Brooke Baldwin

CNN was just a glimmer in my eye when I was growing up in Atlanta.

When either major stories break or something just really touches me, I initiate and pitch, then follow through. I will literally march across the newsroom and bang on the president of CNN's door. He knows when I'm coming.

I tend to gravitate toward gender- and race-related stories.

I want to help lift women's voices. And I realize, in doing that, I need to use my own.

What's been fascinating about shooting my series 'American Woman' is the ubiquity of a woman's experience - and no matter who you are: a rockstar, film director, mom - we all are celebrating this movement of female empowerment, but we also realize we have a long way to go.

It has always been important for women to empower other women.

All I know is what I do each and every day and what we do here at CNN, which is all about the facts, asking tough questions, challenging leaders and our own leadership in this country.

Westminster is no joke. I took some tough classes there. It prepared me for a tough career.

I graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with degrees in journalism and Spanish in 2001 and landed my first on-air job in Charlottesville, Va.

My job is to be OK without a precise plan.

Whether it's summiting Kili or achieving my next work goal - Look forward for a moment, but then keep your head down and trudge on.

Home, for me, is not just a place but a feeling.