Brian Blanco, EPA / Landov
As a mom, cancer survivor and female politician, Florida congresswoman Deborah Wasserman Schultz knows that if she listened to her critics, she wouldn’t be where she is today. Schultz tells Marie Claire that her first foray into politics, running for student government in college, was like getting “hit by a lightning bolt.” A few years after graduating, she won a statewide post and 18 years later, the political veteran is leading Obama’s re-election campaign as the head of the Democratic National Committee. In the interview, Schultz talks about keeping her breast cancer secret because she “didn’t want people to decide for me what I was capable of doing,” and how her battle inspired her to incorporate awareness for young women into health-care reform.