I was saddened to hear of the death of Maya Angelou this week at the age of 86, but it's hard to be anything but awestruck when you realise what a life that woman led. Dr Angelou was a political activist and writer who wrote the sort of poems that make you want to stand up and applaud.
But she was also the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco (when she was still a teenager), a calypso singer, a journalist, a friend of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, a Tony Award-winning stage actress, and a regular visitor to Sesame Street - here she is being typically awesome:
And while she achieved many things for herself, she was fundamentally someone who wanted to change other people's lives for the better. As her own poem said, she was a "phenomenal woman". Which is one of the many reasons why she's such a heroine to so many people.
Once I started thinking about Angelou's brilliance, I couldn't help thinking about other women who inspire me. Like Kathleen Hanna, the musician and activist whose life and work is celebrated in the brilliant new documentary The Punk Singer (it's on iTunes - go and watch it now). I've been a fan of Hanna and her exhilarating music since I was a teenage riot grrrl fan, and this inspiring, moving documentary made me love her even more. Not only is she someone who has fought for girls' right to be heard and made some brilliant music along the way, but she's also bravely battled a debilitating illness. And her tender relationship with her equally awesome and talented husband Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horowitz from the Beastie Boys is one of the most moving things I've seen on screen all year.
Image via TwitterAnd then there's Amy Poehler. Not only is she an incredibly funny and likable actor and writer, but she's also a proud feminist who founded Smart Girls At The Party, a feminist online show and community that encourages young girls to "change the world by being yourself." Next month will see the first Smart Girls Summer Camp in Austin, Texas and if I was about 25 years younger, had a few hundred dollars to spare (although maybe I could get one of the scholarships) and in America I would be SO THERE because it looks brilliant. I am kind of sad I can't go anyway despite being 38.
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And of course I can't forget my mother, who first introduced me and my sisters to feminism and encouraged us to do pretty much whatever we wanted (within reason).
Maya AngelouSo what women, famous or otherwise, have inspired you? Who are your heroines? And do you, like me, now wish you could have gone to the Smart Girls Summer Camp during the school holidays instead of the gaeltacht?
But let's let the last word here go to Dr Angelou.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise
You said it.
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Who are the women that inspire you? From historic to current, from political to comedy, let's talk phenomenal women. To the comments!
