Forbes honors the young and successful
The notion that wisdom comes with age often holds true, but that is not to say that youth cannot also possess it. Forbes magazine’s annual “30 Under 30” program perfectly embodies this idea.
Each year, the magazine selects 30 people under the age of 30 in 20 categories to honor as the most deserving of recognition. These categories include art and style, finance, consumer tech, sports, hollywood and entertainment, retail and commerce, education, music, games, venture capital, media, social entrepreneurs, science, energy, law and policy, food and drink and enterprise tech.
A few of the most identifiable honorees this year include 28- year-old plus-size model and designer Ashley Graham, 27-year-old Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, 18-year-old Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky, 19-year-old actor and singer Zendaya, 17-year-old musician Shawn Mendes, 23-year-old musician Selena Gomez and 26-year-old musician Jason Derulo.
While the 30 Under 30 program aims to provide acknowledgement for the honorees, many people have not even heard of this program. Those who have heard of it usually only recognize the names from the more “showy” industries, such as art and style, Hollywood and entertainment, sports and music.
Junior Annie Sun, 16, said, “I’ve heard of people in the 30 under 30 this year…(however,) the majority of them are in the Hollywood category.”
Across all 20 categories, there is a wide coverage of possible recipients of the recognition. However, some industries included in the vague categories may not receive a just amount of acknowledgement.
“A new category could be actual authors that write and publish books… Literary should be a new category,” said Sun.
Sophomore Lana Tan, 15, believes all the honorees deserve the commendation because they “have each in their own unique way… had a positive and influential impact on our society.”
However, 15-year-old junior Ayla Dvoretsky is slightly more suspicious of all the honorees’ validity.
“I am wondering about Lilly Singh,” she said. “I would just like to look at what she’s done because I’ve never heard anything about her outside of her comedic field, but if she’s been doing more serious social movements, then I would be interested in learning about it.”
However, many agree that all of the honorees have done great things in their respective fields. All of them have to possess certain traits to have achieved so much at such a young age, and many are inspirations to those who have yet to reach their age.
“(Honorees) need to have changed or impacted society in a positive way, and should set good examples for kids and adults alike,” Tan said. “They should inspire others to change the world and improve their communities in whatever way they can, and to work hard to achieve their goals.”
