The Stunning Transformation Of Tina Fey

I'm in the large population of people who simply adore Tina Fey. To me there's nothing she touches that I don't love. I've seen almost everything she's ever starred in and multiple times at that. Her wicked sense of humor, intelligence, loyalty to friends, and IDGAF attitude makes her a great role model to many young women. In her autobiography Bossypants she gives some sound advice that led her to where she is today, "Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions. Do your thing and don't care if they like it."

Fey found her calling doing her thing, when she set foot on stage in Chicago learning improv, where she made friends and coworkers for life. In 2011, she penned an essay in The New Yorker describing her journey from working at The Second City comedy club and theatre to being called up to write for Saturday Night Live. She moved up the writers' ranks quickly and began appearing on skits before taking a seat at the Weekend Update desk. She's championed some of TV's greatest shows and created one of the best female cult comedy films to hit the big screen.

She's a shining example of how talent, hard work and supporting your friends can make your dreams come true. Read on to learn more about funny lady, girl champion, and ultimate bossy pants, Tina Fey.

During her time at The Second City in Chicago, Fey met most of the people she still works with today. In 1993 at Chicago's ImprovOlympic the theater's co-founder Charna Halpern introduced her to Amy Poehler and they quickly became inseparable. "She's a very dear, dear friend," she told David Letterman for The Hollywood Reporter.

She went on to tell Letterman that she still keeps in touch daily with some of her female SNL cast mates, including Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Emily Spivey, Paula Pell, Ana Gasteyer, and Rachel Dratch. "We talk as a group through the computer every single day. Dozens of times a day. And it's very nice," she said. "It was easy when we worked at SNL: You're on top of each other 60 hours a week. So it's nice that we are maintaining this friendship."

In 1997, Saturday Night Live was in its 23rd season and Adam McKay, the writing partner of Will Ferrell and the man who taught Fey her first improv class, was head writer. He told Rolling Stone that Fey was an easy hire because she was always hilarious.

Fey described the experience to Oprah as extremely intimidating. "It's hard to get laughs when you're new — you may not get a single laugh during your whole piece," she said about reading a sketch to a crowded room that included Lorne Michaels (creator and executive producer), the host for the week and all of the cast, crew, and network representatives. "A year after I came to the show, I finally had a piece that really killed in that room ­and that was almost more satisfying than having it succeed on the air. That's how tough that room is."

She was a writer for two years before becoming the first female head writer in 1999, a year later she began performing on the show in a variety of sketches and co-anchored Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon and Amy Poehler until she left in May 2006. She was pinned as the third most important cast member in Rolling Stone's ranking of best SNL cast members over the 40-year run.

In between Fey's time writing and performing SNL, she began to take on some roles on the big screen. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly she discusses writing and starring in her first film Mean Girls in 2004, which opened at number one making a total of 24.4 million, and chats about teaming up with Amy Poehler for Baby Mama which also opened at number one making a total of 17.4 million. After those films she took on some roles with funny guys and office managers, Ricky Gervais in the Invention of Lying and Steve Carell in Date Night.

The dream team Fey and Poehler sat down with The New York Times to talk about teaming up again for the hilarious comedy written by their friend and SNL alum Paula Pell titled Sisters. Fey then took on a more serious role, with some comedic flare in the 2016 film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. The film is about the real life experience of Kim Barker, reporting on the war in Afghanistan.

Fey chatted with Refinery 29 about producing the film and collaborating with her writing partner Robert Carlock to adapt the screenplay from Barker's book, The Taliban Shuffle. "I think Robert has known me for so long and is good at writing for whatever will work for me," she said. "Probably almost better than I am at this point."

On top of being an award-winning TV and film comedy writer she wrote the best-selling memoir Bossypants in 2011. Fey also sat down to adapt the Mean Girls screenplay into a musical with husband Jeff Richmond composing. The musical will make its world debut at Washington, D.C.'s The National Theatre for the 2017-18 season, so I think we can now add playwright to her resume as well.

Writing kind of runs in the family for the Feys. Her father was a journalist at the beginning of his career before serving, "After he came back from Korea, he went to the Temple University School of Media and Communication and he was a writer for Business Week," Fey told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

She also revealed that her family set up a scholarship in her father's name at Temple University for returning vets who want to study journalism. Her brother Peter Fey, also graduated from Temple University's School of Media and Communication and is working as a writer/producer for the QVC network.

Fey has proven herself as beyond capable at the reigns of some of TV's most successful shows. She became the first female head writer at Saturday Night Live after only two years, creating many memorable and hilarious moments and then created the hit NBC show 30 Rock that lasted seven seasons with her writing partner, Robert Carlock.

It's clear that Fey and Carlock make a great team; shortly after 30 Rock's end they created the hit Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The show was first created out of NBC's request for them to create something for actress Ellie Kemper, but they ended up on Netflix instead.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fey describes how it's exciting to write a show for Netflix and not be bound by the rigid network timing of episodes and writing for commercial breaks, allowing the jokes and the show to be a bit edgier than what we'd see on regular cable TV. The show has another season slated to go and is already racking up the Emmy nominations.

Fey is only 45 years old, but finds getting older in Hollywood difficult, she told she told Town & Country, "The greatest challenge for me as an actress is just getting older," she said, "Trying to play the scene at hand while also trying to hold your face up. Fast-forward to being 68, and it's a glorious act of bravery."

She noted seeing people in their twenties at the Golden Globes who appeared to be using Botox already, she prefers to keep things natural and says the best she can do is to try to stay in shape.

When Fey and Poehler sat down to answer some questions with Glamour they discussed how women feel sexy in their forties. Fey said, "By the time you are in your forties, what you want to wear and what you think is sexy is not always, like, for another person. It's what makes you feel good . . . Sexy is all relative." Rock on, Tina! We so agree.