Editor: Seventeen magazine

“I really want your job,” said Janine Jellars to Khwezi Magwaza, then editor of Seventeen magazine, at a fashion event in 2009. So when Magwaza was planning to resign from her day job, guess who she called up? Jellars went from features writer at Fair Lady and Elle to editor of Seventeen in 2011 at the age of 27, five years ahead of her plan.

After a BA in international relations at Stellenbosch University, her determination and hard work got her into the postgraduate journalism programme with a Media 24 scholarship; she won the Media24 Editor’s Choice award in 2009. Cape Town-born Jellars does not consider her job to be simply about putting a teen magazine together. “As clichéd as it is, I really want to empower young women and make them feel fearless.” With her sights set on being a talk-show host, it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be tuning in to her brand of empowerment.

— Zeenat Mahomed

Twitter: @janine_j