list 50 women little girls should admire instead of symbols of stupidity and weakness

Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an African American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first woman of recent African ancestry to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Early years
Mae Carol Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, the youngest child to Charlie Jemison and Dorothy Green. Her father was a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization, and her mother worked most of her career as an elementary school teacher of English and math at the Beethoven School in Chicago.1 The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was 3, to take advantage of better educational opportunities there. Jemison says that as a young girl growing up in Chicago she always assumed she would get into space. “I thought, by now, we’d be going into space like you were going to work.”[3] She said it was easier to apply to be a shuttle astronaut, “rather than waiting around in a cornfield, waiting for ET to pick me up or something.”[3]

Peace Corps
After completing her medical internship, Jemison joined the staff of the Peace Corps and served as a Peace Corps Medical Officer from 1983 to 1985 responsible for the health of Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Liberia and Sierra Leone.[10] Jemison’s work in the Peace Corps included supervising the pharmacy, laboratory, medical staff as well as providing medical care, writing self-care manuals, and developing and implementing guidelines for health and safety issues. Jemison also worked with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) helping with research for various vaccines.

NASA

Jemison is shown aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-47 preparing to deploy the lower body negative pressure (LBNP) apparatus.[15]

Jemison on 1995 Azeri postage stamp.
In 1985 Jemison returned to the United States, entered private practice in Los Angeles as a general practitioner with CIGNA Health Plans of California then did engineering courses.[1] After the flight of Sally Ride in 1983, Jemison felt the astronaut program had opened up enough for her to apply.[1] Jemison’s inspiration for joining NASA was African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek.[4] Jemsion was turned down on her first application to NASA, but in 1987 Jemison was accepted on her second application and became one of the fifteen candidates accepted from over 2,000 applicants.[13] “I got a call saying ‘Are you still interested?’ and I said ‘Yeah’,” says Jemison.[16]
Her work with NASA before her shuttle launch included launch support activities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and verification of Shuttle computer software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL).1719 “I did things like help to support the launch of vehicles at Kennedy Space Center,” said Jemison.[16] “I was in the first class of astronauts selected after the Challenger accident back in 1986, ... [I] actually worked the launch of the first flight after the Challenger accident.[16]

Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993.[10] “I left NASA because I’m very interested in how social sciences interact with technologies,” says Jemison.[22] “People always think of technology as something having silicon in it. But a pencil is technology. Any language is technology. Technology is a tool we use to accomplish a particular task and when one talks about appropriate technology in developing countries, appropriate may mean anything from fire to solar electricity.”[22] Although Jemison’s departure from NASA was amicable, NASA was not thrilled to see her leave.[4] “NASA had spent a lot of money training her; she also filled a niche, obviously, being a woman of color,” says Hiram Hickam, a training manager for NASA’s space station efforts.[4] In an interview with the Des Moines Register on October 16, 2008 Jemison said that she was not driven to be the “first black woman to go into space.” “I wouldn’t have cared less if 2,000 people had gone up before me … I would still have had my hand up, ‘I want to do this.’”[12]

STS-47 Mission Specialist Mae Jemison appears to be clicking her heels in zero gravity in the center aisle of the Spacelab Japan (SLJ) science module aboard the Earth-orbiting Endeavour, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 105. Making her only flight in space, Jemison was joined by five other NASA astronauts and a Japanese payload specialist for eight days of research in support of the SLJ mission, a joint effort between Japan and United States.[15]
In 1993 Jemison started her own company, the Jemison Group that researches, markets, and develops science and technology for daily life.[10] In 1993, Jemison also appeared on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.[23] LeVar Burton found out, from a friend that Jemison was a big Star Trek fan and asked her if she’d be interested in being on the show, and she said, “Yeah!!”[24] The result was an appearance in the episode “Second Chances.”[24] Jemison has the distinction of being the first real astronaut ever to appear on Star Trek.[24]

Elizabeth Stamatina “Tina” Fey (born May 18, 1970) is an American writer, comedian, actress, and producer. She has won six Emmys, three Golden Globes, and three SAG Awards. Fey is best known for her work on Mean Girls, Saturday Night Live, and her starring and creative roles on 30 Rock, a situation comedy loosely based on her experiences at Saturday Night Live. Fey was selected by Barbara Walters as one of America’s “10 most fascinating people of 2008”.

Fey became a writer on SNL in 1997. She was promoted to the position of head writer in 1999. She was added to the cast of SNL in 2000.[3] After leaving SNL in 2006, Fey created her own television series called 30 Rock. In the series, she portrays Liz Lemon, the head writer of TGS with Tracy Jordan, a fictional sketch comedy series.[3] In early 2008, she starred in the movie Baby Mama, alongside Amy Poehler.

OTHER FACTS:
• Is left handed.
• Her father is of German and Irish descent, and her mother is Greek.
• Graduated from Upper Darby High School.
• Admits was a mean girl in high school.
• Considered herself a supernerd during her high school days.
• Attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 1992. She majored in Drama.
• Came out of Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe where she was a writer-performer.
• Is Saturday Night Live’s first ever female head writer.
• As a writer for SNL she has written: Old French Whore, The View parodies, Boston Teens, Monica Lewinsky, Colonel Angus and Mom Jeans sketches among others.
• Was chosen by Entertainment Weekly as the #8 entertainer of the year in 2001.
• Was voted one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful in the World.
• Made screenwriting debut with “Mean Girls” (2004).
• Likes to sew and bake cookies.
• Her husband, Jeff Richmond, is a Second City director. He is ten years older than her.

30 Rock
Fey developed a sitcom, 30 Rock, for NBC’s fall 2006 schedule. The show is produced by NBC and Broadway Video, with Lorne Michaels and two former producers of The Tracy Morgan Show, David Miner, who is also her manager at 3 Arts, and Joann Alfano. Fey also writes and stars in the sitcom, said to be based on her experiences at SNL.
The show made its debut with mostly positive reviews but weak ratings. Ratings improved when NBC moved it to the Thursday night “Must See TV” comedy block. NBC renewed the series for a second season, which began in October 2007.
In July 2007, Fey was nominated for an Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for her role as Liz Lemon. The show itself won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. In 2008, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series on January 27.
Along with the rest of the show’s writing staff, Fey participated in the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, which began on November 5, 2007 and concluded on February 12, 2008. While picketing in Rockefeller Center on the first day of the strike, Fey was quoted as saying, “I’m a member of the Guild and I am here to support my fellow Guild members. This strike affects the show in which I work. We put our pens down yesterday, and we will not write until negotiations resume.” Fey, however, continued with her acting and producing duties on 30 Rock, as required by her contract. Production on 30 Rock ended Friday, November 9, 2007 and resumed 95 days later, at the conclusion of the writers strike, on February 12, 2008.

The show’s third season premiered on October 30, 2008.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is the current First Lady of the United States, and the wife of the forty-fourth President of the United States Barack Obama. She is the first African American First Lady.

She was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. After completing her formal education, she returned to Chicago and accepted a position with the law firm Sidley Austin, and subsequently worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Michelle Obama is the sister of Craig Robinson, men’s basketball coach at Oregon State University.

I love Kathy Bates. She’s not the too thin to see type Hollywood loves so much. She has so much personality and her acting skills are to be coveted. I loved her in Misery, Water Boy, and The Family That Preys. Kathy Bates is da bomb!

Height
5’ 3” (1.60 m)

Mini Biography
Poor Kathy Bates was forever losing out when her award-winning stage characters transferred to the screen. Unphotogenic and unattractive by Hollywood standards, she faced disappointment after disappointment as younger, prettier or more established stars usurped her New York stage triumphs in their adaptations to film. First Sissy Spacek takes on her potent role as the suicidal Jessie Cates in ‘night, Mother (1986), then Michelle Pfeiffer seizes the moment to play her dumpy lover character in Frankie and Johnny (1991). It would take Oscar glory to finally rectify the injustice.

Kathleen Doyle Bates was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters born to Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer, and his homemaker wife Bertye Talbot. Kathy’s great-great Irish grandfather, who emigrated to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson’s doctor. She discovered acting appearing in high school plays and studied drama at Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1969. With her mind firmly set, she moved to New York City in 1970 and paid her dues by working everything from a cash register to taking lunch orders. She scored a tour-de-farce performance alongside Christopher Walken at Buffalo’s Studio Arena Theatre in Lanford Wilson’s world premiere of “Lemon Sky” in 1970—but she also had a foreshadowing of the heartbreak to come when the successful show relocated to New York’s off-Broadway Playhouse Theatre without Kathy. Walken wound up winning a Drama Desk award.

By the mid-to-late 1970s Kathy was trotting the boards frequently as a rising young actress of the New York and regional theater scene. She appeared in “Casserole” and “A Quality of Mercy” (both 1975) before earning exceptional reviews for her role of Joanne in “Vanities”. She took her first Broadway curtain call in 1980’s “Goodbye Fidel,” which lasted only six performances. She then went directly into replacement mode when she joined the cast of the already-established and highly successful “Fifth of July” in 1981.

Kathy made a false start in films with Taking Off (1971), in which she was billed as “Bobo Bates”. She didn’t film again until Straight Time (1978), starring Dustin Hoffman, and that part was not substantial enough to cause a stir. Things turned hopeful, however, when Kathy and the rest of the female ensemble were given the chance to play their respective Broadway parts in the film version of Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). It was a juicy role for Kathy and film audiences finally started noticing the now 34-year-old.

Still and all, it was the New York stage that continued to earn Kathy awards and acclaim. She was pure textbook to any actor studying how to disappear into a role. Her characters ranged from free and life-affirming to downright pitiable. Despite winning a Tony Award nomination and Outer Critic’s Circle Award for her stark, touchingly sad portrait of a suicidal daughter in 1983’s ”’night, Mother” and the Obie and Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for her powerhouse job as a romantic misfit in “Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune,” Kathy had no box-office pull and was hardly a strong consideration when the roles finally went to film.

It was her fanatical turn as the drab, chunky, porcine-looking psychopath Annie Wilkes, who kidnaps her favorite author (James Caan) and subjects him to a series of horrific tortures, that finally turned the tide for her in Hollywood. With the 1990 shocker Misery (1990), based on the popular Stephen King novel, Bates and Caan were pure box office magic. Moreover, Kathy captured the “Best Actress” Oscar and Golden Globe award, a first in that genre (horror) for that category. To add to her happiness she married Tony Campisi, also an actor, in 1991.

Quality film scripts now started coming her way and the 1990s proved to be a rich and rewarding time for her. First, she and another older “overnight” film star, fellow Oscar winner Jessica Tandy, starred together in the modern portion of the beautifully nuanced, flashback period piece Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). She then outdid herself as the detached and depressed housekeeper accused of murdering her abusive husband (David Strathairn) in Dolores Claiborne (1995). Surprisingly, she was left out of the Oscar race for these two excellent performances. Not so, however, for her flashy political advisor Libby Holden in the movie Primary Colors (1998) and her quirky, liberal mom in About Schmidt (2002), receiving “Best Supporting Actress” nominations for both

Kathy has also done prolific work on TV as a seven-time Emmy nominee, and has taken to directing a couple of TV-movies on the sly. She was nominated for a DGA award after helming an episode of “Six Feet Under”, in which she also had a recurring role. While some of her more recent movie parts have been generally unworthy of her talents, she has more than made up for it in TV-movies playing everything from cruel-minded caricatures (Little Orphan Annie’s Miss Hannigan) to common, decent, every day folk.

Divorced from her husband since 1997, Kathy has been the Executive Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.

Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, on June 27, 1936. Her first book of poems, Good Times, was rated one of the best books of the year by the New York Times in 1969.

Clifton remained employed in state and federal government positions until 1971, when she became a writer in residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore, Maryland, where she completed two collections: Good News About the Earth (1972) and An Ordinary Woman (1974).

She has gone on to write several other collections of poetry, including Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 (BOA Editions, 2000), which won the National Book Award; The Terrible Stories (1995), which was nominated for the National Book Award; The Book of Light (1993); Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 (1991); Next: New Poems (1987)

Her collection Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 (1987) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Two-Headed Woman (1980), also a Pulitzer Prize nominee, was the recipient of the University of Massachusetts Press Juniper Prize. She has also written Generations: A Memoir (1976) and more than sixteen books for children, written expressly for an African-American audience.

Her honors include an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, a Lannan Literary Award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shelley Memorial Award, the YM-YWHA Poetry Center Discovery Award, and the 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize.

In 1999, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She has served as Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland and is currently Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“I love humor. I always will fall back on humor. That’s something that I think you can’t ever get enough of and, if it’s done well, it’s great. When it’s bad, it’s horrible.”
- Sandra Bullock

I absolutely LOVE Sandra Bullock. She can play a wide range of roles and be believable. She is a wonderful, charming, talented, and beautiful actress.

“Women are like ovens. We need 5 to 15 minutes to heat up.”
- Sandra Bullock

I’ve noticed that she also has great chemistry with Keanu Reeves. They did Speed and The Lake House together. I loved The Lake House. I bought it for myself. I may watch that this weekend. Hmmmmm…

One thing I admire about Sandra is that when she moved to the Big Apple, she enrolled in intensive acting classes while also working as a bartender. Sandra was a bartender for three years while she worked hard at achieving her dream of becoming an actress. Sandra went to every casting call and audition she could.

Sandra got five film roles in ‘93. 1-2-3-4-5. WOW! Her most noticeable film of that year was Demolition Man with costars Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes.

Sandra also she beat out Hollywood heavyweight Demi Moore for the leading role in While You Were Sleeping. In 1996’s A Time To Kill (1996), she began earning a seven-digit salary.

I love the fact that Sandra began her own production company called Fortis Films. Her first project was Hope Floats (1998), starring Harry Connick Jr. and Gena Rowlands. I thought Hope Floats was a very cute movie despite what the funky critics may think. Shoot, I’m a critic. I also liked when she starred opposite Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic. Very smart move Sandra. Another good movie I might add.

In 2004, Sandra appeared in a completely different role as a racist in the Academy Award-winning movie Crash. Again, another believable performance by Ms. Bullock.

She’s funny, spunky, talented, gorgeous, and doin da dang thang! Go Sandra!

Taken From Wikipedia

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, United States) is a singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. She has won eight Grammy Awards Turner’s consistent contributions to rock music have earned her the title The Queen of Rock & Roll. Besides rock music, she has also performed R&B, soul, dance and pop music.

Turner has been acknowledged as one of the world’s most popular and biggest-selling music artists of all time and is the most successful female rock artist of all time with record sales in excess of 180 million. She has sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history. To date, Turner has 7 Billboard top 10 singles, 16 US top ten R&B singles, and over 20 Top 40 hits in the UK.

The popular press has referred to Turner favorably as the truest rock diva of all, soul’s first real diva, the most dynamic female soul singer in the history of the music, and one of soul music’s most incendiary performers. Turner is known for her energetic stage presence, vocals, rock concerts, as well as for her long, well-proportioned legs.

• “I really believe that what I do as an actress is my God-given talent. This is my calling…not my career. And I appreciate it.”

• “If my Heavenly Father held my hand, my brother Larry had my back.”—AB in her 1994 Image Award acceptance speech.

• “Beauty comes from your soul, and once you get your soul intact, it just emanates from you.”—Angela Bassett

• “I love it when he beats me!”—Angela joking about working with Laurence Fishburne.

• “You’ve got to guard the heart and the spirit diligently.”—Angela on why she does not take just any movie role.

• “You just have to live and laugh—joy looks great on everybody.”—Angela Bassett

Copied from Wikipedia
Bassett was born in New York city on August 16, 1958, then relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida, as a child. She and her sister D’nette were raised by their social worker mother, Betty. As a young child, her interest in entertaining developed, as she and her sister would often put on shows, reading poems or performing popular music for their family. At “Boca Ciega High School”, Bassett was a member of the debate team, student government, drama club, choir, and was a cheerleader.

Bassett attended Yale University and received her B.A. in African-American studies in 1980. In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, Bassett met her future husband Courtney B. Vance, a 1986 graduate of the drama school. After graduation, Bassett worked as a receptionist for a beauty salon and as a photo researcher.

She soon looked for acting work in New York theater. One of her first New York performances came in 1985 when she appeared in J.E. Franklin’s Black Girl at Second Stage Theatre. She appeared in two August Wilson plays at the Yale Repertory Theatre under the direction of her long-time instructor Lloyd Richards. The Wilson plays featuring Bassett were Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986).

She is currently a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.

Although Madea is a fictional character, I admire her. She has spunk, sass, courage, humor, strength, and wisdom. When I first saw Diary of a Mad Black Woman, I thought to myself, “I need a woman like THAT in my life.” It did not even occur to me that my mom is very much like Madea, only a little softer.

The following is stolen straight from Wikipedia:

Mabel “Madea” R. Simmons is a fictional character based on the mother and grandmother of Tyler Perry. Madea is a grey haired, bespectacled aggressive matriarch. She will argue with anyone and has a penchant for her unique pronunciation and enunciation of words as reflected in her tag line, “Purnch You in the Face!” She is also part of a large family, with many children and grandchildren. Her name is spelled variously as “Mabel” and “Mable,” probably in order to confuse government authorities and others when applying for jobs, getting credit cards, etc.

“Madea” or “Madear” is a typical Southern name for a grandmother. The term is a shortened form of “Mother Dear.”

Madea was born in Greensburg, Louisiana in May of 1935, with two siblings: a sister, Irene and a brother, Joe. At some point in her early life she moved to Cleveland, Ohio then she relocated to Waycross, Georgia. Deacon Leroy Brown took Madea to the Waycross African American High School prom in 1953 and that night they had became intimate and later had a daughter, Cora. They did not marry because Madea did not find out that Cora was Brown’s daughter until her class reunion in 2003.Up until that time she was unaware of who the father was. Some of her extended family includes Parker Osgood, her cousin; Vickie, a niece; and several more relatives. In 1953, she married and relocated to metropolitan Atlanta where she still resides.

I am a good woman.

I’ve been to hell and survived.

I love being a mom.

I paid for my own college education.

I set goals and complete them. Ok, so I haven’t learned to shoot a gun yet.

I am compassionate and caring.