THE co-founders of the Girls Takeover Parliament program, Ashleigh Streeter-Jones, 24, and Caitlin Figueiredo, 22, have been acknowledged in the Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia” list.

The two Australians were named “youthful visionaries” by Forbes for challenging conventional wisdom and rewriting the rules for the next generation of female leaders.

“When establishing Girls Takeover Parliament, we were on a mission to ensure the rights and voices of young women were heard by our politicians – and this recognition proves our program is a gamechanger”, Figueiredo said.

The Girls Takeover Parliament program, run in conjunction with Plan International Australia, made history by being the world’s largest political “takeover”.

The program aimed to close the “dream gap” for Australian young women and girls and demand a gender balance in parliament.

Streeter-Jones, the ACT Woman of the Year, and Figueiredo, the ACT Young Woman of the Year, secured the involvement of every major political party in the ACT Legislative Assembly and Federal Parliament.

Nationally, the program saw the direct participation of 23 MPs including the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Labor leaders Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek, Greens leader Richard di Natale and former leader of NXT Nick Xenophon. The program was also responsible for assisting the Australian Labor Party to put gender at the centre of their strategy.

Streeter-Jones said: “This award opens up a world of possibilities for our work. While we need more women in politics, the voices of young women are almost totally absent – but we’re going to change all of that.”

More than 2000 submissions were received by Forbes, but only 300 made the final cut with 36 Australians honoured. Girls Takeover ranked 10th on the Forbes Social Entrepreneurs list.

The criteria for the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 List includes leadership and disruption; entrepreneurial mind-set and results; and the likelihood of honourees changing their field over the next half-century. The official list is here.