Taking Charge of Your Life Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jenny Craig

It might seem odd to include a weight loss consultant and frozen meals manufacturer in a celebrity quiz, but Jenny Craig is an extremely successful business entrepreneur who built up a multi-million dollar concern from just a simple idea. Born in Louisiana in 1932, Jenny and her husband started Jenny Craig Incorporated in Australia in 1983. By 1985 branches were operating in the United States as well, and then Canada, France, the UK and Puerto Rico.

By the turn of the 21st century, there were more than 700 of her weight loss centres around the world, employing some 3,000 people. Now owned by Nestle Nutrition, Jenny's business and personal belief system was definitely about taking charge of life on a day to day basis. Jenny also supports a wide range of philanthropic causes as well.

These include hospitals, centres for the terminally ill, centres for people battling breast cancer, centres for victims of domestic violence and two universities. She's a champion loser.

Answer: Maria Shriver

Maria Shriver (born in 1955) is the niece of the late President John F. Kennedy and was the wife of Hollywood super-star and oncetime governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's her externals. Maria herself is a journalist, author of six best-sellers, TV news anchor for NBC News, and an award winning television presenter who has earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for her work in this field.

She gives back to the world as much as she has received, by serving on the board of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute, is a lifelong advocate for people with intellectual disabilities, serves on the international board for the Special Olympics, is on the board of Best Buddies, chairs the million dollar concern Audi Best Buddies Challenge to raise funds for programs working in the interests of people with intellectual disabilities, works on programs that assists in employment for same, and has created an ice cream company called "Lovin' Scoopful" that donates 25% of all proceeds towards the Special Olympics.

This amazing woman, who has achieved and given so much, knows that what we do with our life is of course important, but that the way we live that life, no matter what we achieve, is the greatest accomplishment of all.

Answer: Margaret Fuller

Margaret Fuller was a highly educated American journalist, author, women's right advocate, and the first full time American book reviewer. Her work "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" is considered today to be one of the most influential feminist works written in the United States. Lucky to be born into a family where her father believed in educating women to the same standards as men, Margaret initially worked as a teacher, and then commenced a series of meetings with women who had been denied all but the basic education, during which they discussed historical events, the current pertinent issues of the day, and many other subjects that enlightened the mind.

From there she became editor of "The Dial" journal for a time, before commencing work as a highly regarded journalist with "The New York Tribune", where she quickly earned a reputation as one of the most widely read women of the time. At the same time, Margaret continued to be fully committed to working for women's rights, education and employment, and was a powerful influence on the members of the suffragist movement that would soon make their demands for equality and voting rights felt around the world. Margaret Fuller, who committed her life to making knowledge available to as many deprived people as she could, lost her life in a shipwreck on a return trip from Europe where she had been sent by her newspaper as its first female foreign correspondent. She died, content perhaps in the knowledge that the light from her own particular candle had lit the flames of thousands of other candles right around the world.

Answer: Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731-1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first President of the United States. She was born into a large family on a plantation in Virginia, married off at eighteen to a rich planter who was twenty years her senior, and with whom she had four children, and was left a wealthy widow at the age of twenty-five, when she more than competently managed the five plantations she now owned. She married the young, comfortably off George Washington, who had known the family for some time, two years later.

Though she followed Washington to his winter encampments for eight years, where she willingly carried out her social duties as his wife, Martha didn't want him to become the President of the newly formed United States, and, in fact, refused to attend his inauguration in protest. However, she soon settled down into the role of First Lady, and, always referred to as Lady Washington, proved to be a fine hostess and an invaluable support to him on the many state occasions he was forced to endure. Behind every great man, they say, is a fine woman who has helped make that greatness possible. The intelligent, competent and gracious Martha Washington, who realised early in life that the greater part of happiness depended on disposition rather than circumstances, that reluctant First Lady of a great, but somewhat reluctant First President, helped, probably far more than we will ever know, that momentous leader fulfil his destiny.

Answer: Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon (1896-1985) was an American stage, film and TV actress, screenwriter, author and playwright. An example of her work was the screenplay for the hilarious 1949 film "Adam's Rib" which starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as a pair of married lawyers who go to war with each other over a court case. Gordon herself was an actress whose career spanned silent movies right up to the age of television.

Her films included the 1941 romantic comedy "Two-Faced Woman" opposite Greta Garbo, a story centred around a ski instructor married to a fashion magazine editor.

The older she got, the better her films became, and over her long career, she appeared in over twenty of these, twenty television shows, and over thirty Broadway productions, as well as her large output of writing.

This diminutive woman with the courage of a lion received, in 1983, the Women in Film Crystal Award for "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry".

Answer: Sonia Choquette

Sonia Choquette is a world famous American author and spiritual teacher with a great sense of humour and an amazing ability to lift people out of the deepest of doldrums to enable them to take charge of life instead of letting life's circumstances hold them captive. Such is the extent of her popularity that her books have been published in forty countries and in thirty-seven different languages.

Her knowledge and expertise "...is sought throughout the world, helping both individuals and organisations dramatically improve their experience and abilities to perform at optimal levels...". Sonia has also set up several organisations for orphans in Africa and spends a great deal of time doing charity work in the States as well.

As a young woman she attended the Denver University and the Sorbonne University in Paris before commencing her life's work.

She also holds a Ph.D in metaphysics from the American Institute of Holistic Theology.

Answer: Caroline Myss

Caroline Myss, born in 1952, and with a Master's degree in Theology, is another American author who has written numerous books on using the power of the soul or spirit to take control of one's life. Describing herself as a medical intuitive, Caroline's best selling works include "Anatomy of the Spirit" (1996), "Why People Don't Heal and How they Can" (1998) and "Archetypes: Who Are You?" (2013).

In her books, Caroline attempts to answer the question of the conflict between the mind and the spirit that philosophers have discussed and wrestled with for centuries.

She discusses the power of the spirit residing within each person and how the negative conscious mind mustn't be allowed to dominate that spirit. This is not everyone's cup of tea of course, but an open and receptive mind is at least willing to examine what she has to say.

Answer: Jane Fonda

Actress, writer, activist, model and fitness guru, Jane Fonda, daughter of the great actor Henry Fonda (1905-1982) was born in New York in 1937. During the course of her career, Jane has won two Academy Awards (for the 1971 crime thriller, "Klute" - and for the 1978 love story/Vietnam war drama, "Coming Home), one Emmy and several Golden Globes. Not content to devote her entire life to acting however, Jane, over the years, built up an impressive fitness industry business as well, and developed a fiery reputation along the way as a feminist and an activist vehemently protesting war, violence against women, and numerous other issues. Many of her comments and her actions haven't exactly endeared her to the public, and sometimes she shoots off her mouth before knowing all the details of the issues on which she speaks. However, this is one woman who is never afraid to speak her mind, never afraid to take it on the chin and never afraid to lead the charge on issues she considers so very important to mankind.

Others honours Jane Fonda has received over her lifetime include the Women in Film Crystal Award (1981), becoming a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, Women's eNews 21 Leaders award, Honorary Palme d'Or by the Cannes Film Festival, induction into the California Hall of Fame, the New York Women's Agenda Lifetime Achievement Award and an AFI Life Achievement Award.

Answer: Grandma Moses

Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961) was an American folk artist who didn't begin that career until she was almost 80 years old. Pretty amazing, isn't it? Since that time her works have been displayed and sold all over the world in exhibitions, and on various merchandise and cards.

They portray a time long gone, an idyllic rural life in all its loveliness of season, while, at the same time, capturing an essence of the artist herself, known for her impish humour, her no-nonsense attitude to life, and her deep appreciation of nature. Grandma Moses, so dubbed by the press, turned to painting at that late stage of life when arthritis in her hands made the creation of her beloved embroidery too painful to continue.

Not to be defeated, she took charge of her remaining years and turned to painting instead - and the world was the winner. I think she was wonderful.

Answer: Fabiola Gianotti

Fabiola Gianotti (born in 1962) is an Italian particle physicist, who holds a Ph.D in experimental sub-nuclear physics. In 1987 she joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), a massive concern of 2,500 staff and some 12,300 fellows, associates, scientists and engineers from 600 universities worldwide.

Their work there is in particle accelerators and high energy physics research. Not that I understand any of that. I can't even figure out the eggbeater. Fabiola worked there on the massive Large Haldron Collider experiment.

This amazing woman's quote on following your dreams has taken her to the very top of her profession - and to the very essence of life itself.