Paetongtarn Shinawatra

This summer, Paetongtarn Shinawatra made history. On Aug. 18, just days before her 38th birthday, she was confirmed as Thailand’s Prime Minister and Asia’s youngest-ever female leader. Her rise wasn’t exactly a shock: Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire media mogul who was elected Prime Minister in 2001, only to be deposed five years later. Since then, Paetongtarn’s aunt and uncle have also held Thailand’s top job, only to be toppled by judicial and military interventions. Paetongtarn’s own elevation comes after Thailand’s Constitutional Court controversially ousted a Pheu Thai Party colleague. If Paetongtarn is to avoid her family’s legacy of political banishment, she must find ways to implement new economic policies while pacifying the nation’s power nexus, which loathes the upstart Shinawatra political dynasty. Not that she is cowed. “Thailand needs change,” Paetongtarn told TIME last year.