Leslie Jones has managed to have both a spectacular and horrifying year. While continuing her scene-stealing stint on Saturday Night Live, Leslie nailed it in the Ghostbusters reboot. But when the film was released, her Twitter was bombarded by disturbing, racist trolls who wreaked havoc on her nothing but pleasant presence and proved that people can still truly surprise you with their awfulness. Once that blew over, her enthusiastic Olympic live tweets went viral and she ended up attending the Olympics upon invitation. Follow that up with her website being hacked with personal images and information, and Leslie just can't quite catch a break. However, it seems like maybe all the internet monsters have been put to rest, and Leslie is back on Twitter to bring us her brand of sheer, inspiring joy, and to celebrate her birthday week to the max. Today's the day, and here are 10 reasons we hope Leslie's birthday is as good as it gets!
10. She's not just a normal level of inspiring, she's a firework of glorious, sunshiny upliftingness, especially in the face of people who are wasting their time and potential goodness in this world trying to bring her down.
9. She's managed to bring that inspiration and her sharp, playful, occasionally dirty comedy to Saturday Night Live on multiple occasions.
8. She's also played front and center in some of the best recent sketches, including playing "Shanice the Ninja," whom we hope gets her own big-budget action film one day.
7. Watching her try out Snapchat filters is a lot more fun than trying them ourselves, and she gets the commentary just right.
6. No one mastered live-tweeting the Olympics with the amount of dedication, enthusiasm, and genuine joy that Leslie did. Even better, she pretty much always nailed our inner monologues too. #SlayAllDay
5. In fact, everyone loved her tweets so much NBC literally brought her to Rio, where she met everyone and continued her gleeful celebrations of sports and the USA and showed everyone that being a great person means achieving great things.
4. And when she saw Gabby Douglas was drawing attention and abuse from internet trolls, she was right there for her and started the movement #LOVE4GABBYUSA. That's a role model right there!
3. Rebooting Ghostbusters was a serious challenge, and she quickly became a fan-favorite as NYC MTA attendant Patty.
2. You really do need to follow her on Twitter. It might be Leslie's birthday, but she's given you a present.
1. By calling out injustice, enacting change, and continuing on as a wildly successful actress and comedian, Leslie Jones took everything this summer gave her and showed us she takes the high road with grace, strength, and admirable self-love. We may not know her, but we love her and we want the best for her - especially when it comes to birthdays. And so happy birthday, Leslie! Keep on keeping it real!
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