An Auckland law student has been recognised in an annual list of the 50 most influential women, alongside Rihanna, environmental activist Greta Thunberg, Nobel prize-winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold and actor Anne Hathaway.
Grace Stratton of AUT, is among the worldwide luminaries in American magazine InStyle’s Badass Women annual list which honours ‘women leading the way to a better world’.
The global magazine reaches more than 15 million readers and has recognised Grace for her role in establishing All is for All, a social change making agency working in the realm of accessibility.
Grace, who also recently received a New Zealand Youth Award for Innovation for All is for All, told InStyle: “Once you feel strength in who you are, you’ll know your power. I believe that’s the first step to becoming a badass.”
All is for All includes an e-commerce platform, boutique modelling agency and consultation service, each focused on the need to make fashion and the wider world accessible.
“By cultivating an environment where people with disabilities are continually represented, we will increase the confidence of New Zealand's population with access needs. With this confidence people with disabilities are empowered to develop stronger, bigger ambitions for themselves," says Grace.
“With these ambitions they will then be more likely to seek out and find opportunities, additionally by our efforts employers will create more opportunities for the disabled population. With these created or found opportunities people with access needs will find more places of belonging – from workplaces, to relationships or self-agency. Belonging is our ultimate goal.”