Greetings from Liberty and Jenelle (Liberty’s mom) Wexler!
Liberty is eighteen months old and I have been taking pictures of sweet Liberty dressed as positively influential women in history and present day. As recently as four months ago, Liberty was an unknown 3-month-old before Today Parents commented on a photo on Liberty’s Instagram. From there word spread through social media to groups like Good Morning America, PEOPLE, and hundreds of other outlets worldwide. She became a viral sensation within weeks!
On Liberty’s Instagram, she not only shares a photo of herself dressed as the woman, she also includes a photo of the influential woman that she is portraying and a short blurb about these woman’s accomplishments in helping to shape society for what it is today.
I am hopeful that when Liberty is older and looks back at these photos, she finds them to be fun yet informatively positive. I attempted to capture these women's essence in Liberty, the emotion of the person sometimes really can be seen in Liberty's photos. In addition, I wanted to bring attention to their specific stories, to show how important these women's actions were in helping to shape our current society for the better. I believe these women continue to inspire the young females of the present day to push boundaries and strive beyond equality. I feel it is important to pay tribute to the women who fought for and helped protect and further women's causes. I only hope these are the individuals that Liberty herself chooses to admire and aspire to be like.
I am getting such a positive response from my friends and family that they are now having fun giving me suggestions for future women to portray! I keep getting told that these photos of Liberty brighten their day and bring a smile to their faces which helps with my decision to want to continue with the photos. I have quite a few more women and their stories already in mind with costumes and future shoots in the works! (My dining room table is covered with these ideas) I also have a few other ideas for future photos that I may add to Liberty's growing portfolio...think women in the workforce portraying equality. My mind is always churning.
More info: Instagram
#61 Yoko Ono
A Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art, which she performs in both English and Japanese and filmmaking. singer-songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles was her third husband.
Ono has been an activist for peace and human rights since the 1960s. After she and Lennon married in Gibraltar, they held a March 1969 "Bed-In for Peace" in their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel. The newlyweds were eager to talk about and promote world peace; they wore pajamas and invited visitors and members of the press. Two months later, Ono and Lennon held another Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Fairmont in Montreal, where they recorded their first single, "Give Peace A Chance". The song became a top-20 hit for the newly christened Plastic Ono Band.
Ono made music history in 2011, becoming the oldest artist to have a number-one hit on the dance charts. She was 78 years old when "Move on Fast" made it to the top spot.
As Lennon's widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded Strawberry Fields in Manhattan's Central Park, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, and the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan (which closed in 2010). She has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, Philippine and Japan disaster relief, and other causes. In 2012, Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award. The award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, nonviolent commitment to human rights. Ono continued her social activism when she inaugurated a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace in 2002. She also co-founded the group Artists Against Fracking in 2012.
Ono has been an activist for peace and human rights since the 1960s. After she and Lennon married in Gibraltar, they held a March 1969 "Bed-In for Peace" in their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel. The newlyweds were eager to talk about and promote world peace; they wore pajamas and invited visitors and members of the press. Two months later, Ono and Lennon held another Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Fairmont in Montreal, where they recorded their first single, "Give Peace A Chance". The song became a top-20 hit for the newly christened Plastic Ono Band.
Ono made music history in 2011, becoming the oldest artist to have a number-one hit on the dance charts. She was 78 years old when "Move on Fast" made it to the top spot.
As Lennon's widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded Strawberry Fields in Manhattan's Central Park, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, and the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan (which closed in 2010). She has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, Philippine and Japan disaster relief, and other causes. In 2012, Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award. The award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, nonviolent commitment to human rights. Ono continued her social activism when she inaugurated a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace in 2002. She also co-founded the group Artists Against Fracking in 2012.
8points
#62 Chloe Kim
Chloe Kim is an American snowboarder.At the 2018 Winter Olympics, she became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal when she won gold in the women's snowboard halfpipe at the age of 17 years. She is a four-time X Games gold medalist and the first woman to win two gold medals in snowboarding at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. She is the current World, Olympic, Youth Olympic and X games champion in the half pipe, and the first to win the title at all three major events.
6points
#63 Diana Ross
American singer, record producer, and actress who achieved international stardom as leader of the vocal group the Supremes, which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act, and are the best charting girl group in US history, as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. The group released a record-setting twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Ross’s professional career began in 1959, when she joined several neighbourhood friends to form the pop-soul vocal group the Primettes. The group was renamed the Supremes after signing a recording contract with Motown late the following year. In 1967 the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, foreshadowing Ross’s solo career. Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her eponymous debut solo album that same year, which contained the Top 20 Pop hit "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number-one Pop hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". She later released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973; its title track reached number 1, as her second solo No. 1 hit. That same year, her album Lady Sings the Blues, which was the original soundtrack of her film based on the life of jazz singer Billie Holiday, went to no. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling more than 300,000 copies within its first 8 days of release.
Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history, due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts, with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist.
With the Supremes, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, never earning a competitive honor, but later became the recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
Ross’s professional career began in 1959, when she joined several neighbourhood friends to form the pop-soul vocal group the Primettes. The group was renamed the Supremes after signing a recording contract with Motown late the following year. In 1967 the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, foreshadowing Ross’s solo career. Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her eponymous debut solo album that same year, which contained the Top 20 Pop hit "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number-one Pop hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". She later released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973; its title track reached number 1, as her second solo No. 1 hit. That same year, her album Lady Sings the Blues, which was the original soundtrack of her film based on the life of jazz singer Billie Holiday, went to no. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling more than 300,000 copies within its first 8 days of release.
Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history, due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts, with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist.
With the Supremes, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, never earning a competitive honor, but later became the recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
5points
The creative transformation seen in Liberty's journey of embodying influential women is resonant of how icons in cultural history have reinvented themselves to inspire the world. Just as these women have left lasting impressions, artists like Prince also reshaped their identities through various facets, including style and music.
To delve further into the impact of personal reinvention and its cultural significance, you might find insights in how artists set trends and inspire generations.