Tina Fey
With a best-selling novel titled "Bossypants" it would be hard to talk about Tina Fey without mentioning she’s a boss. All of the other women mentioned are also bosses, but Tina created her whole career around being the boss. Her show 30 Rock centered around her character, Liz Lemon, who was the head writer of a sketch comedy show on NBC. Tina was the first female head writer on "SNL," also ½ of the first ever female only Weekend Update duo, alongside Amy Poehler. Tina encompasses all that it means to be a boss, without being a bossypants. Tina is funny, likable, and an all around good person, all while being in charge, which is an important thing for people to see, that being a boss doesn’t mean it's the only thing you can be.
Amy Poehler
Amy through her own life, and through Leslie Knope, her character on "Parks and Rec," embodies a feeling of sisterhood more women and girls should embrace. Leslie’s enthusiasm for her girlfriends on Galentines Day carries over into Amy’s life with the creation of her organization Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. The goal of Smart Girls is to empower younger girls to be themselves, instead of trying to fit in, they do this by encouraging young women to have intelligent, clever, and funny conversations about important topics. Amongst that Amy works with numerous charities and organizations to help others in need. Her friendship with Tina Fey through the years has created what might be the ultimate #friendshipgoals, which says a lot about both Tina, and Amy’s ability to provide a good model for younger women to follow when it comes to women helping other women.
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer is arguably the biggest woman in comedy of 2015. She wrote and starred in "Trainwreck,"which was a huge hit, her Comedy Central series’ audience grew from her previous two seasons, and every red carpet she walked she was who everyone was talking about, and rightfully so. Her comedy is straightforward, sometimes raunchy, but always hilarious. As someone who has found such a sudden and large scale popularity, her ability to continue to be honest and speak up about what she thinks is something to admire. Whether it’s about how ridiculous the questions women who write and perform comedy are asked, or a more serious topic like when she spoke out about gun control after a shooting happened during one of her movie’s showing in a theater, she is unapologetically true to her beliefs, and isn’t letting fame water down her opinions.
Lena Dunham
Lena taught me that being a Millennial isn’t equivalent to being labeled some unimaginably bad thing. She has been criticized for many things through her short and accomplished career, and handled it with grace, and a sense of humor that someone in her position needs. Because she the youngest woman on this list, she’s someone that I think serve as a real model for what women in their 20s are capable of. Seeing someone in your own age bracket write, produce, direct, and star in their own show, and write a book that is funny, interesting, and compelling, puts to rest the notion that many college-age people feel, which is that success isn’t possible for a long time. Lena is someone who successfully put some of the most confusing, and amazing moments of her life into her own work, opening herself to public critique. By doing this she created a sense of hope for young people, especially women, who didn’t really have a strong voice in the public, so close to their own.
Ellen
Ellen’s message at the end of every one of her shows is “be kind to one another”. She practices what she preaches, nearly every episode of her talk show features a story about someone doing good in the world. Ellen usually tries to help this person out, and pay it forward to inspire others to do good things. All of the stories and causes she talks about reach an audience of about 3.5 million viewers every day. She has a large responsibility because of her influence over such a large group, but she still manages to keep things light, and most of all funny. She brings inspiration into the lives of the people she helps and her viewers, all while bringing joy through humor. Striking the balance between comedy and heart is not an easy task, often times those things don’t go hand in hand but Ellen manages to bring strong messages to audiences, all while maintaining a sense of humor.
Jennifer Lawrence
She’s not known for being a comedic actress, but rather for The Hunger Games blockbusters, and winning an Oscar for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, but Jennifer has completely separated herself from her more serious roles by being her authentic self during press and interviews. It turns out her authentic self is hilarious, outspoken, and has the ability to make everyone around her laugh. I think that someone like Jlaw is important to have in Hollywood, because it shows people that you can reach the peak level of success, without having to change your persona to fit your career. Jennifer is known as not just the actress who plays Katniss, but as her own person because she hasn’t been afraid to stand out, deviate from the norms that are attached with academy award winning stars.
Mindy Kaling
Reading Mindy’s book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) was one of the first times I really understood what having confidence meant. It may sound dramatic, but confidence before this book I had always associated with being too braggish, or full of yourself. Reading about Mindy’s life and how she was a smart, well educated successful person talking about all of the things that had led her to becoming a confident person opened my eyes to how being confident was a positive thing, and very different from being an egomaniac.
Kristen Wiig
Since her movie Bridesmaids in 2011 Kristen has not taken a path that many people may have expected. She’s gone on to star in a number of other films, but all have been smaller scale indie movies, some of which were dramas. Instead of succumbing to the pressure to create a sequel, or the next big female comedy film, she chose to pick films that she actually wanted to be a part of, and not ones that her audience chose for her. It’s hard for anyone to diverge from the path people are expecting you to go down, especially when you’ve written and starred in one of the most quotable movies of the last decade, but Kristen Wiig is a perfect example why you should say yes to things that are right for you, and not everyone else.
