Selena Gomez

 Selena Gomez, actress and singer

Selena Gomez inspires me because she is more than just a pretty woman.  She got her start as an actress on the Disney Channel playing a role in the TV show Hannah Montana.  Later she moved into starring in movies and then made a third transition into music.

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She has shown real versatility as an performer and she has kept her career alive and growing by being willing to change.   Some of the early movies she did were panned by the critics and they flopped at the box office.  That can kill any careers, but not hers because she kept evolving, and she did it notwithstanding her health problems.  She has panic attacks and anxiety stemming from her lupus condition.   Her song, The Heart Wants what it Wants, became a number one hit, available on YouTube.  It shows how well she combines her attractiveness and her expression of powerful lyrics.

Tina Fey

Tina Fey

Tina Fey, comedian 

Tina Fey makes me laugh.  In fact, she makes lots of people laugh.

Tina Fey was the star and a writer on the TV show 30 Rock.  She played the producer of a sketch comedy show.  She also helped write the show. After many seasons the show went off the air and she immediately got work as the producer for a wonderfully funny show: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, available to binge watch on Netflix.   While doing that she has acted in several movies and appeared on Saturday Night Live as a guest star.

What is inspiring about her is that she celebrates being a woman and is unafraid to say political things, some of which will irritate some people.  I think she is fair about her politics, though, and anyone who watched 30 Rock knows that her funniest jokes were at the expense of liberal and New York hypocrisy and culture.   

Anne Frank

Anne Frank

Anne Frank, diarist

Anne Frank was born in Germany but moved to The Netherlands to try to escape capture by Nazi Germany.  For two years she hid in a house in The Netherlands and she kept a diary.   She was captured and killed by the Nazis.  But after the war the diary was discovered and published, The Diary of a Young Girl.

The book is inspiring because she seemed so motivated by positive thoughts.  My favorite line from her book is this one: 

 "When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived!" 

What is special about Anne Frank is not that she was a victim but that throughout her life she did not act like a victim.  She was dedicated to her education and to her future career as a writer.   She only lived a few years but she lived them with energy and hope.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey: Television producer and host

Oprah Winfrey was born in poverty in Mississippi to a single mother, yet she is now a billionaire.   I don't consider he value to be measured in money, even though she has a lot of it.
Her value is measured in the joy she has brought people by showing that you can get ahead in Hollywood and the media by being nice.  She listened to people on her show.  She cared about people.  She had empathy.

She did not do this because she was married to some rich guy.  She did not do this through sex appeal. She achieve this by doing good work.

I like the fact that she struggles with her weight and does not hide about it.  She isn't a machine.  She is a human being with strengths and weaknesses