Long Reads & Feature Stories

Celebrating Wāhine Awards 2025

We’re honoring 39 outstanding business and community leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, health care workers, creatives and others for their impactful contributions to our community. After readers submitted nominations, the women were selected by HONOLULU editors. We asked our award winners to tell us more about their goals and sources of inspiration. Here’s what they said in their own words.

How Healthy Are We, Really?

With rising cancer and diabetes rates and the myriad diseases prevalent among Native Hawaiians and those in underserved communities, Hawai‘i isn’t the model of health it’s touted to be.