Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek at the Deauville Film Festival, 2012. Georges Biard via Wikimedia Commons

My hero is Salma Hayek. She was born September 2, 1966 in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. Her dad was a Lebanese businessman. Her mother was a famous Mexican opera singer. Salma Hayek is a very successful Hollywood actress. When little, Salma was determined to become an actress. Salma is very successful and talented, but that is not the reason she is my hero. Salma is my hero because of all the charity work she has done.

One thing that Salma Hayek has done is raise awareness about violence against women. Salma encourages women who are victims of domestic violence to report the violence. Salma says that no woman should be a victim of domestic violence. Since the majority of the women who are affected by domestic violence do not report it to the authorities, they are forced to live with the violence.

Salma Hayek has her own charity, the Salma Hayek Foundation. Her foundation has supported battered women but is now supporting disadvantaged children. She is also a spokesperson for the Pampers "one pack equals one vaccine" campaign. This campaign allows UNICEF to provide tetanus shots to pregnant women, protecting them for 15 years. It also provides tetanus shots for their children. Buying a pack of Pampers provides a tetanus shot for someone. 

As I mentioned, Salma is not my hero because she is a famous Hollywood actress. My definition of a hero is not that from a dictionary. A hero to me is a person that helps people in need, a person that is charitable. The best hero is the one that influences others, and Salma Hayek influences me.

The following section was added by The MY HERO Project in 2024:

 Mexican, American, and French actress and film producer Salma Hayek Pinault’s complete filmography is full recognisable titles. Throughout her career, she has portrayed numerous characters in various films and Television shows and has been an executive producer on several more works. One of her more notable roles, Frida Kahlo in Julie Taymor’s telling of Kahlo’s life Frida (2002), earned Hayek nominations for Best Actress at the seventy-fifth Annual Academy Awards, the sixty-first Golden Globe Awards, the British Academy Television Awards, and the ninth Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her recent performances include her 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universal debut in Eternals, her portrayal of Giuseppina "Pina" Auriemma in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci (2021), and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) in which she voices Kitty Softpaws. In 2021, Hayek’s career was celebrated with the placement of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[1]

As well as her career on screen, Hayek has dedicated much of her time to advocacy over the years. In particular, she has been committed to empowering and preventing violence towards women and girls. In 2005, she testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary urging them to maintain efforts to uphold the Violence Against Women Act.[2] The following year, she donated $75,000 to various organizations that advocate for and support women experiencing domestic violence. Hayek is also a Board Member of V-Day, a non-profit founded by American author, playwright, and activist V (formerly Eve Ensler) seeking to end violence against women and girls.[3] In 2013, Hayek launched a global campaign alongside Beyonce Knowles Carter and Gucci called Chime for Change. The campaign has partnered with 185 non-profit organizations dedicated to gender equality and has raised $21.5 million to support more than 500 projects for women.[4]

Salma Hayek has also been a staunch advocate for breastfeeding and has been vocal about the fact women should be allowed to nurse in public without being shamed. In 2009, whilst on a trip to Sierra Leone, Hayek breastfed a sick one-week old baby whose mother was unable to produce milk.[5] She received praise for her efforts to reduce the stigma around breastfeeding that many mothers face.