Being woke isn't easy.
Whether these women are dismantling the patriarchy or protesting police brutality, these celebrities take the time to school their audiences in multiple ways.
If you're struggling to find an IRL girlfriend who is down for the cause, check out our list of intellectually-stimulating and gorgeous celebrity crushes you can swoon over:
1. Ariana Grande
Don't let that cute face or well-kept ponytail fool you: Ariana Grande is a badass not to be messed with.
The 22-year-old singer has showed us time and time again that she is not down for industry sexism. Whether she's calling out bros for their really bad jokes or penning feminist manifestos on Twitter, Grande prioritizes equality and equity.
In the summer of 2015, Grande was fed up with the media's focus on her relationship with rapper Big Sean and wrote:
If a man has sex ... HE'S. A. STUD. A BOSSSS. A KING. If a women even TALKS about sex openly ... she is shamed! Clearly not been having the boy questions in my interviews lately because I have come to the realization that I have SO. MUCH. MORE. to talk about.
Tell 'em, girl.
2. Nicki Minaj
Nick Minaj has demonstrated several times that she isn't playing, either.
The 33-year-old rapper, singer, and songwriter activated her woke side several times in 2015. Whether schooling Miley Cyrus on intersectionality or calling out the music industry's minimal recognition of black artists, Minaj calls it like she sees it.
In an interview with New York Times Magazine, Cyrus called Minaj "not very polite" after the rapper said that award ceremonies hardly ever give black artists due credit.
After Minaj fired back at Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards, she elaborated on her frustrations in a later interview:
The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls. You’re in videos with black men, and you’re bringing out black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.
All hail Queen Nicki.
3. Chrissy Teigen
Model Chrissy Teigen has been doing her share of activist work for some time, but you may not know because she hasn't sought recognition for those efforts.
After a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner in summer 2014, the 30-year-old model discreetly hired food trucks to feed protesters.
Teigen and her bae, singer John Legend, never took credit for the service, but Buzzfeed confirmed their deed.
And after a Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs in last November, Teigen took to Twitter to let the world know she supports the organization:
4. Kerry Washington
Kerry Washington may be Hollywood's most underestimated bae.
Beyond her leading role on ABC's Scandal, the 38-year-old mother has worked to address issues like domestic violence for years. In an interview with Women's Health Magazine, she explained:
I was really drawn to V-Day because I fell in love with the play The Vagina Monologues, and that play turned into this global movement to end violence against women. That's always been really exciting for me, that theater can have that kind of impact in the world. I'm very moved by opportunities to have art transform society, which is part of why I was also drawn to [the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse] project, because it's the fashion design that allows for the conversation.
Washington has been working with Allstate Foundation's Purple Purse to help end domestic violence against women.
During a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair, Washington explained her love of reading, citing author and social critic James Baldwin as one of her favorites. For Washington, it's important to be politically aware:
I just come from a household of pretty socially active people. Talking about politics has always been a big part of my upbringing. So it's not necessarily that as somebody in the public eye I suddenly thought, 'Oh, I should use this platform to be vocal.' It was sort of the other way around, that I've always been really active and always been very involved in high school and college, my whole life, and I made a decision that I didn't want my career in the public eye to keep me from being somebody who participates socially and politically.
Hopefully, the work of these inspiring women encourages more celebrities to stay woke.
