Meryl Streep: An inspiration to women
Phoebe Simcock,
22nd Jun 2021
Tags:
Life
Blog
Career
Charity
Film
This is our first instalment of the inspirational people series. In this series, we will celebrate inspirational people on the week of their birthdays.
Some of the people may be incredibly well known to you, others you could be hearing about for the first time, but they are all people in the public eye from different backgrounds.
They are all chosen to demonstrate values and attributes that are an inspiration to us, and you may even share a birthday with one of them.
She has rekindled our love of musicals as Donna in ‘Mamma Mia’.
Kicking off the first week is an amazing woman and someone that I look up to because of her strength, determination, and work with small underfunded groups. She has rekindled our love of musicals as Donna in ‘Mamma Mia’, encouraged us to be a fierce girl boss in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, and sent a shiver down our spines in ‘Into The Woods’, it’s of course the wonderful Meryl Streep.
Meryl’s real name is Mary Louise Streep and she was born in New Jersey to an Artist and a Pharmaceutical executive. She was described as a gawky kid with frizzy hair and glasses when she was younger, and called ugly by an Italian director when she started to act professionally.
Despite this, she finished high school as homecoming queen and is the most nominated actress in Oscar history, with twenty-one nominations and three wins.
She had to fight to achieve this success and was often held back for being a woman. One of her famous quotes is: "True freedom is understanding that we have a choice in who and what we allow to have power over us".
She also supports Gucci’s Chime for Change campaign that aims to spread female empowerment.
Meryl Streep donated her Million Dollar fee from her part in ‘The Iron Lady’ to the National Women’s History Museum, which she is also a spokesperson. She also supports Gucci’s Chime for Change campaign that aims to spread female empowerment and funds The Writers Lab, a screenwriter’s lab for women over forty. Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014 for her contributions to cultural and public endeavours.
Strong characters like Meryl Streep paved the way for other individuals to conquer things they didn’t think were possible. She was cast as the girlfriend and wife of a major character and worked her way up to becoming the leading lady. A comment made about her physical appearance didn’t hold her back and despite the sad passing of her husband, she continued to work hard for herself, other women, and for the planet.
Her love of reading and aspiration to learn put her in an advantageous position for understanding characters, and she used this knowledge to understand the world and those around her.
We can all learn to use our skills and intelligence to better ourselves.
From this, we can all learn to use our skills and intelligence to better ourselves and better the lives of others.
I'll end this with another one of her famous quotes: ‘’Integrate what you believe in every single area of your life. Take your heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else, too’’.
