Two role models come to mind:
1. A particular friend of mine whom I have known for many years. I was always jealous of her because she has certain personality traits that make her very well-liked by many people as well as an extremely popular, well-liked, successful educator (all of these are things that I have always wanted to be). Even though jealousy is generally not considered to be a positive trait, and my intentions definitely had a very large measure on not-l’shmaness, it seems that there must have been an element of “kinas sofrim” since I was zoche, b’chasdei Hashem, to be able to develop those traits in myself to a large extent.
2. Sara Schnirer because:
a) she did not allow her marital status to define her.
b) she did not let her marital status, gender or societal norms restrict her from fulfilling her potential.
c) Her motto in life was the same as my name and motto (“lilmod ulelameid”)
d) She was brave enough to act against the tide but at the same time, she made sure that everything she did was in accordance with Daas Torah and was done l’shma. And she wasn’t radical for the sake of being radical – when being radical was the right thing to do, she was radical, and when being traditional was the right approach, she was traditional.