Life Stories: Hillary Clinton

Political powerhouse, wronged wife, hair icon and media scapegoat, the former US secretary of state is now applying for the biggest job in the world. If she wins 2016's election, she'll be the first female US president. So who is the real Hillary?

- Helen Gent

She’s been described as one of the most recognizable but least understood figures in US politics. And, like Marmite, it seems Americans either really like her or really (really) hate her. She’s been called ‘a phony’ and ‘an ageing hoofer’, and been the butt of unfiltered sexist rhetoric (one TV commentator opined that, when Hillary spoke, all you heard was her nagging: ‘Take out the garbage’). But her Twitter profile reads as unapologetically proud, and a touch tongue-in-cheek: ‘Wife, mom, grandma, women+kids advocate, FLOTUS, Senator, Sec State, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate.’ There’s no room to list her many professional triumphs – founding the Face of Global Women’s Issues, for instance – but there’s the nod to the media’s mockery of her trusty trouser suits and ever-evolving hairdos. (She once joked: ‘If I want to knock a story of the front page, I just change my hairstyle.’)