Consider this: Today a young girl prepares to meet her future husband in Sierra Leone.

FORBES: Why the IRC Launched the Domestic Violence Think-In

Mr Hale has a controversial past: in 1958, he eloped with his high-school sweetheart, the daughter of John Connally, a future governor of Texas, and the girl committed suicide.

ECONOMIST: By bulldozer, across a national park

As a mother of three, a wife, a science teacher, an administrator, a college professor, a tennis coach, a sponsor of Future Educators of America and Science National Honor Society and Girl Scout leader, Florida delegate Dr. Marilyn Zaragoza is an achiever, successfully balancing many different hats.

WHITEHOUSE: Dr. marilyn zaragoza | The White House

His time as a prisoner-of-war, from 1942 onwards, was diverting to him not only because it led him to his future wife (a tall, blonde, determined Slovenian girl who came to visit him when he was transferred to an outside hospital) but also because he could observe those strange creatures, the English upper classes, up close.

ECONOMIST: Eric Newby

He used it on a particular kind of girl or woman, somebody with whom he could not foresee a future, somebody who he knew would one day perceive him truly, with X-ray eyes, and move on.

NEWYORKER: Or Else

Shannon and the Girl Up girls are just the type of young women who will help win the future through innovative and collaborative foreign policy and aid.

WHITEHOUSE: Women and Girls Around the World Celebrating International Women's Day | The White House

Because right now, somewhere in America, there is a future Kennedy Center honoree -- practicing on some phone books, or writing songs to impress a girl, or wondering if she can cut it on the big stage.

WHITEHOUSE: Kennedy Center Honorees at The White House 2011