Kendra Nordin

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg first came into focus for me in 1993, when she was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was a trailblazer, like my mom, and they were friends. In 1956, Mom was Jinnie Lyn Davis. Jinnie and Ruthie were the only two women in their section that first year of law school. I never met Justice Ginsburg. But this summer, in a Slate interview about the 10 other women in her Harvard Law class, Justice Ginsburg singled out Jinnie as her closest classmate.

Rafaela Silva was born in Cidade de Deus, one of Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling favelas. If it weren’t for judo, Ms. Silva might never have left. She found the sport through a program designed to keep low-income children off the streets. Judo took Ms. Silva to competitions around the world – from Bangkok to Paris to London. And then it took her home, where Ms. Silva earned the first of Brazil’s seven gold medals at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio.

Clarice Assad has learned to look to the back of the room for the shy girls, the ones who are afraid to step up to the microphone and lead with their voices. The Grammy-nominated Brazilian American composer and performer understands what that’s like. She was shy once, too.