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6 inspirational celeb teens making serious waves in the world

Teen Heroes are back! Nominations for this year’s Teen Heroes open on Saturday 15th July. The winners will be revealed at this year’s Teen Awards, happening at London's SSE Arena, Wembley on the 22nd October. To nominate a teen hero, head to the Teen Awards site.

Each year, Teen Heroes honours just some of the many selfless, courageous and unique young people who have fought through hardships, or tried in various different ways to make the world a better place.

In celebration, we've rounded up some of the most impressive famous teens who are using their platforms to inspire and educate.

1. Amandla Stenberg

Since starring as Rue in The Hunger Games at the age of just 13, Amandla Stenberg has been on a mission to leverage her star power and shine a light on important.

From schooling the world on cultural appropriation via her viral YouTube video, Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows, to sitting down with feminist icon Gloria Steinem for a one-on-one Teen Vogue interview, the 18 year-old is already considered a leading social activist with a fandom that includes Beyonce.

2. Rowan Blanchard

LA born Rowan has been acting since the age of five, and just wrapped up the final season of the hit Disney show Girl Meets World.

The 15-year-old star is highly intelligent, socially aware and has an incredible fashion sense to boot.

Rowan uses her social media platforms (which include 5.1 million Instagram followers) to publicise her activism on a range of issues including feminism, human rights and gun control. It's also where she sometimes posts samples of her poetry. Could she stop being so talented already? With girls like Rowan in the public eye, the future is looking bright.

3. Millie Bobby Brown

13-year-old British/American actress Millie Bobby Brown created one of the most iconic TV roles in recent years when she played Jane "Eleven" Ives in Netflix's retro sci fi drama Stranger Things. She not only shaved her hair for the part, but wowed everyone with her strong but subtle performance.

From posting cips of herself pummeling a boxing bag on Instagram, to starring in music videos for The XX and Sigma and Birdy, avid Liverpool FC supporter Millie is a strong and creative teen role model.

She cried on stage when she won best actor at the MTV movie awards, thanking the show's writers and creators for inventing, "a bad ass female iconic character that I’ve got the honor to play."

The cast of Stranger Things with Grimmy

The cast of TV hit Stranger Things talk to Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw.

4. Gaten Matarazzo

He's still only 14 but Gaten Matarazzo has already had a career to be proud of – having graduated from the Broadway stage to playing Dustin Henderson on Stranger Things.

The talented teen has also been extremely vocal about living with cleidocranial dysplasia, a condition he was born with that affects the development of bones and teeth. Gaten doesn’t have collarbones and still has his baby teeth, and it means that he speaks with a lisp. The Stranger Things creators wrote the condition into Dustin’s character after meeting Gaten.

“I just want to raise awareness for it and let people know that it’s not something that you should be afraid of showing,” he said, speaking on the Jonathan Ross show recently, and we couldn't agree more.

5. Yara Shahidi

17-year-old Yara Shahidi is best known for her role as the popular, stylish sister Zoey in the family sitcom Black-ish. She’s also a passionate advocate for representation, diversity and feminism, and an all-round Generation Z heroine.

The star, who has been working since she was six, is also the cousin of rapper Nas. Somehow, amidst everything else she's doing, she has found time to get into Harvard university. She will taking the lead role a Black-ish spinoff, College-ish, set to premiere on 2018 and following Zoey's adventures at college - so life really will be imitating art.

"What’s so cool about my generation is that being socially aware is ingrained in who we are,” she has said, during a Fossil First talk. “It’s almost as though we were born with a debt to society to do our part, to be a part of this peer group that understands pretty immediately the idea that whatever we do has to benefit the greater good of humanity.”

6. Chloe x Halle

It would be fair to say that we’re all inspired by Beyonce - whether or not we every actually manage to behave even a little bit like her. Beautiful sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey, however, can brag that they’re actually Queen Bey’s protégées.

The Atlanta duo started putting up Youtube videos, showcasing their incredible voices, as young teens. Their 2012 version of Beyonce’s Pretty Hurts went viral, clocking up nearly 12 million views, and their Bey signed them up to her management label Parkwood Entertainment off the back of it.

The pair made cameo appearances in Beyonce's Lemonade visual album, and opened up for the star during the European leg of her Formation World Tour. Nowadays, their solo career is taking off.

The outspoken, individual and vegan sisters are powerful feminists, too. “Two is better than one, one thousand is better than one,” said Chloe (the older sister) talking to Refinery 29. When one wins, we all win," says Chloe. “Girls could rule the world.”

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