Angelina Jolie: A Role Model for Several Good Reasons

I’m doing my profession as a freelance writer and often I try to come up with a piece of writing with an intention to share something useful to my readers. I currently works for the writing service CEWS and there I manage to use my free time to write personal posts of interest. I consider it as my duty to share helpful, inspirational or motivating piece, otherwise the writing gives me less satisfaction. I looked to write about a person and coincidentally this name pop up in my mind “Angelina Jolie”. I found a great role model in her for several good reasons. Jolie was born to the actor-couple Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand in 1975. She made her screen debut as a child alongside her father in 1982. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actor Guilds Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood’s highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Well, the list of accolades she won seems endless. She has also been cited as the world’s “most beautiful” woman by various media outlets. This title brought her substantial publicity.

In 2002 Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Cambodia. She adopted a daughter in 2005 from an orphanage in Ethiopia and her third adopted child came in 2007 from an orphanage in Vietnam. Her humanitarian concerns are so obviously noble. Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie now lives with actor Brad Pitt. Her relationship with Pitt has caught fervent media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three biological children and three adopted children. Jolie personally encountered the effects of a humanitarian crisis while shooting one of her films in 2001 in a war-torn Cambodia. After contacting the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), she went on a field trip for 18 days and witnessed the distress people were undergoing. Over the next decade she went on field trips around the world and contributed a huge sum to charity.

Angelina Jolie tested positive to the BRCA gene fault. Women who carry the gene fault have a higher risk of breast or ovarian cancer. Since Jolie had a strong family history of cancer, she decided to have a genetic test which found she carried the BRCA1 gene fault. She chose to have a double mastectomy. She has gone further to a radical surgery which included the removal of her ovaries since her mother died of ovarian cancer. Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, a cancer genetics expert applauded Jolie and said “It was a series of brave but very wise decisions: to have the genetic testing, to have the radical surgery, and then to speak about the experience.” It was indeed a very strong decision made by Jolie to undergo preventive surgery since she had a high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.

Jolie’s story should inspire other women who carry a risk of this life-threatening disease. Jolie had 87% risk of developing breast cancer and 50% risk of ovarian cancer when she opted for the preventive surgery. Once she knew the reality, she chose to be proactive and minimize the risk as much as she could. Her brave move should inspire all women who live under the shadow of cancer. She declared it to the world that she did not feel any less of a woman after the surgery, rather she felt empowered that she made a strong choice. People should not be scared of facing the reality even if it is a malignancy. They should, instead, be brave to face the life as it comes.