They are screen sirens, activists, artists and a force to be reckoned with as till today, we still can’t stop talking about them. Our Top 10 Most Iconic Women Of All Time have not only inspired us to be confident to be ourselves but also to use our power to make a stand for our passions, just like the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, #BeBoldForChange!
1.Audrey Hepburn
“Makeup can only make you look pretty on the outside but it doesn’t help if you’re ugly on the inside. Unless you eat the makeup.” – Audrey Hepburn
Voted as the Ultimate Beauty Icon Of All Time, Audrey Hepburn’s days is still going strong until today, with her quotes flooding social media because we can all relate it to our lives. She would have celebrated her 88th birthday on May 4th this year but we’ll never forget how she has gave us little black dress goals thanks to her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and how she retired from acting and dedicated her life with UNICEF’s relief work.
2.Marilyn Monroe
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” – Marilyn Monroe
Though she is well-known as a sex symbol in Hollywood, she has fought for her dreams from childhood to be then discovered as a model before she became the actress she was. Though her relationships and stereotypical roles were paid more attention, we admire how despite her battle with pre-performance anxiety throughout her career, she never gave up and she even took up acting classes to refine her craft and prove the world that she’s more than her sex symbol status.
3.Iman
“One thing my mother always instilled in me is to always know my worth. Don’t settle for less. She used to say to me ‘Iman, no is a complete sentence, learn to say no. You don’t have to explain it you don’t have to say anything after it. It’s a complete sentence.’ So when I came to America 1975, I found out that the black models were being paid less than white models. So the first thing I did was say I’m not going to do the job unless I’m paid the same amount.” – Iman Abdulmajid
At the age of 61, statuesque Iman Abdulmajid is still as graceful as ever. Though she was bullied throughout her childhood for her long neck and towering height (1.78m to be exact), she was discovered by famous fashion photographer, Peter Beard during her university days in Nairobi, Kenya and the moment she flew to the US, her modeling career skyrocketed where she became a muse for Yves Saint Laurent and many other famous designers. After almost two decades of modeling, Iman started her own cosmetics firm called Iman Cosmetics in 1994, since makeup artists always had difficulty in mixing shades for her skintone, she created this brand for women of colour. Plus, the love between her and her late husband, David Bowie is relationship goals, have you ever felt a love so deep that it transcends time?
4.Grace Kelly
“I am basically a feminist. I think that women can do anything they decide to do.” – Grace Kelly
Before she was Princess of Monaco, Philadelphia-born, Grace Kelly became a popular actress in the 1950s starring in movies such as Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and The Country Girl (1954), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, despite her parent’s disapproval of her to pursue acting. But it was due to her career where she met Prince Rainier III of Monaco and the rest you say it’s a fairytale. Though she has chosen to sacrifice her acting career to fulfill her duties as Princess Consort of Monaco, she embraced her role and became very involved in many cultural and charitable organizations over the course of her life. Her iconic style was coined as elegant prep and she has a Hermès bag named the Kelly bag after she used that custom-made bag to cover her baby bump from the media during her reign as princess.
5.Frida Kahlo
“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.” – Frida Kahlo
As one of Mexico’s and the world’s famous artist and activist, Frida Kahlo started painting after she was recovering from her bus accident injuries where she finished her first self-portrait. Her relationship with fellow artist, Diego Rivera had its ups and downs where she has painted portraits of. But despite her personal and health problems, she was a fighter where she continued to paint and support political causes. You can visit her Blue House which has become a museum at Mexico.
6.Elizabeth Taylor
“Success is a great deodorant.” – Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor is one of film’s most iconic star with an acting career spanning of six decades, playing emotional roles that proved her acting chops even when she’s know for her beauty and relationship scandals. She was never afraid of being herself and getting what she wants. Her role in Cleopatra is one of the most memorable as she apparently did her own makeup and was one of the most expensive films produced during that time. She became active in supporting to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS with the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation after her close friend Rock Hudson died in 1985 due to that disease.
7.Brigitte Bardot
“When I love, I do it without counting. I give myself entirely. And each time, it is the grand love of my life.” – Brigitte Bardot
Until today, French dancer, model and actress, Brigitte Bardot is a beauty icon and a sex symbol thanks to her heydays in the 1950s and ’60s with films like And God Created Women and Contempt. She retired from acting in the 1970s and devoted her life to animal activism where she established the Foundation for the Protection of Distressed Animals in the mid-1970s and founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals during the 1980’s. Her work on animal activism has contributed to the Council of Europe’s banning of importation of seal fur and the French government banning ivory imports.
8.Jane Birkin
“When I made mistakes, people used to laugh. I could have learnt better, but I’ve always liked to make people laugh.” – Jane Birkin
Yes the Hermès Birkin bag was named and created for France-based English actress, singer, songwriter and activist, Jane Birkin. Her music career soar due to her passionate and creative relationship with her mentor, Serge Gainsbourg where she sang the erotic pop song “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus” that he wrote that was meant for Brigitte Bardot. But she’s not just an actress and singer, Jane’s humanitarian interests have led her to work with Amnesty International on immigrant welfare and the AIDS problem, she was involved in freeing Nobel Peace Prize winner and Myanmar opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi too.
9.Sushmita Sen
“She” we celebrate, “she” we do not objectify!” – Sushmita Sen
She was the first Indian to be crowned Miss Universe in 1994 and after her reign, she became a Bollywood actress which is she till today at the age of 41. She received backlash from her fellow countrymen for adopting her first daughter at the age of 25 as it was not socially acceptable for a single woman to adopt but she did it because who’s says single women can’t? She even went on to adopt her second daughter in 2010. She showed that we don’t have to follow societal norm to be ourselves and be happy.
10.Angelina Jolie
“We have a choice about how we take what happens to us in our life and whether or not we allow it to turn us. We can become consumed by hate and darkness, or we’re able to regain our humanity somehow, or come to terms with things and learn something about ourselves.” – Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has become one of the most iconic women and actresses of all time due to her humanitarian work with refugees and the medical procedures (a double masectomy and reconstruction surgery) she went through to lower her risk of developing cancer which runs genetically in her family. Angelina received the Global Humanitarian Action Award from the United Nations Association of the USA for her activism on refugee rights where she is still actively pursuing. Now in light of her newest film and biography based on the genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge communist party’s regime called ‘First They Killed My Father on the horizon’, Angelina Jolie hopes that the film will shed light on the war and its people.
Who is your all-time favourite Iconic Woman Of All Time?
