• Virginia Wolfe suffered from severe depression and emotional distresses throughout adulthood.
  
  
• Harriet Tubman, noted conductor-in-chief of the Underground Railroad during the time of slavery, received several blows to her skull at thirteen when she intervened to protect another slave. In her twenties, she escaped slavery and went on to help hundreds of other slaves escape to freedom.
  
  
• Marie Curie sacrificed her health and suffered many radiation related ailments after years of committing herself to her work with radioactive elements. She was the first woman to win two Nobel prizes.
  
  
• Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American woman to earn a medical degree received twenty-nine rejections from medical schools. Her male advisors advised her to apply overseas and dress like a man. She refused and was eventually admitted to Geneva College in upstate New York in 1847.
  
  
• Iyanla Vanzant, author and inspirational speaker, was a teen mother on welfare in the Bronx.
  
  
• Oprah Winfrey was sexually abused by a cousin as a young girl and became pregnant as a teenager. Now, she is widely referred to as the most powerful and wealthiest woman in show business.
  
  
• Debbie Boone suffered anorexia nervosa in her teens and early twenties.
  
  
• Princess Diana suffered from bulimia while married to Prince Charles.
  
  
• Former Miss America Marilyn Vanderburg was sexually abused by her father.
  
  
• Justice Sandra Day O'Conner was turned down for associate positions by every top law firm in California after graduating 3rd in her class at Stanford Law School.
  
  
• Author and poetess Maya Angelou was deserted by her parents at age three, raped at age eight, and did not speak for much of her childhood.

Compiled by Melissa Dunn, DRE associates