Elena Poniatowska was born into privilege but became a crusading journalist fighting against corruption and for the poor of Mexico.

As a freelance reporter based in Baghdad, Jill Carroll learned rudimentary Arabic, wrapped herself in a black abaya to blend in on Iraqi streets and took care to do most interviews in homes or offices. She had a reputation for being “culturally sensitive.”

Chinese journalist Gao Yu said she inherited courage from her parents but honed it by reporting on what she calls “the Chinese realities.”

May Chidiac wants people to know that she will not be silenced.

May Chidiac’s mother, Yvette El Soury, was in the garden planting roses when she found out her life had been abruptly uprooted.

Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho is a self-described “intellectual ugly duckling.”

Serkalem Fasil, a 2007 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner, has packed a lot into her 27 years. She grew up an avaricious reader and learned the ropes of reporting in secondary school. She had no role models or mentors, but she was active in an amateur journalists association. There are no journalism schools in Addis Ababa where she grew up, so she took useful courses at the British Council and at university.

Thumbing through a book of possible names for her unborn child, Shatha al Awsy careened through Iraq’s war-torn streets in a bullet-proof car.

Peta Thornycroft, the IWMF’s 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, grew up in the bush country of Zimbabwe. She rode horses or walked to get anywhere and never used an electric appliance until she married.