Christa B. Allen

Sometimes work is a bit slow, and I always wanted to be a princess at Disneyland. There were 1,500 of us who auditioned, and 11 of us were hired. I went through all of the training, but never ended up actually getting to play Belle because 'Revenge' started. It was the time of my life, though!

The importance of heart health became very real for me when my father died of heart disease seven years ago. Having experienced the loss first hand, I am inspired to do everything I can to break the cycle and prevent families from losing loved ones to this preventable disease.

I want to tell mayors, county chiefs and heads of big companies: don't just chase GDP growth; don't chase the biggest profits at the expense of our children and grandchildren and at the cost of sacrificing our ecological environment.