Tammy Duckworth - USA Senator Who Was Born in Thailand

She was born in Bangkok, spoke only Thai until she was eight years old, and grew up to help write the laws of the most powerful nation on earth.

Her name is Tammy Duckworth, and her story should be far more famous than it is.

Born in 1968 to a Thai mother from Chiang Mai and an American father, she spent her early childhood in Thailand. Decades later, she would make history as the first Thai American woman elected to the United States Congress and the first person born in Thailand to serve in the US Senate. She won the very Senate seat once held by Barack Obama.

But her story carries a weight most politicians can't imagine. She served as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq, and in 2004, her aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. She lost both of her legs. She survived, earned a Purple Heart, and went on to serve her country again, this time in government.

A Thai-born girl who lost everything and still climbed to the highest halls of American power.

This is the reverse of the story the world usually tells about Thai women. Not someone waiting to be lifted up. Someone who lifts an entire nation's idea of what's possible.