Age: 33
Occupation: Assistant professor at the University of Chicago and author

Poet, sociologist, professor, in-demand lecturer, and, since 2018, Marvel Comics author — she is the first black woman to write the Ironheart character Riri Williams — Ewing has become nothing less than a national cultural icon and the voice of a generation. To her readers, students, and 215,000 Twitter followers, she is the Influencer With Meaning, the person who tells us how we got here and where we go next.