Model and designer Zohre Esmaeli

Zohre Esmaeli is a model from Afghanistan who is based in Germany.  Her story is so awesome and inspiring that I can't do it justice by merely going over the highlights here.

Her family fled Afghanistan during the Taliban regime in the late nineties by crossing the border  and traveling overland over 6,200 miles to Germany.  Ms. Esmaeli was barely a teenager then, and she almost didn't survive the trip.

Once settled in Germany, she resumed her school studies, but she began modeling at sixteen years of age when she was discovered in Frankfurt.  Her career took off after she moved to Stuttgart.  She has appreaed in numerous fashion magazine, sich as Elle, Cosmopolitan, Madame, and Marie Claire.

Zohre Esmaeli also designs clothes, under the brand name "Zoraya."  She debuted her first line in November 2015 for a charity fashion show in Berlin.

It's quite obvious that, despite her Afghan background, the German fashion world has accepted her as its own. :-)

Stage actress Jennifer DiNoia

If you've only seen Jennifer DiNoia as she looks below, you haven't seen her in her best-known role as a stage actress.

That's because she has played the green-skinned Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in various productions of the musical Wicked.  

She has played Elphaba in various touring companies and in at least four different countries, but she has also performed the role where it matters most - London's West End and New York's Broadway.  Ms. DiNoia played Elphaba in the West End in late 2014 and 2015 and also played her on Broadway from March 2015 to May 2015 and again from August 2016 to July 2017.  In many instances she was a standby for an actress playing Elphaba in different productions.

Jennifer DiNoia maybe more associated with this role than any other actress except Idina Menzel.  

Fun fact: She was in the original American production of the Queen jukebox musical We Will Rock You in Las Vegas. 

CNN newswoman Kaitlan Collins

Katilan Collins is a recent addition to CNN's on-camera news staff.  Before she joined the Cable News Network in 2017, she'd been an entertainment reporter and a White House correspondent at The Daily Caller for three years.

Why would I feature here a woman who once reported for a conservative news site?  Because of what she did at her current job.  When Donald Trump gave a statement to the press about trade negotiations while seated with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Ms. Collins asked the current White House occupant about everything but that - Michael Cohen, secret tapes involving a possible cover-up, Vladimir Putin - and the White House responded by banning her from the premises . . . for doing what a reporter is supposed to do.   

I'm a freelance reporter when I'm not working on this blog or writing commentary on this blog's sister blog, Miscellaneous Musings.  So I'm doing here what every other reporter and news organization is doing - standing up for Kaitlin Collins.  And, lest you think this is purely political . . . well, aside from the fact that I am aware of Ms. Collins's conservative bona fides despite my own disagreement with political conservatism, I need only share with you what Bret Baier of Fox News - yes, Fox News - read in a statement on behalf of his employer in Ms. Collins's defense and against Trump:

"Just because the White House is uncomfortable with a question regarding the news of the day doesn't mean the question isn't relevant and shouldn't be asked. This decision to bar a member of the press is retaliatory in nature and not indicative of an open and free press. We demand better. As a member of the White House press pool, Fox stands firmly with CNN on this issue of access."

And so do I.

Free speech rocks.  That's why, despite whatever negative thoughts some people might have to a blog celebrating feminine beauty, I continue this blog without apology.  And that goes double for what I write my other blog.