In the past year, she has been confronted with a mass shooting committed by a far-right extremist, a suddenly active and deadly volcano and, most recently, a global virus that originated in her nation’s most important trading partner. She officially became her country’s leader around the same time she learned she was pregnant with her first child. With a mere seven weeks left in the campaign, she put together enough votes and allies to form a government. Just a few years ago, in 2017, having been a local Member of Parliament for a matter of months, she became a Hail Mary candidate for Prime Minister, a millennial woman thrown into an election at the last minute to resurrect the fortunes of her slumping party in a Pacific Island nation of 4.8 million people. Now she has to persuade her country to keep the faith SHARE Photograph by Djeneba Aduayom for TIME The New Zealand prime minister earned international acclaim for her leadership in the face of tragedy.
