10 things you didn’t know about Hillary Clinton
(MEDIA GENERAL) — Hillary Clinton has been in the public eye for a long time and the basic biographical details of her life are of course well known. Here, though, are some of the noteworthy things about the Democratic presidential nominee that you may not have heard yet:
1. BEFORE POLITICS, SHE WANTED TO BE AN ASTRONAUT
When she was 13, she wrote a letter to NASA asking them what she had to do to become an Astronaut. They wrote back telling her that girls couldn’t be astronauts.
2. SHE STARTED A BABYSITTERS CLUB FOR CHILDREN OF MIGRANT WORKERS
During January’s Brown & Black Forum in Iowa, a college student asked Clinton if she thought she benefited from her own white privilege, she told a story about babysitting the kids of migrant workers when she was younger.
“When I was about 11 years old, our church asked if some of us would volunteer to babysit for the children of migrant workers on Saturdays because the families had to go into the field and the older kids had to go with them, and there was nobody left to watch the little kids. And I and a couple of my friends volunteered. I remember going out there taking care of these adorable little kids and I kind of thought, well, they’re very different from me; they’ve got different experiences but they were just little kids. They have to work so hard and the place they live is not very nice, and I just felt, you know, I have a different kind of life. I didn’t call it a particular name but it was a different life and I knew that.”
3. BILL WAS CALLED THE ‘EDUCATION GOVERNOR’ BASED ON HER HARD WORK
Bill Clinton served five terms as the governor of Arkansas between 1979 and 1992. During that time Hillary chaired the Rural Health Advisory Committee, working to expand medical facilities for the poor. She reformed the public school system as chair of the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee. She was named Arkansas Woman of the Year in 1983, and Arkansas Young Mother of the Year in 1984. In 1988 and ’91 the National Law Journal’s named her one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.
4. SHE EATS AT LEAST 1 JALAPENO PEPPER EVERY DAY
During an interview with NPR, she credited her love of spicy food to her ability to stay healthy and maintain her above average stamina and endurance.
“I read an article about the special immune-boosting characteristics of hot peppers, I thought, that’s interesting because, you know, campaigning is pretty demanding. I’d always liked hot food – Mexican, Indian, Thai – but I started adding hot peppers, and then I got into eating them raw.”
5. SHE’S THE MOST TRAVELED SECRETARY OF STATE…EVER
She visited 112 countries in four years, traveling almost 1 million miles.
6. SHE LOVES READING MYSTERY NOVELS
She told the New Yorker her most recent favorites were the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear and Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti novels set in Venice. Along with mysteries, Hillary has said spy thrillers and biographies are among her favorite genres, too.
7. SHE BECAME A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT DESPITE HER CONSERVATIVE UPBRINGING
She was raised in a conservative Republican household. Her father, Hugh, and mother, Dorothy, were both conservative Republicans. She was head of the young Republicans when she started college, but later switched parties based on her concerns about the Vietnam War and dedication to the Civil Rights movement.
8. SHE WAS ALMOST A MEMBER OF THE FEW AND PROUD
After the Vietnam war, she tried to join the Marines. The Marine recruiter rejected her by saying, “You’re too old, you can’t see and you’re a woman.
9. SHE HAS A TRACK RECORD OF BEING FIRST
She was the first woman to be elected to the senate from New York.
10. SHE WAS VOTED ‘MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED’ IN HIGH SCHOOL
Hillary also won a “goodwill” award for her friendliness. Then in 1995, she lived up to her high school reputation by inviting her entire class to the White House to celebrate their 30-year reunion.