When Grace Chirumanzu was a little girl, there was no such thing as female sports journalists in Zimbabwe, but that didn’t stop her from dreaming of one day becoming a renowned sports reporter. “My superpower has always been dreaming ‘the impossible,’” she says. Grace draws inspiration from how hard her parents worked to give their family a better life. Having grown up in the ghetto in Harare, Zimbabwe, Grace says, “I want to prove that your background does not have to determine your destiny or limit your dreams.” Grace didn’t just break through the glass ceiling to become one of the country’s first female sports journalists, she then went on to earn a master’s degree, become a karate champion, and founded Zimbabwe’s first platform for discussing women in sports, The Sports Queen.

Gender equality amendments to Zimbabwe’s constitution were enacted in 2013, but cultural norms still hold domestic violence as a useful disciplinary tool. Moreover, the country’s economy has historically created obstacles for women to live independently. Even companies with full-time workers can’t always sustain the salaries promised to their employees. Newsrooms have traditionally been places where women are overlooked or harassed, and sports journalism is often a field that women avoid.