Kaia Gerber, Shawn Mendes and Yara Shahidi Make Time's Most Influential Teens of 2017 List

This marks Cindy Crawford's daughter's debut on the list

By Corinne Heller Nov 02, 2017 4:41 PMTags
Watch: Kaia Gerber on Cindy Crawford & Kendall Jenner's Advice

Model Kaia Gerber, daughter of iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford, has been deemed one of the most influential teens in the world.

Kaia, 16, makes her debut on Time's annual list, which honors 30 teens who "have a global impact through social media and an overall ability to drive news." Other honorees include singer Shawn Mendes and Black-ish actress Yara Shahidi.

"The daughter of legendary supermodel Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber has clearly inherited her mother's fashion savvy," Time editor Ashley Hoffman writes. "Since gracing the cover of Vogue Paris with her mom at 14, Gerber has made a name for herself as a high fashion model and snagged campaigns for major brands like Versace and Alexander Wang. And in 2017 Gerber became one of the most in-demand runway models at New York Fashion Week, walking in more than a dozen high-profile shows during her first year on the catwalk. More recently, Vogue gave her the reins to its Instagram account, so she could document her experience during New York Fashion Week. Her mom, of course, could not be prouder."

Kaia certainly influences fans online, as she has more than 2.3 million Instagram followers. 

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Kaia Gerber's Evolution
Pascal Le Segretain/Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Essence

This marks the fourth year in a row that Shawn, 19, has made Time's annual Most Influential Teens list. The singer, who has more than 26.2 million Instagram followers, made his debut on the roster in 2014 at age 16.

"Mendes, like Justin Bieber before him, may have risen to fame on a social-media platform (in his case, the defunct video app Vine)," wrote Time reporter Raisa Bruner. "But he has since become one of pop music's biggest stars. In the past three years, Mendes has released two blockbuster albums and several hit singles, including "Stitches," "Mercy" and "Treat You Better"; his latest, "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back," has logged more than 700 million streams."

Yara, 17, made her debut on Time's annual Most Influential Teens list last year. She has more than 1.3 million Instagram followers and, like many celebs, has used social media to voice her political views to her many fans.

"Most network TV stars tend to avoid talking politics, so as to appeal to the widest possible demographic. But as the child of an Iranian father and an African-American mother, Shahidi, who plays Zoe on popular ABC sitcom Black-ish, has felt compelled to speak out. When President [Donald] Trump first tried to enact his travel ban against several Muslim majority countries, for example, she took him to task for xenophobia," wrote Time writer Eliana Dockterman.

"My family taught me to use my voice, my work, to help better society," the actress told Time.

Sincerely, A proud Black Iranian #NoMuslimBan #NoWall #WeTooAreAmerica (excuse any typos)

A post shared by Yara (?????) Shahidi (@yarashahidi) on

Yara will star in the Black-ish spinoff Grown-ish in January and after she's done filming, she plans to attend Harvard and double major in sociology and African-American studies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, who got her law degree there, had helped get her accepted; she wrote her a letter of recommendation.

Time's Most Influential Teens of 2017 list also includes Willow Smith, 17, who also makes her debut, Brooklyn Beckham, 18, and Game of Thrones' Bran Stark, aka 18-year-old Isaac Hempstead Wright.