TIME Person Of The Year, The Silence Breakers in Sexual Harassment Scandal

TIME didn't pick a person of the year this time around ... they picked people who opened the floodgates in America's sexual harassment awakening.

TIME chose "The Silence Breakers," including Ashley Judd, Taylor Swift -- who sued a DJ and won earlier this year -- and former Uber engineer Susan Fowler. Also pictured on the cover ... activist Adama Iwu and strawberry picker Isabel Pascual.

TIME writes, "Movie stars are supposedly nothing like you and me. They're svelte, glamorous, self-possessed. They wear dresses we can't afford and live in houses we can only dream of. Yet it turns out that -- in the most painful and personal ways -- movie stars are more like you and me than we ever knew."

Also mentioned ... Terry Crews, Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, Selma Blair, Senator Sara Gelser, and Megyn Kelly.