In a week where tennis legend Serena Williams debuted a powerful new ad campaign celebrating female athletes challenging the status quo, we look at just some of the famous Kiwi women doing their bit to challenge the norm – or simply kick some massive goals – of late.
Parris Goebel
Kiwi choreographer Parris Goebel has shown us all again that she's the one the musical superstars of the world turn to when they want to make a statement on stage.
Having previously worked with British group Little Mix, Goebel put together the choreography for their performance of Woman Like Me (featuring a fierce Ms Banks) at last week's Brit Awards.
Wearing hot pink leather outfits, the group brought the house down with their performance.
"So proud of Little Mix and all the amazing dancers that helped us bring this vision to life," Goebel shared on Instagram afterwards.
"I always love working with these four talented ladies."
Michelle Langstone
Actress Michelle Langstone found herself in the headlines last month after deciding to take a stand over NZ Cricket's handling of Black Cap Scott Kuggeleijn.
Unhappy with the organisation's silence over Kuggeleijn's previous rape trials, Langstone – a huge fan of cricket – decided to give the game a miss.
"I'm not going to watch any more Black Caps games until NZC grow a pair and make some kind of effort to publicly address the situation with Kuggeleijn," the 800 Words actress wrote on Twitter.
"It's not ok to be silent like this. It's not ok for an organisation that young men look up to and aspire to.
"There's a responsibility to acknowledge the situation and recognise the impact it has. It's a very simple thing. Talk about it. Own it. Make a space for people to learn something."
Langstone also recently put a shopkeeper in his place after disparaging remarks about what women should wear these days.
While Langstone shopped for scrubs to wear while she studies vet nursing, the man told her: "I'd really tell you to try on the women's-fit scrub and not the unisex. It's tailored, and looking at your figure, it will suit you better. I can't bear this fitting women into clothes that make them look like men."
Langstone told her Instagram followers that she stared at the shopkeeper before saying, "I'm not trying to show off my figure, mate, I'm buying a uniform so I can study to be a vet technician."
"Here I am in my cool unisex scrubs," she wrote afterwards.
"I might just wear trousers this whole entire year in retaliation. That is some BS. I'm a tomboy since 1979. I love androgyny and most of my shirts and jumpers I bought in men's clothing shops. I'm so annoyed by that exchange. And kind of amazed."
Tami Neilson
Meanwhile, the nominees for this year's Academy of Country Music Awards (the holy grail of the genre) were revealed a week ago – and New Zealand's adopted queen of country music, Tami Neilson, was unimpressed, deciding to call out the lack of women in the most prestigious category.
"No female nominees for ACM Awards Entertainer of the Year again? Crazy!" she wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of Patsy Cline (because who doesn't also love a good country music pun?)
Jaquie Brown was rocking her own special brand of girl power this week after revealing she's reached a significant career goal – being signed by major American outfit Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
"I'm grinning like an idiot, which is only 2% jet lag delirium, the other 98% is that I am beyond excited and grateful to say that I've been signed to CAA in Hollywood as a film and TV writer," she said.
"Today marks the start of two weeks of me being in LA taking meetings and starting this next chapter of my life. This is my dream come true and I'm really excited to bring my little bit of NZ to the US through my stories and characters."
The Hits presenter Brodie Kane was also notching up significant milestones this month – more specifically, completing the mountain run during the gruelling Coast to Coast event.
Not only did she run that 30.5km piece of alpine track, she did it all with a smile on her face.
"[The run] was one of the most challenging things I've ever done and yet at the same time, as you can see, I couldn't keep the smile off my face (ok maybe sometimes there was a wee frown) because it was an unreal experience," Kane enthused on Instagram afterwards.
"I'm at a stage of my life where these types of challenges are really appealing to me. Why? Not because I'm going out to win them, not because I'm the fittest, fastest person, but because it's teaching me so much about myself, what I am capable of and how far I can push myself - mentally and physically."
Meanwhile, Greer Perenara has been doing her bit to address a major issue facing so many of us – online bullying.
After her surprise wedding to All Black TJ Perenara in January, Greer was beyond excited to share the full video of her wedding a few weeks later.
But that excitement was soured when cruel comments were left under the video of the beautiful ceremony at Porirua's Gear Homestead.
Greer decided she wasn't having it and penned a note to those trolls on her Instagram page.
"I'm sorry that you are going through whatever you're going through that made you waste two minutes of your valuable time commenting on a video of the happiest day of my life to acknowledge my weight," she wrote.
"I'm sure that those two minutes could have been spent elsewhere. I'm sorry that you have to put your negativity onto others to make yourself feel like you're smart or funny or witty or powerful. That makes me sad for you."
She carried on to say: "But trolls, most of all, I'm sorry that I'm happy and I'm bathing in an abundance of love and joy and incredible relationships with people who love me and respect me and that you are a sad, insecure human who needs a hug.
"In fact... DM me, I'll flick you my address and hug you myself. There's a lot of me to go around."
