ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
May 11, 2009
A Night to Celebrate
The annual TIME 100 gala in New York City honors the world's most influential people. TFK Kid Reporter Forrest Simpson was there.
Every year, TIME magazine makes a list of the year's most influential people, called the TIME 100. The magazine publishes a special issue with a picture and profile of each person. This year's TIME 100 included politicians, business leaders, scientists, athletes, artists and entertainers.
 |  Courtesy of Jill Simpson Author Jeff Kinney and TFK Kid Reporter Forrest Simpson at the TIME 100 gala in New York. |
To celebrate, TIME hosts a gala, and invites all of the people who wrote the profiles and the 100 people themselves. This year's gala was held on Tuesday, May 5, at the Time Warner Center in New York City. The event was spectacular. First Lady Michelle Obama was there. So were Oprah Winfrey, financial expert Suze Orman, fashion designer Stella McCartney, singer M.I.A., and the creators of the micro-blogging site Twitter, Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. They sent Twitter messages throughout the evening!
Being the only kid there, I was treated like any other adult, walking the red carpet and having conversations with Robin Chase, the co-founder of Zipcar MSNBC news anchor Chris Mathews, biologist Doug Melton, of Harvard University and Jeff Kinney, author and illustrator of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I was lucky to be chosen to write the profile of Jeff Kinney in TIME magazine. When I interviewed him in December for TIME for Kids I asked him if he had any advice for kids who want to do what he does when they grow up. "Yes," he told me. "If a kid wants to be a cartoonist, they should copy as many people as possible. When you copy someone else's style, it helps you understand how the artist created their drawings."
 Jemal Countess/Getty Images Twitter co-founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, who sent Twitter messages throughout the evening! | |
During dinner, there were hilarious and entertaining performances by comedian Jimmy Fallon, singer John Legend and A.R. Rahman, who composed the soundtrack for the Academy Award-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. TIME magazine's top editor, Rick Stengel, Oprah Winfrey, and Mrs. Obama gave inspiring toasts and speeches. It was exciting to hear all of these amazing people speak and to be just a few feet away from the First Lady. "Events like this one show how truly connected our world is; how one person's invention can create an entirely new economy; how one person can change how we see the world," she said. "The ability of one person to influence the outcome of someone else's life inspires me."
The night was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it was a thrill to write for TIME magazine!
