Amal Clooney reveals her ultimate role model

We're listening...

Human rights attorney/global badass/style icon Amal Clooney, who happens to be married to Hollywood A-lister George Clooney, who has been quoted saying lovely things about his wife, is one of the most inspirational women on the planet, no? So, obviously, when she reveals her top role models, the world listens.

During a Q&A at the Texas Conference for Women yesterday where Amal was the keynote speaker, she said:

'I think growing up my mother was definitely a role model, she was always a working woman and someone who is independent and cared about her career and cared about being independent but also had balance. She never lost her femininity and she believed the balance was important and that is something that stuck with me.'

And obviously Amal's mum is a massive badass too. (Would you expect anything less?) Noted journalist Bariaa Alamuddin grew up in Tripoli, Libya, before moving to Beirut, Lebanon, for her job in Lebanese national television. She raised her daughters, Amal and Tala, in London after having to flee war-ravaged Lebanon and worked at Al-Hayat newspaper.

It didn't take long before Bariaa was interviewing the likes of U.S President Bill Clinton, former Cuban President Fidel Castro, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Amal also mentioned another name, highlighting associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: 'When I was a junior lawyer she was incredible to watch in action in court, how she had so many cases in her head and firing questions at these lawyers standing before her. But then also on the personal side, [she] was just lovely and I was the most junior and irrelevant person in her chamber … and she was very charming and very balanced.'

And she ended her keynote speech with a general high-five to women everywhere: 'The worst thing that we can do as women is not stand up for each other. … Because if we are united, there is no limit to what we can do.'