I haven’t written a “Women Who Inspire Me” post in ages, and today I’d thought I’d tackle a cliche choice (and hopefully reveal why that cliche is somewhat justified.
Audrey Hepburn
It almost seemed to be a prerequisite to many female rooms in college dorms to come with an Audrey Hepburn poster. Not to mention the constant barrage of quizzes and articles that exist to ask if you are an Audrey or a Marilyn. Now we don’t have time to unpack how problematic that question and comparison is – but rest assured it is – and perhaps I shall on another day; but Hepburn is rarely thought of outside of her roles as being an actress and a chic dresser.
But her life was so much more than that. Being half English and living in the Netherlands during WWII, she had to adopt a Dutch (Edda van Heemstra) persona and she danced to raise money for the Dutch Resistance whilst one of her brothers was in a Nazi labour camp. Hepburn spent her post-war teenage years in London training to be a ballerina, however, she was never able to overcome some of the lasting side effects of malnutrition that she suffered during WWII. She was a polygot (speaking English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German and Italian).
She was quite selective with her film roles; turning things down that she wasn’t interested in or didn’t think she was right for with a rigour that would still be somewhat surprising for a Hollywood star today. And she belongs to a select few that have one an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
After retiring from acting, Hepburn spent over 40 years working for UNICEF and became the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1989; she launched UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children reports. She eventually won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work in 1992. Even after her diagnosis with terminal cancer, she continued her work with UNICEF; her last trip to Somalia occurred just four months before her death.
Undoubtedly, one of the things that I admire most about Audrey is her obvious iron-clad will. Though sometimes couched in some trite expressions and Pinterestable quotes, Hepburn was a woman who knew what she wanted and never had any qualms about her insistence. She will forever be mostly remembered as a pretty face, but that pretty face was also intelligent, independent and forward-thinking.
There was a quote that I once read about her that I will forever love. She was “a woman who found a way to survive the constructs around her when the stakes seemed impossible. In film after film, she is a lady of romance and sweetness — but she is also the woman who turned her physical pain into a stylish iconography and who managed to infuse her characters with real-life struggle, playing the game while challenging it.” Source.
Who are your inspirations?
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Women Who Inspire me #5: Audre Lorde
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Women Who Inspire Me #9: Lindy West
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Women Who Inspire Me #14: My Best Friend
