When it comes to the following list of women, the only thing to do is—bow down.
For it's 25th anniversary, Glamour Magazine has announced its list of honorees for "Women of the Year," an annual public toast to trailblazing women featured in the final issue of each calendar year.
So, who made the cut in 2015? Among the eight title winners were Oscar-winner turned film producer Reese Witherspoon, record-breaking ballerina, Misty Copeland, the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup champions, the United States women's soccer team, and transgender champion, Caitlyn Jenner.
Cecile Richards, the persistent president of Planned Parenthood, fashion icon Victoria Beckham, health entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, and the women of the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting round out the recipients of the highly-coveted title.
In commemoration of this hallmark occasion, the Empire State Building is set to turn pink on Nov. 9 as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will dedicate November 9th as Women of the Year Day for the city in a ceremony also featuring Glamour's Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive as well as this year's honoree, Copeland.
Elle Woods herself graced a cover of the this year's final issue, but inside the magazine's pages, the film regular admitted she almost didn't take the role that made her a household name.
"I was debating whether to do Legally Blonde, and I saw this interview with Gloria Steinem about how important Goldie Hawn's role in Private Benjamin was for women; by the end of the movie, the character socked her fiancé in the face at the altar because he didn't understand who she'd become through her journey," she explained to Glamour. "I was like, ‘I feel like Gloria Steinem told me to do Legally Blonde. That's how Elle Woods is too!' She starts out thinking she's gonna follow a man, but in the end she's like, ‘I don't need you.'"
While she was hesitant at first, Witherspoon credits her childhood with instilling in her the will to forge on.
"I have this drive from my upbringing to be a doer, not just a complainer," Witherspoon told Glamour of the inspiration behind her recent career developments.
The 39-year-old movie star shifted her efforts behind the camera as the cofounder of a new production company, Pacific Standard, which specializes in developing films with women at their helms. The company's initial book-to-screen creations, Gone Girl and Wild, ushered in both box office success and Academy Award esteem.
"I have achieved a certain amount of success, and I felt a responsibility to my daughter and to women in this world to create more opportunities for women. Women of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. We're 50 percent of the population," Witherspoon added.
A force of female strength in a different art form, Copeland rose to meteoric fame as the first woman to become the American Ballet Theater's African American principal ballerina.
"Generations of black women and men didn't have a fair chance in the ballet world; it's still difficult to be ‘other,'" she explained to Glamour. "Understanding that made me want to speak up and represent what so many couldn't."
As for her influence, Copeland simply wants people to pay a bit more attention to the age-old genre.
"I'm not creating a fad. I don't want people to pay attention to dance just because they read about this black ballerina. What I want is for people to realize how beautiful classical ballet is, how incredible it can be for a child," she said. "Art changes lives—I am proof of that."
Jenner, 66, redefined her own identity as a woman in 2015. She shocked the American public when she underwent her own transition after decades of identifying as Olympian Bruce Jenner. She became a national advocate for transgender awareness and took home the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in July.
"I started thinking maybe this is why God put me on earth. This issue has been swept under the rug for so long. I need to tell this story on the highest level you can possibly do it, not just for me but for this entire community," she told Glamour of her status as a public figure.
"I am just excited about the future for the first time in a long, long time and that is a nice feeling to have…to be honest with you, if the worst thing in the world that happens to you is you are trans, you've got it made."
The December issue of Glamour Magazine hits national newsstands on Nov. 10.