Angelina Jolie

To become a Goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, it takes years of hard work and dedication helping the people in need of serious help. This commitment requires communication with the other global leaders to solve problems and make decisions that will impact our world. Angelina Jolie has made this commitment and "was made a Goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency in 2001" ("Angelina Jolie", Biography.com). Growing up, Jolie was raised by divorced parents, both who were well-known actors. She followed in their footsteps and was later introduced to the world of acting. At the young age of 16, she moved away from her family to pursue and fully devote herself to her acting career. While developing her first movie, she visited the country of Bosnia to gain inside knowledge of the country and the current events taking place there. “The experience literally changed her life and she says she returned home from that trip much better for the experience” (Tracy). Jolie knew that she should dedicate her time to people in countries around the world, similar to Bosnia. Angelina Jolie is presented as a hero to many, as she has bold and ambitious qualities that have lead her to her heroic actions.

Angelina Jolie at the New York "A Mighty Heart" Premiere, June 12, 2007chris_natt [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]Jolie’s experiences growing up led her to never take the easy way out and to make bold decisions. As a child, Jolie always knew she had a high risk of breast cancer, as her own mother and grandmother both had it. Knowing this risk was high, she made the “choice to have a preventive double mastectomy. A simple blood test had revealed that [she] carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. It gave [her] an estimated 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer” (Pitt). Jolie was not confirmed to have breast cancer, however she would most likely get it, as it ran in her family genetics. She could have treated this in other ways, but she chose to eliminate all her chances of getting the disease by undergoing surgery. Jolie was in the process of creating her first movie and lacked much of the knowledge needed to finish this task. “She met with the Bosnians and heard their stories firsthand. She read books and consulted with some of the key characters from that conflict, like U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke. She talked to journalists who covered the war, myself included. And, perhaps most important, she cast her film entirely with actors from the former Yugoslavia, all of whom brought their own war experience to the project” (“A Look Back at Bosnia”). There were many other easy options that would allow Jolie to gain the necessary knowledge for her movie that did not require her to visit Bosnia. The best way, however, would be to hear and see everything with her own eyes and ears, which is what she chose to do. While in Bosnia, she got to view life in the same way as the natives, which made her interested in helping the country that was in great need. In another instance, “Jolie researched aid relief and the United Nations, and then contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and convinced them to let her travel to Sierra Leone, where a vicious civil war was being waged. She spent 2 weeks visiting refugee camps. The experience literally changed her life and she says she returned home from that trip much better for the experience” (Tracy 78). She traveled to a dangerous place and risked her own life to help the lives of others. After experiencing these things firsthand, she was changed and wanted to help these people even more. Jolie always chose to take a risk and make a bold statement with everything she did, which left a bigger impact on society today, proving her heroism.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the Cannes film festivalGeorges Biard [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]Jolie was ambitious because she would start major projects knowing little about what to look for, and her results were spectacular and influential. At a young age, Jolie took control of her own life and wanted to build her path by herself. “By age 16, Jolie was firmly devoted to acting, and moved into her own apartment and began to study drama. When she went on auditions, she did not reveal her lineage so that she could prove herself on her own terms” (“Angelina Jolie.” Newsmakers). Had the people casting her known her family name, she could have gotten any role easily. Jolie knew this but wanted to prove herself and earn her spot on her own. She didn't take the easy way out and made the choice to work her way up, inspiring many. In the development of her first movie, “Angelina Jolie made her first trip to Bosnia before she started filming and with only a vague idea of what she was after” (“A Look Back At Bosnia”). Along with this being a bold choice, it was full of ambition. She did not know what to look for or what she wanted to know to improve her project. While in Bosnia, she gained all the necessary information for her project, and other information that changed her outlook on life itself. Through Jolie’s actions, it becomes clear that she did not put much thought into what she did before jumping right into it. She is a very ambitious person because of this.

Throughout her life, Angelina Jolie has gone through many life changing experiences that have made her a better person. She has encountered obstacles that made her a bold and ambitious person. Jolie has learned from her family and her career to be bold and never settle for less than she can accomplish. By taking risks, she has saved her own life and helped many others live better ones. She also had a ambitious mindset, which led her to create her own path in her life. Her current successes are all based on these risks she took and dreams she had for herself. Angelina Jolie consistently proved her heroism by helping other people and was recognized for it in multiple different ways. “In 2005, Jolie received the Global Humanitarian Action Award from the United Nations Association of the USA for her activism on behalf of refugee rights. She has continued to draw attention to global issues” (“Angelina Jolie”, Biography.com). Jolie was always inspired by her peers and family members. She allowed herself to grow continuously and didn't let anything get in the way of what she was trying to accomplish. Jolie was always thinking of ways to help others, and it eventually became more than a hobby. Her inspirational acts not only helped her become a hero to all the refugees, but also a hero to the many other people that look up to her.

"A Look Back At Bosnia, Through Angelina Jolie's Eyes." Morning Edition, 19 Jan. 2012.

Biography In Context,

https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A279669057/BIC?u=powa9245&sid=BIC&xid=abe99940. Accessed 26 Mar. 2019.

“Angelina Jolie.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 17 Jan. 2019,

www.biography.com/people/angelina-jolie-9356782.

"Angelina Jolie." Newsmakers, Gale, 2000. Biography In Context,

https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1618002932/BIC?u=powa9245&sid=BIC&xid

=897138f2. Accessed 25 Mar. 2019

Pitt, Angelina Jolie. "Diary of a Surgery." New York Times, 24 Mar. 2015, p. A23(L).

Biography In Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A406690300/BIC?u=powa9245&sid=BIC&xid=58068cc0. Accessed 25 Mar. 2019.

Tracy, Kathleen. Angelina Jolie: a Biography. Greenwood Press, 2009.