1. Zelda Fitzgerald
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/coidwgew8aa0mwr.jpg
Zelda was incredibly vivacious and was known for her intense personality. Growing up, she drank, did drugs, and would even sneak out of her parent's house to hang out with boys. She was a widely known icon due to her sporadic lifestyle, and nothing changed when she married F. Scott Fitzgerald. Their relationship was definitely not the healthiest, and both sides accused the other of stealing editorial work. Zelda has said that her husband stole from her journal, using things that she wrote down and crediting it as his own. Eventually, due to mental sickness, she was admitted to multiple hospitals and would paint and write as an outlet. Sadly, in the 1940's at the age of 47, she was killed in a hospital fire. Her legacy lives on through the video game "The Legend of Zelda", as the main character was named after her. Witchy Woman by The Eagles was also written by her, along with a few flavors of Jeni's Splendid Icecream created after different times of her life.
2. Freddie and Truus Oversteegen
http://eternallysunny.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2017/03/nazi-1.jpg
Freddie was only 14, and Truus was 16 when they were asked by a man to join the resistance against Hitler and the Nazi's. He said that nobody would expect two teenage girls, and he was right. Their job was to seduce young Nazi men and the girls would lead them into the woods where they would be shot and killed. Freddie was the more beautiful of the two, and she would ask the men if they want to take a walk and of course, most accepted. They would go into the woods while her older sister watched over to make sure there was nobody else before other members of the resistance came out and attacked. The girls were never allowed to see when the murder happened. Over the years, they also housed and protected Jews so they had a very big impact where they were. Now, Truus is struggling with dementia but the memories are still there and very, very strong.
3. Wu Zetian
http://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wu-zetian-portrait-drawing-1.jpg
Wu gained entry into the palace by becoming a low ranking concubine. Her job consisted of that of a maid, and some say she first met the Emperor by changing his bed sheets. Eventually, the Emperor died and as his concubine, she was supposed to become a nun but she escaped and came back to the palace. She quickly became the new Emperor's favorite, and to get the other woman out of the way she killed her own newborn baby girl and blamed the death on the two other woman she was competing against. They were imprisoned and Wu soon became Impress. As impressed she ordered the two woman to have their hands and feet cut off before being forced into vats of wine where they drowned. Then when she had more children, she either got them killed or exiled so she had less to compete with. Eventually, the Emperor died and she took over the throne, leaving the destruction of four of her children along the way.
4. Henrietta Lacks
https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/130807125010-henrietta-lacks-exlarge-169.jpg
Henrietta is a woman whose cancer cells were taken from her body without permission, but it led to a medical revolution. She grew up on a Tobacco farm with her Grandfather who was a slave and worked with her family from a very young age after her mother died. Because of the constant work, her education only went as far as the sixth grade. At the age of 30, after the birth of her fifth child, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. When a piece of the cancerous tissue was removed, like most it should have died within a day but surprisingly it thrived and grew. The cells were taken and Henrietta was not credited, so the cells were named HeLa, using the first two letters of her first and last name. The cells were the only cells ever known to continue their growth outside of a human body, so they were used by scientists, cosmetic companies, and even the military. She sadly died and was buried in an unmarked grave without knowing how much she truly helped the world, and well, hurt it as well. Her cells floated anywhere and everywhere, contaminating other scientific research. She was literally in everything and still is. Eventually, her family found out 20 years later, and they were only overjoyed that she was still alive, even if not in a conventional way.
5. Hypatia of Alexandria
http://allthatsinteresting.com/hypatia-of-alexandria
Born in 370 CE, Hypatia was a well-known scholar and mathematician. Taught by her father Theon, she excelled in Astronomy and Philosophy which could be considered that day and age's modern science. Though very little is actually known about her, her death is well documented. In 415 CE she was murdered on the streets by a Christian mob that attacked her. Sadly, even Christians writers who thought her to be a witch said she is known for being incredibly generous and how much she loved learning. She was also very well known for her teachings of Neo-Platonism, mathematics, science, and philosophy. Though there are a few reasons why she was killed so brutally. Those included her friendship with the pagan prefect Orestes and was blamed for keeping him from accepting the true faith. She was also blamed for the people who did not accept the true faith because of her charm and making difficult concepts easy to understand. It's a shame she was killed off so soon... Though not surprising as men still fear intelligent women to this day.
Going through all of the lists of amazing and powerful women, I had to pick and choose only a few but that does not mean the others are less deserving. I created a list of around 100 women that I never even heard of before, so look forward to another article just like this one.
