21 Women Who Inspire Us To Make 2017 A Better Year

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (screencap via YouTube)

This year is going to be a tough one for women everywhere. Instead of giving up, draw strength from the ones who have never backed down.

As the inauguration for President-Elect Donald Trump approaches, women across the country are preparing for a fight. When Trump first got the majority of those electoral votes back in November of last year, it was heart breaking for all of us. And not only to just women, but specifically to women of color, women of different sexualities, and women of different classes and religions. We felt defeated. But now, in 2017, we push the defeat aside and rely on one another to remind this nation what we, as women, knew all along: We don’t back down.

I’ve put together a list of a few women who remind me that hope is still left, and who inspire me to stand taller, yell louder, and push harder. These include showrunners, activists, authors, feminists, and just good people doing good things. We all need a reminder of the good that’s happening right now.

Now is the time to speak up, to act out, and to take back what was once ours. 2016 was hard; but 2017 will be harder. Here are 21 women who have the power, the voice, and the platform to make this fight a little easier.