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

Maureen Dowd

Pulitzer Prize winner, scathing commentator, irreverent and biting humorist. A woman with a powerful, unapologetic voice.

Meryl Streep

Meryl is considered by many as the greatest actress of her generation. She has been nominated for more oscars than ANY other actress and continues to start in blockbuster movies even after decades in the business. She is involved in many charitable causes, is well educated, well spoken, able to laugh at herself, articulate, and keeps her private life private. She is the epitome of a great star. She is strong, beautiful, smart, and funny. I admire her for her successful, stable, and loving family-life, her ability to age gracefully, staying at the peak of her career and showing that women don’t have to be scared of aging, and for giving us so many deep, moving and entertaining movies!

Ann Cotton

An ambassador for education in the poorest parts of Africa, Ann started the NGO CAMFED, Campaign for Female Education, in 1993. The program supports female education and empowerment, health and microfinance loans in the poorest African countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, and Tanzania. Today, it benefits over 400,000 children, and many program graduates are now rural businesswomen. For her efforts, Ann was awarded the Order of the British Empire as well as UK Social Entrepreneur of the Year among other awards. I admire her for her selflessness, her ability to identify and change social problems, her vision, her initiative, and her organization that spreads female empowerment.

Rosalind Franklin

An English scientist, in the 1950’s her x-ray images of DNA led to Watson and Crick’s famous model of the substance. She was not cited in their report and died before the Nobel Prize was awarded for the DNA work, an award that cannot be given posthumously. She went on to study rod viruses before her death at age 37. Since her death, the National Cancer Institute and the Royal Society have created scientific awards in her name. I admire her for tackling science when the field was almost exclusively male and for her intellectual contributions that helped pave our modern understanding of DNA.

Dara Torres

With the olympics going on right now, there are tons of female athletes in the spotlight, but Dara Torres is especially compelling. She’s the first swimmer ever to be in 5 Olympics, she has 10 Olympic medals and she’s 41 years old! She has also worked as a model and a sportscaster and has a 2 year old daughter. She’s also probably in better shape at 41 than i’ll ever be in my life! I admire her for her athleticism, determination, and ability to balance having a family and still competing in the sport she loves.

Audrey Hepburn

She survived growing up through Nazi occupation in WWII, while maintaining her goal of becoming a dancer or performer. She was apparently a shy, introverted person, who was able to overcome her social anxieties and deliver moving on screen performances while at the same time charming those around her. She was also the first female celebrity to use her fame for a good cause, volunteering with UNICEF. I admire her perseverance, grace, courage and compassion.