NICOLA Sturgeon has been promoted by Friends actor Jennifer Aniston as one of the women who have been empowered to “change the world”.

Aniston, an infrequent but highly influential user of the social media platform, posted to her “story” yesterday evening.

The movie star’s 36 million followers have since been able to view the slideshow of women who are leading the world.

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Sturgeon, presented as the First Minister of Scotland, comes fourth on the list.

Other female world leaders highlighted as part of the “change that has been happening” include New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Germany’s Angela Merkel, and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen.

The National:

Norway’s Erna Solberg, Estonia’s Kersti Kaljulaid, and Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina also make the list.

After highlighting world leaders, the slideshow focuses on US politicians, beginning with Vice President Kamala Harris, the first African-American, woman, and Asian-American to hold that office.

Other prominent US politicians featured include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Stacey Abrams, the woman whose campaigning is credited with winning the state of Georgia for Joe Biden in the US elections.

Finally the video moves onto young women, such as Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg, who have already made an impact on a global scale.

It says: “Empower women, and change the world.”

The National:

Aniston’s Instagram account has only 47 posts, but each one receives millions and millions of “likes”.

The former Friends actor’s first ever post on the social media platform, in October 2019, was so popular it temporarily broke some of the site's features.

Featuring Aniston alongside the other five main cast members of the hit 90s sitcom, the post was liked around 9 million times in the first 24 hours.

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Aniston also broke records that day, becoming the person to reach one million followers in the shortest amount of time. It took her account just over five hours to hit the one million mark after its creation.

Female leaders globally have been in the spotlight through the pandemic, with perceptions being that countries led by women have typically fared better.

Ardern’s New Zealand has been a key example of this, with the nation’s rapid response to infections and willingness to follow the science being credited with its success.