For supporting the right to marry for all people and finally acknowledging that love is love.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty
For a thrilling new album that reinforces our unabiding love for croissants, as well as our lifelong stance against donning leather pants.
Wikimedia Commons
For organizing the coolest day ever for BatKid...and for restoring our faith in humanity.
The Daily Beast
For going public with her preventive double mastectomy—and reassuring women everywhere that there is more to sexy than a perfect pair of knockers.
Tim P. Whitby/Getty
For the adorable, squeezable, two-pound, previously unknown animal that has joined our mammalian brethren. It’s remarkable that nature still hides such wonderful, teddy-bear-shaped secrets.
Wikimedia Commons
For making “thigh gap” enthusiasts look superficial and sad.
Gary Gershoff/Getty
For not choosing a boring pseudonym when he decided it was a good idea to sext using an alias. And then for choosing to go bold on the campaign trail.
Donald Traill/AP
For being one of the most popular popes ever and the biggest hope for reform in the Catholic Church. And for being so cool and letting this little boy hang with him while making a speech in front of thousands at the Vatican.
AFP/Getty
For making filibustering cool before Ted Cruz, and for wearing awesome pink sneakers while doing it.
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For proving hope and faith can triumph even in the face of true horror.
AP
For leaving Louis Vuitton with a bang after 16 years at the helm.
Eric Ryan/Getty
For Dominique Ansel’s holy doughnut-meets-croissant pastries that are so heavenly and sinful that they’re worth the absurd, early morning wait.
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For the country that’s so small and with such confusing surnames that residents have to bump their phones to prevent bumping their cousin in bed.
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For resurrecting Badfinger’s lovely “Baby Blue”—oh, and for ending Breaking Bad right.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty
For reigniting our love for the royals…and for being so darn cute.
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For awesome viral videos that make late night fun again.
Kevin Winter/Getty
For proving that one can act like an absolute crazy person and still be classy as hell on Scandal. (It’s handled!) And for wearing lots of pretty things while being a damned intelligent lady.
ABC/Randy Holmes
For being the first Indian-American to win the crown, and for dealing with the racist backlash so gracefully. As she told The Daily Beast, “the girl next door is evolving as the vision of Miss America is evolving.”
Michael Loccisano/Getty
For awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to Alice Munro, a writer we all know and admire.
AFP/Getty
For showing us up by walking across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope.
Tim Boyles/Getty
For calling out Miley Cyrus for “degrading an icon.”
Neilson Barnard/Getty
For giving the performance of the year in All Is Lost—without speaking. If he doesn’t win the Oscar, we’re moving to Canada.
Daniel Daza
For keeping things interesting…in the hair department.
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For getting Taye Diggs back on the big screen.
Michael Gibson/Universal Pictures
’Nough said.
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