The designer lending her creativity to violence prevention

Jordan Tane is an artist and designer whose experience of growing up takiwatanga - with autism - means she sees the world a little differently. And it's exactly that unique perspective that's seen her land on the YWCA Y25 list of female and gender-diverse changemakers for 2026. Non-verbal until she was five years old, the award-winning designer and PhD student is now creating communication tools for violence prevention within families. It's been a process that she says has helped her reconnect with her own identity as Maori.