Elise By Olsen

As the teenage founder of commercial-averse youth culture publication Recens, Elise By Olsen was nominated for a Guinness World Record. Ironically, she says, they couldn’t give out the “youngest editor-in-chief” accolade due to age restrictions. But she’s not letting that stop her.

“I carry knowledge and experiences that older people don’t, and vice versa,” she says. “I want my capability to be judged on my delivery and results rather than my age.” By now we’ve come to expect this kind of rhetoric from the serious, prodigal Norwegian, who first started blogging at the age of eight.

With Olsen at the helm, Recens produced its first issue in 2013. “It started out primarily as a magazine, and now it’s behaving more as a tool to document this movement that’s happening,” she explains. In 2017 she is also launching Wallet, a quarterly publication of fashion commentary. With this in mind, it’s unsurprising that Olsen has been homeschooled for around a year. “I know that widening my views will benefit my work,” she says. “I’ve also started teaching at universities and doing lectures at conferences.”

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff