world to meet with families and people struggling with poor health and abject poverty. Recently, Melinda Gates was in Bangladesh speaking with women about women’s empowerment in the workforce. She may be a kajillionaire but her heart is priceless.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans5. Shakira
Shakira is the multi-talented, world-traveled, saintly woman who continues to give back while having a career and a life as a multinational pop star. She can do it all. In 1997, Shakira founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation in Colombia, whose main goal is to help poor, displaced, and hungry children with their basic rights to education.
She has donated over 10,000 pairs of shoes to barefoot children in Colombia and recently, she opened a school that cost her foundation a whopping 6 million dollars in Barranquilla, her hometown in Colombia. In 2010, Barack Obama himself invited her to speak about her work in early childhood education at the White House. She graciously accepted and has been kicking butt ever since.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans4. Oprah Winfrey
This woman of the people got caught up in a little pickle at her girls’ school in South Africa when a sex abuse scandal came out in 2009. Needless to say, no good deed goes unpunished, so she handled it by throwing down an iron fist, then moved on with the rest of her work. Oprah’s Angel Network, which was founded in 1998, has donated over 80 million dollars to non-profit organizations around the world, which is more money than we will ever see, ever. And despite being the possibly busiest person on this planet, she still has time to teach a class via satellite to her girls’ school in South Africa. Truly she is a woman of the people.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans3. Olivia Wilde
Though she is somewhat of a wild card to this list (get it, “Wilde” card?? no?) because she hasn’t created her own foundation (yet), but Olivia Wilde is far more committed to doing good deeds than any of us ever realized. She’s been working with the organization Artists for Peace and Justice, a non-profit that works toward providing education and healthcare in Haiti after the earthquake.
She recently popped up in one of journalist Nicholas Kristof’s Facebook albums when they visited Kenya to film part of a documentary in conjunction with Kristof’s book Half the Sky. She is also involved with ACLU and was voted PETA’s sexiest vegetarian in 2010. Just watch her—she’ll be turning into the next Santa Angelina before we know it.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans2. Angelina Jolie
Ah, Santa Angelina. She’s so ubiquitous in the giving back to the world scene that she’s now been given a “saint” to place before her first name. She and her too-good-looking-it’s-unfair fianc, Brad Pitt, have spent their entire lives—or so it seems—doing charity work in every darn way possible and for every single cause that ever needs attention.
Fighting for women in Afghanistan? Yep, she does it. Donated half a million dollars to a charity aimed to help Haitian refugees? Yeah, of course she did. Has she visited over twenty countries in the world in support of their displaced populations? You know she has. She truly is a saint.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans1. Hillary Clinton
Okay, okay, so she’s the Secretary of State, so technically we’d all hope she’s doing things to make the world a better place, but come on. She has made it a priority to give women a voice, even after she is no longer Secretary of State. (Sad face.) Her bonds with countries in Asia that are utilizing the other half of their people (also known as women) and her commitment to improving the conditions of women’s lives all around the world makes her one of the coolest and most inspirational women to exist today. Keep on shattering that glass ceiling, Hills. We’re right behind ya.
Tune into PUSH GIRLS Mondays at 10P, the all new series of women challenging the norm.
Author: Dayna Evans
