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<\/p>\nSophia Bush has never been one to treat advocacy as an accessory. The self-proclaimed \u201cdemocracy nerd\u201d has stitched activism into the seams of her public life\u2014visible whether she\u2019s on a set in Los Angeles, on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, or hosting her podcast, Work In Progress. Now, as she steps into the role of host for the 20th anniversary of L\u2019Or\u00e9al Paris\u2019 Women of Worth gala, Bush is stepping out of the spotlight and casting it on the women who reshape the world long before anyone thinks to hand them a microphone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something deeply moving to me about marking twenty years of a program that has uplifted women who don\u2019t wait for permission to change the world, they just get to work,\u201d Bush tells Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n
The Women of Worth program has long celebrated exactly those women\u2014who show up for their communities with courage and clarity, with the kind of devotion that rarely fits neatly into headlines. It\u2019s all part of the brand\u2019s larger \u201cBecause I’m Worth It\u201d mission, where one\u2019s own beauty isn\u2019t subject to anyone else\u2019s opinion. This year, ten honorees will not only be recognized for their work but also receive $25,000 to support their causes, mentorship from L\u2019Or\u00e9al Paris, and a national platform to amplify the change they\u2019re already creating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the women who see a need and don\u2019t wait to be crowned an expert before addressing it. They dive in, in the spirit of service. They are curious, relentless, and they do it all while leaving their ego at the door,\u201d Bush says. This year\u2019s honorees\u2014including Yasmine Arrington Brooks, Amy Bowers Cordalis, Mizpah Brown-Rich, Keely Cat-Wells, Sloane Davidson, Lynn B. Hughes, Anita Ravi, Christina Rodriguez, Gloria Umanah, and Olivia Zhang\u2014embody that truth across every corner of activism: gender equality, wellness, education, climate action, and more.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMove the needle\u201d is the phrase Bush uses for them\u2014women who manage to blend heart and grit, who treat hope not as an abstraction but as a daily discipline. Two honorees, in particular, have stayed with her. \u201cThe work Amy Bowers Cordalis is doing in Oregon, centering Indigenous communities and their generational knowledge to help in protecting and restoring Indigenous land, water, and cultural resources, moves me deeply,\u201d Bush says. \u201cAnd the work of Dr. Anita Ravi at PurpLE Health in New York, too. She\u2019s creating a new field of medicine\u2014gender-based violence care\u2014which is changing the support and treatment for women who have experienced domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault, and is training clinicians worldwide. I\u2019m in awe of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Bush, her work as an actress and her work in activism are inseparable. \u201cI don\u2019t think of my advocacy and my creative career as separate lanes. To me, they\u2019re braided together,\u201d she says. \u201cStorytelling\u2014whether it\u2019s onscreen, on a stage, or in a classroom\u2014has always been my North Star. It\u2019s the heartbeat of my work. I was raised to believe that if you are blessed to have a platform, you also have a duty. So I try to use mine\u2014in its relative size and scope\u2014in a way that feels grounded in service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, \u201cbeing of service\u201d is an ethos that carries expectations\u2014external ones, but often internal ones, too. And Bush is candid about the pressures that accompany that kind of work. \u201cBalance is something I\u2019m still working on,\u201d she admits. \u201cBut I\u2019m finding that it comes from giving myself permission to be human. Some seasons I\u2019m on set for long hours, and in others I\u2019m deep in policy work or traveling with nonprofits. I\u2019ve learned to let my values be my compass, instead of trying to maintain some mythical \u2018perfect\u2019 equilibrium. When the work feels meaningful, my personal sense of balance follows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps that\u2019s why hosting this milestone year feels, to Bush, like more than a gig. \u201cStepping into the role of host this year feels like a privilege and, frankly, a responsibility,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re living in a moment where it\u2019s easy to feel overwhelmed by the noise, the polarization, the heartbreak. But Women of Worth is the antidote to that. It\u2019s a reminder that hope isn\u2019t passive\u2014it\u2019s a practice. Hope chooses to get in the arena again and again, and women show us how to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Livestream the event on December 2nd at 7pm on Vanity Fair Youtube<\/a> and learn more about the 2025 Women of Worth and their journeys of strength, ambition, and hope here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Premiere Pro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophia Bush has never been one to treat advocacy as an accessory. The self-proclaimed \u201cdemocracy nerd\u201d has stitched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12905],"tags":[1580,16528,13751,16529,6775],"class_list":["post-22333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-loreal","tag-loreal","tag-midcontents-disabled","tag-onecolumn","tag-textabovecentergridwidth","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/VF_x_LOREALPARIS_WOW-OCT_16x9_HERO.Still006%20(1).png\"\/)
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