[ell-en de-gen-er-es]; noun
1. TV icon, entertainment pioneer, one of the most
powerful and influential women in America.
What else can I say? Ellen
DeGeneres is exactly the type of leader I aspire to become. Ellen began her
career as an emcee in a comedy club in New Orleans... why it wasn't Ohio, I will never understand... Shortly after, she began
receiving national recognition and won Showtime’s Funniest Person in America award in 1982. DeGeneres then began
filming shows on HBO, FOX, CBS and ABC. During the 1997 season of Ellen on ABC,
she received the Peabody Award for an episode in which she came out as a gay
woman. Amongst countless other awards for being literally the funniest human
(in my opinion) to grace this planet, she has had the honor to host the Oscars,
Emmy and Grammy Awards. She has been a judge on “American Idol”, featured in
major motion pictures such as “Finding Nemo”, and has written three novels. And
as if she could be any more bad-a**, she has been featured in TIME Magazine’s
100 Most Influential People, Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Most Powerful
Entertainers, and Forbe’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
Let’s face it, I could probably
write a short story on all of her accomplishments, but I want to focus on what
she does besides rake in unbelievable awards. Something that really struck me
after I first starting watching her show was her devotion to humanitarianism. If
someone truly deserves recognition, she will give it. Now I’m not talking about
other celebrities or big time hot shots, I am talking about the little people
that make this world go around. One such instance is that of Talia Castellano.
Talia was 13 years old when she died from cancer on July 16 of this year. It
was a dream of hers to meet Ellen, and as Ellen put it “it became a dream of
hers to meet Talia too”. Just watch. It gives me goose bumps every time.
I was speechless. I didn’t think that TV celebrities that actually wanted to
genuinely help other people existed. In the wake of all of her accomplishments,
she still takes the time to realize that greed, power, and wealth are not the most
important things in life. Instead, she focuses on raising awareness for causes
such as Talia’s and many, many others. She puts others ahead of herself, she is
strong, and inspirational. She listens to others when they need her help and she
stops at nothing until they receive it. In my opinion, these are all traits of
an amazing leader. In my opinion, Ellen should also be everyone's role model. I sincerely hope that one day she will stumble across my blog and realize that I have been dying to be her best friend and that I also could use $20,000. Fingers crossed.
I really like that you picked Ellen! She is such a great role model, and her whole positive outlook is really inspiring. I would have never even thought to choose her, but she has done so many great things. Her show is awesome!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved your blog on Ellen. She really is such an amazing leader and such an inspiration to us all. I also chose her and I think we both picked her for the same reasons. Her accomplishments are endless. The story that you mentioned about Talia literally brought tears to my eyes. I'll never forget seeing that segment on TV and then learning that Talia sadly passed away. It's one of the best examples of how Ellen uses her incredible gifts to bring joy to the lives of others.
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