I Faced Sexist Attacks Because of My Past. Here’s What I Want to Say to My Haters.
For Alejandra Campoverdi, there is no such thing as a one-dimensional woman. The Los Angeles native, whose family immigrated from Mexico, graduated from Harvard’s Kennedy School and went on to work as an aide to President Obama. But in her first week at the White House, old photos from a 2004 Maxim photo shoot resurfaced and went viral. Gawker even nicknamed Campoverdi the “Obama Hottie.”
But the sexist attacks only made Campoverdi work harder. She became the White House’s first deputy director of Hispanic media and eventually ran for the congressional seat in her home district in Los Angeles. And while she didn’t win the seat, Campoverdi continues to be involved in politics and speaks out about the sexism she faced:
“As women, we’re put into boxes a lot of times. We have to be the smart one or the sexy one or the girl next door. For me, it was time to smash ’em, to kick ’em through with my heels, for god’s sake.”
Watch Campoverdi’s message to her haters above, and read her op-ed on why posing for Maxim and running for Congress shouldn’t be antithetical.
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