Mariska Hargitay

Actor; founder and president of the Joyful Heart Foundation
Mother of August, 10 months

When Mariska Hargitay began playing Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, she didn't receive the usual kind of fan mail. "It wasn't 'Oh, I love your show, you're so pretty,'" she says. "It was women disclosing things to me, saying, 'Can you help me?'" With the help of a friend, Hargitay transformed her fan website, Mariska.com, into a self-esteem site, providing resources for rape victims and women suffering from depression and addiction. In 2002, Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation (JHF) to provide healing therapies for survivors of sexual assault. "We don't try to reinvent the wheel, because there are so many fantastic organizations out there already," she says. Instead, JHF uses alternative methods, like art therapy and swimming with dolphins in Hawaii. "Oftentimes, victims of sexual assault just shut the door—the lights go out," Hargitay continues. "Because swimming with dolphins was euphoric for me, I thought if I could share it with victims, it might help them open up and understand that one terrible experience does not need to define them."

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