Thoughtful, energetic, smart, determined. I tried to own and further those qualities and often mustered them up when they were dormant and something wasn't going my way.

The truth is that our democracy is a work in progress. We are all its founders. We are all learning that we are linked and not ranked.

World change comes from within.

As much as younger women are infused with a greater sense of possibility than most women of preceding generations, as a generation we are generally politically disengaged.

Thoughtful, energetic, smart, determined. I tried to own and further those qualities and often mustered them up when they were dormant and something wasn't going my way.

In college, a group of guys labelled me a "righteous little beaver." Again, I was slightly pissed because it seemed offensive and misdirected, but when I learned that beavers swim upstream, I realized that maybe it was fitting after all.

Our world loses out when the leadership doesn't reflect the led - when a minority makes decisions for the majority.