You’ve seen the red border. You’ve probably argued about the choice at a dinner table or in a comment section. Every December, the world stops for a second to see who Time has pinned to the front of their magazine. But honestly, most people misunderstand what the selection actually represents.
It isn’t a Nobel Prize. It isn’t a "good person" award.
The criteria is simple, yet people miss it every single year: Who had the most influence on the news and our lives, for better or worse? That "for worse" part is where things get messy.
The Accident That Started It All
Back in 1927, Time had a problem. They’d totally missed the boat on Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic. They hadn't put him on the cover when it happened, and by the end of the year, they felt like idiots.
To fix the editorial embarrassment, they invented "Man of the Year" on the fly. Lindbergh became the first-ever cover. It was a slow news week, and they needed a hook. They didn't realize they were creating a century-long cultural obsession.
Since then, person of the year time magazine covers have featured everyone from kings and presidents to computer chips and, well, you.
The Villains on the Cover
If you want to win a bar trivia night, remind people that Adolf Hitler was the Man of the Year in 1938.
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People get furious about this. They think Time was honoring him. They weren't. The 1938 cover didn't even show his face; it was a dark illustration of a "hymn of hate" played on a demonic organ.
The magazine was acknowledging that this man was fundamentally altering the trajectory of the world. Joseph Stalin made the cover twice (1939 and 1942). The Ayatollah Khomeini graced the front in 1979 during the hostage crisis.
It’s about impact. It’s about the shadow someone casts over the next twelve months.
Breaking the Gender Barrier
For a long time, it was a "Man's" world—literally. The title was "Man of the Year" until 1999.
Wallis Simpson was the first woman to break through in 1936. Then came Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 and Corazon Aquino in 1986. But mostly, women were grouped together. In 1975, the cover just said "American Women."
It wasn't until Jeff Bezos took the title in 1999 that the magazine finally switched the branding to the gender-neutral "Person of the Year."
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Groups, Objects, and the "You" Gimmick
Sometimes, one person isn't enough to capture the vibe of a year.
- The Computer (1982): This was the first time a non-human won. People thought it was a cop-out, but looking back, was there anything more influential in '82 than the rise of the PC?
- You (2006): Remember the mirror on the cover? It was meant to celebrate user-generated content like YouTube and Wikipedia. Honestly, it felt a little cheesy at the time, but it aged surprisingly well given how much of our lives now happen through a screen.
- The Silence Breakers (2017): This was the #MeToo movement. It wasn't just one face; it was a collective roar that shifted corporate and social culture overnight.
- The Architects of AI (2025): The most recent big shift. Instead of just picking Sam Altman or Elon Musk, Time chose the "Architects of AI." The cover was a riff on that famous "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" photo from the 30s. It felt right. AI didn't just happen because of one guy in a hoodie; it was a systemic explosion.
Why Presidents Always Get In
If you win the U.S. Presidency, you’re basically guaranteed a cover.
Since the tradition started, almost every president has been named Person of the Year. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to hold the record with three separate covers (1932, 1934, and 1941).
Donald Trump has appeared twice—once in 2016 after his first win and again in 2024 after his comeback. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris shared the 2020 cover. It’s the most predictable part of the franchise. If you hold the most powerful office in the world, you’re the news.
The Evolution of Cover Art
The style of person of the year time magazine covers has shifted from formal oil paintings to gritty photography and now to high-concept digital art.
The 2023 Taylor Swift cover was a masterclass in modern portraiture—intimate but larger than life. Compare that to the 1930 Mahatma Gandhi cover, which was a simple, stark sketch. The medium changes, but the red border stays the same. That border is one of the most recognized pieces of branding in history.
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It’s weird to think about, but being on that cover is often the "peak" of a person's public life. Even for someone like Elon Musk (2021), that specific cover cemented his transition from "tech guy" to "global main character."
Making Sense of the Choice
How do they actually pick? It’s not a vote. It’s a closed-door decision by editors.
They look for "the person, group, or concept that has had the most influence on the news and our lives." Sometimes they get it right (Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963). Sometimes they feel a bit behind the curve.
But the cover always functions as a time capsule. If you look at a wall of these covers, you aren't just looking at famous people. You're looking at the history of human anxiety, progress, and power.
How to Collect or Find Old Covers
If you're a history buff, you don't have to hunt down dusty attics.
- The TIME Vault: You can access almost every digital archive of the magazine online if you have a subscription.
- The Cover Store: Time actually sells high-quality prints of the most iconic covers, including the recent 2024 and 2025 editions.
- Museums: The National Portrait Gallery in D.C. often houses the original artworks used for these covers.
To really understand a year, don't just look at the person on the front. Read the "Why" inside. The context is usually much more nuanced than the headline suggests.
The best way to stay ahead of the next selection is to track who is driving the most conversation in the "for better or worse" category. Usually, by November, the choice is already hiding in plain sight. If you want to dive deeper into the archives, start by comparing the "Man of the Year" era to the "Person of the Year" era; the shift in who we consider "influential" tells a story all its own.