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

Dara Torres
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American swimmer. She is the first swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008. She competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in the 50 meter freestyle, 4×100 medley relay, and 4×100 freestyle relay and won² the silver medal in all three of these events.

Torres has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze), five of which she won in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that, at age 33, she was the oldest member of the US Olympic Swim Team. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.[3]

On August 1, 2007, at the age of 40 (just 15 months after giving birth to her first child), she won gold in the 100 meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, her 14th win at these events. She then followed that up on August 4 by twice breaking her own American record in the 50 m freestyle, 26 years after she first set the American record at just 15 years old

Personal information
Full name Dara Grace Torres
Nickname(s) DT
Nationality United States
Stroke(s) Freestyle, butterfly
College team University of Florida
Date of birth April 15, 1967 (1967-04-15) (age 42)
Place of birth Jupiter, Florida, United States
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Medal record[show]Olympic Games
Gold 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m freestyle
Gold 1992 Barcelona 4×100 m freestyle
Gold 2000 Sydney¹ 4×100 m freestyle
Gold 2000 Sydney 4×100 m medley
Silver 1988 Seoul 4×100 m medley
Silver 2008 Beijing 4×100 m freestyle
Silver 2008 Beijing 50 m freestyle
Silver 2008 Beijing 4×100 m medley
Bronze 1988 Seoul 4×100 m freestyle
Bronze 2000 Sydney 50 m freestyle
Bronze 2000 Sydney 100 m freestyle
Bronze 2000 Sydney 100 m butterfly
Pan American Games
Gold 1983 Caracas 4×100 m freestyle
Pan Pacific Championships
Gold 1987 Brisbane 100 m freestyle
Gold 1987 Brisbane 4×100 m freestyle
Gold 1987 Brisbane 4×100 m medley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dara_Torres

My idol!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracie_Thoms

- has conquered the English Channel 43 times, more than anyone in the world
- 3 double and 1 triple crossing of the Channel
- worked as a currency trader all her working life in London until 2009

“Currency trader Alison Streeter got a call on her mobile phone from her office. “What should we do about South African rand?” they asked. Nothing unusual about that, even though she was crossing the Channel at the time. What was unusual, though, was that she was swimming it.”

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]

Diane Warren is considered to be one of most profilic songwriters in America. She fought to establish a career as a songwriter despite money struggles and objections from her family.

Caster Semenya

Caster Semenya is a South African middle-distance runner and gold medalist (800 metres, 2009 World Championships in Athletics). In the 2009 African Junior Championships Semenya won both the 800 m and 1500 m races with the times of 1:56.72 and 4:08.01 respectively. With that race she improved her 800 m personal best by seven seconds in less than nine months, including four seconds in that race alone.

Semenya attended Nthema Secondary School and now attends Pretoria University as a first-year sports science student.Semenya began running as a way to train for association football. Her dedication to constant self-improvement is what has made her a champion, and she has also shown that she is capable of grace under extreme fire.

_{image: i.telegraph.uk.co, link is to Wikipedia article}

Molly Craig

In 1931, the Australian government instituted a policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents’ custody in order to train them as domestic servants. A. O. Neville, chief protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, is quoted as saying in 1937: “Are we going to have a population of 1 million blacks in the Commonwealth or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there ever were any Aborigines in Australia?”

When Molly was 14, she and her younger sister and cousin were taken from their home in Jigalong, Western Australia, and transplanted to an internment camp on the Moore River, north of Perth. The three girls escaped the next day and began their walk home to Jigalong.

Molly decided that, since Jigalong was on the rabbit-proof fence that ran through Western Australia, if the three girls headed east from Moore River to the fence and then north, they couldn’t miss.

The girls crossed a flooded river, sand dunes, heathlands, wheatbelt, mallee country, gibber plains, red dust and mulga country, spinifex country, claypan and salt lake. They slept in dug-out rabbit burrows, caught and cooked rabbits, and ate bibijali, a kind of sweet potato, and karkula, a wild banana.

When their legs were weary, sore and infected by grass cuts, Molly piggy-backed Daisy, about eight, and Gracie, 11, in turn.

The journey of 1600 kilometres took nine weeks and ranks as one of the most remarkable feats of endurance and courage in Australian history, and dramatised a dark side of the Australian story.

_{Molly was taken back to the settlement a second time several years later, along with her two young daughters. She managed to escape a second time with her 18-month-old daughter, and had to leave her 4-year-old behind with other relatives. It was 21 years before she was reunited with her older daughter. Her younger daughter was taken from her two years after their escape, and she never saw her again, though they corresponded in the year before Molly died.}

Molly’s daughter has said: “Mum’s legacy is the calming influence and quiet dignity of the desert women, and the stolen generations story. She looked you straight in the eye.”

The story of Molly’s escape, along with the other two girls, is told in the movie Rabbit Proof Fence.

_{large image:smh.com.au (news story about Molly Craig on the event of her death), small image: library.cornell.edu (image from the movie)link is to article on the event of Molly Craig’s death}

The fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut

Lisa Lyon

Lisa Lyon is a female bodybuilder from the United States. Her stats as taken on October 1980: She stands at 5’3” and weighs only 105 pounds, but she can dead-lift 225 pounds, bench-press 120 pounds, and squat 265 pounds; two and a half times her own weight.

Lyon entered and won the first IFBB Women’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship in Los Angeles on June 16, 1979. This was the only bodybuilding competition of her career. Nevertheless, she became a media sensation, appearing in many magazines and on television talk shows. She also wrote a book on weight training for women titled Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic, which was published in 1981.

After winning the IFBB Women’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championships, Lyon immediately became a one-woman media-relations activist on behalf of the sport. She appeared in all the bodybuilding publications of the time and was featured in many magazines outside the world of fitness and muscle.Although Lyon briefly served as unofficial chairperson for women’s bodybuilding in its infancy, her fondest desire was to explore bodybuilding as an artistic medium.

Elevating bodybuilding to the level of fine art, Lyon was photographed by the likes of Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe, and was the first female bodybuilder to appear in Playboy (October 1980).

I’ve included Lisa Lyon here for showing that female physical strength is beautiful, and she did so at a time when this was a new and at times ridiculed concept.

_{image: ifbb.com}

_{link is to Wikipedia article.}

Malaak Compton-Rock

Malaak Compton-Rock started off in the field of public relations and special events in the entertainment industry. She began working with UNICEF, and began cultivating celebrity support for the organization, many of whom continue to support UNICEF today including Laurence Fishburne, Tea Leoni, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Claudia Schiffer. She herself continues to be an active supporter as well.

Ms. Compton-Rock incorporated styleWORKS, an organization that provided comprehensive grooming services, i.e., hair styling, make-up application, skincare services, clothing, accessories, and image consulting to women moving from welfare to work.

In 2008, as a way to encourage people to live a life of service and as an umbrella organization for the six main causes that she works on full-time, Ms. Compton-Rock founded The Angelrock Project, an online e-village that promotes volunteerism, social responsibility, and sustainable change. Among its many elements, The Angelrock Project includes valuable information on how to volunteer, advice on making monetary or in-kind donations, links to life-changing non-profit organizations, recommends fair trade companies whose products sustain third-world artisans, and includes a discussion forum and blog. The organization can be found at www.angelrockproject.com.

Compton-Rock recently coordinated Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service, a program that took 30 at-risk youth from Brooklyn, New York to Johannesburg, South Africa for two weeks of global volunteer service in August, 2008. The participants, who attend The Bushwick Salvation Army Community Center, are now taking part in a one-year advocacy, education, and service program as Journey for Change Global Ambassadors.

Malaak Compton-Rock also created and manages the Champions for Children Committee, a prestigious group of well-known individuals committed to raising awareness about the signs and prevention of child abuse.

Along with her husband (Chris Rock), Compton-Rock partners with the South African NGO The Olive Leaf Foundation to provide assistance to orphaned and vulnerable children, granny-led households and people living with HIV/AIDS in Diepsloot and Soweto, two poverty-stricken shanty towns in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Angelrock Project Foundation offers educational assistance, food and nutritional support, and living allowances to orphans and grannies. Additionally, through a partnership with The Food Garden Foundation, The Angelrock Project is funding sustainable food gardens in Diepsloot for two support groups and at 6 schools in Soweto to feed the orphan population. Moreover, the organization is currently coordinating an income-generating project for granny’s who will sell new donated designer handbags for a 100% profit. The program includes a marketing, banking, and savings component.

The Rocks are also committed to The Bushwick Salvation Army Community Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn and were proud to open a new library and computer lab with the support of several companies. Additionally, Malaak Compton-Rock is a coordinating the development of a comprehensive art program at the Center which will include a teaching partnership with Pratt Institute and The Black Alumni of Pratt Institute that will begin in summer 2009.

_{image: buddytv.com}

_{link is to bio page at AngelRock.com}