Girl Power: REAL Women Who Shaped Me From the 90's

A couple of months back I did a post called Girl Power! 90's Fictional Characters Who Shaped Me and was encouraged with how many people it resonated with. Girls of the 90's unite!

Anyway, here's the follow up. Real life women I looked up to while growing up. Yes, I'm aware this is a super random conglomeration of people, what can I say, in my mind, this is who stuck out from the pack.

1. Michelle Kwan, Nancy Kerrigan, Kristi Yamaguchi, etc. I love women's figure skating. With every Olympics there was a new gold medal hopeful to learn all about and root for. Nancy Kerrigan definitely wins for the most soap opera-like story, thanks to Tanya Harding. For me, these ladies represented the perfect combination of beauty, determination and athleticism. 

2. 1996 US Women’s Gymnastic Team. This team was amazing, strong and determined and what’s more, they were all only a few years older than me. When I saw them, I loved how they cheered for each other, how determined they were, not to mention all of their great endorsement deals after. I wished I could be a gymnast but alas, I was tall and gangly, lacked muscles and had horrible balance. 

3. Princess Diana. For me, she was the first example of a celebrity who used their influence for good and someone who made me aware of the atrocities taking place in the world and inspired me to want to do something.
4. Mother Teresa. She was the epitome of doing good in the world. I still admire her.

5. Hillary Clinton. Even as a child I could tell that this was a first lady who did more than stand next to the president and wave.

6. Alanis Morissette. Way before Taylor Swift and Adele were writing songs about their personal lives, we had Alanis. Thanks to her, my vocabulary expanded to include the word "ironic" albeit not always in the correct context.

7. The Spice Girls. Yes, they were pretty much the opposite of Alanis, but they stood for their own version of girl power.

8. Claire Danes. Who else wanted to be her? Dating Jared Leto on TV and getting Leonardo DiCaprio in the movies.

Well, what do you think? 

Who's on your list of women who inspired you when you were growing up?

(Images via here, here, and here)