Only two years after her double mastectomy, Jolie discovered that she is also at risk of developing ovarian cancer. She had to make some tough decisions one more time, and in 2015 she had removed her ovaries.
After that, she stated: “I don’t feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.”
The Angelina Effect
Time magazine wrote an article titled “The Angelina Effect” in which they praised Angelina for being a voice for women around the world.
The number of referrals for genetic testing doubled, and in some countries even tripled, after she went public with her decision to have a mastectomy. Sheryl Crow said: “I commend Angelina Jolie for her courage and thoughtfulness in sharing her story.”
The Future
Netflix’s First They Killed My Father was directed and co-written by Jolie. The movie is based on the experience of Cambodian activist Loung Ung during the Khmer Rouge regime. The future is also going to be very busy for Angelina. Regardless of her custody battle, she will move forward with her projects and films, by working as an actress, producer, and director.
Producing
One of the projects that Jolie produced is The Breadwinner, an animated film based on a novel by Deborah Ellis.
It is the story of an Afghan girl who helps her family by working while disguised as a boy. It’s a heartwarming story that shows the hard life and everyday struggles of women in Afghanistan.
World Travelers
Jolie is known for her charity work that often takes her around the globe, but recently she decided that it would benefit her kids to do the same. Angelina took two of her daughters to visit a Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Jolie said that her daughters asked to come with her to meet with Syrians who are displaced from the country torn by civil war.
Home-Schooled
Because of the constant travels, Jolie has the kids homeschooled. They are learning all the basics of reading and arithmetic, but they are also taking language classes and learning musical instruments.
Jolie told the BBC that the kids are learning different languages, so Shiloh is learning Khmai, Cambodian language, Pax is learning Vietnamese, Madox is interested in German and Russian, Zahara is speaking French, and Vivienne and Knox are focusing on Arabic and sign language.
Saving the World
Even though Angelina Jolie is known for her humanitarian work and the amazing things she has done in life to help truly some of the world’s most vulnerable people, some of her biggest challenges remain closer to home.
The irony is, that even though she has traveled the world fighting for human rights—specifically children’s rights—in her personal life, it was her own children’s rights that were at risk.
Tough Decision
Jolie has always remained tight-lipped about the details of her divorce from Brad Pitt—partly out of respect, and partly because legally she is simply not allowed to divulge too much about the case. But she did reveal to UK newspaper The Guardian how difficult it was to split from him—hinting towards a pretty dire situation at home.
I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly,” she wrote. “It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”
One Big Family
Even though Jolie and her family have all been through a lot, she credits the diversity of her children’s background and experiences with giving them all the strength to understand each other and support each other.
Within the understanding that they are family comes a lot of awareness that has to be born of all the years of them growing up together,” she said to The Guardian. “Learning from each other, discussing adoption, race and family.”
Motherly Love
Jolie is known throughout the world as a famous actress, model, and activist, but for her, the most important role she has is simple—a mother. And it is her own mother that inspired her to be the strong woman she is today and gave her the courage to undergo her major life-changing surgeries.
“If my mom knew about this and had this surgery and she had read an op-ed like this, she might still be alive,” she said of her op-ed in the New York Times. “Therefore I really feel I should write this, because maybe somebody’s mom will read it.”
Inner Peace
There is no doubt that Jolie has been through an incredibly difficult time the past few years.
“I mean, in some ways it’s been the last decade,” she herself said to The Guardian. So how does she maintain such inner strength?
“I think at the end of the day, even if you and a few people you love are the only people who know the truth of your life, what you fight for, or what you sacrifice, or what you’ve suffered, you come to be at peace with that,” she said. “Regardless of everything going on around you.”
Staying Real
Of course, Angelina Jolie is a hero to many, but she’s keen to remind people that she is just a human like anyone else, trying to get through life and make the best of it.
How am I?” she said to The Guardian, reflecting on her years post-Pitt. “I’m realizing that sometimes you can survive things, but not know how to feel and live in the same way. So it’s more about being open. I’m really trying to be open as a human being again.”
Looking Forward
Angelina Jolie is a true inspiration to us, because she manages to strike that perfect balance of being incredibly candid and open with her feelings, and also maintaining privacy for her family and not revealing any personal details about her divorce out of respect for Pitt.
It’s not that I want to talk about anything really,” she said. “I just want my family to heal. And I want everyone to move forward—all of us, including their dad. I want us to heal and be peaceful. We’ll always be a family.”
