Ava DuVernay Named One of 'Glamour's Women of the Year!

Ava DuVernay strikes a pose on the digital cover of Glamour‘s Women of the Year issue, on newsstands October 24th.

Here’s what the 47-year-old filmmaker had to share with the mag:

On her definition of success: “I am trying to disrupt systems—systems that we in this country take as gospel. We’re born into them. We abide by their rules without interrogating what the rules are meant to do, who they’re meant to serve. And you can’t disrupt what you don’t understand. But once you understand, perhaps you engage with these things differently, no matter who you are. Perhaps you don’t assume that, because it’s a longstanding institution, it is right and fair, and you interrogate for yourself what you’ve been taught and told, and you learn to relearn for yourself.”

On her inspirations: “It was really Spike Lee, who I studied, in terms of being a black filmmaker who would open a film on his name. It didn’t matter who was in it, which gave him freedom to not have to be tethered to that Hollywood hierarchy.”

On her films being able to reach the masses: “There’s a lot of really beautiful work that’s left by the wayside because it just hasn’t pierced through the cultural consciousness. I’m really fortunate to be in a position now to make work that I love, with my own independent vision. And to have the kind of muscle to put it into the culture is a rarefied honor. It really is. Especially for someone that looks like me, someone that looks like us.”

For more from Ava DuVernay, visit Glamour.com.

READ MORE: Find out what other powerful women were honored with Glamour covers