living their ZEST LIVES

After facing hardship, these resilient dynamos bounced back with contagious good energy and excitement. Let them fire you up too!

- Nicole Pajer

Her late father's passion ignited her own.

Melissa Jones, LEBANON, IN

Despite having a supportive family, Melissa, a former schoolteacher, had struggled with confidence and selflove since she was young. A turning point came in 2016 when her father, a man with an unwavering enthusiasm for life, was diagnosed with brain cancer. As he started to lose his passion, Melissa set out to find her own. "I had an aha moment. I thought, My dad's losing his zest; I want to spread his zest, happiness, and positivity to the world." While her father was in hospice (he passed away in 2018), Melissa joined an online women's community, which helped her develop a healthy relationship with food and herself. Then she decided to share what she'd learned. She invited her female fourth-grade students to join her at lunch to talk about friendship and issues they might be facing. This launched the Girls Positivity Club (girlspositivityclub.org), a program designed to empower girls with courage and confidence. Clubs teaching Melissa's feel-good curriculum have been formed all over the nation, with one in Kenya. Recently she left teaching to pursue her initiative full-time. "I'm finally betting on myself," she says. "I'm investing in myself and invested in having a huge impact on girls. I want them to believe that anything is possible."

She beat cancer twice and became a model.

Launa Romoff, LOS ANGELES