The Rising Star Whose Political Career Started as a Speechwriter at Age 15

The first time Macy Amos worked for Nashville city government, she landed a job on the mayor’s speechwriting team. One of the perks of the assignment was a corner office. Amos was 15.

More than a decade later, Amos is back in city government. For the past two years, she’s been an attorney with the city’s law department. Amos advises agencies on a wide range of civil matters, from land use decisions and beer-selling permits to purchasing new property and handling protests at public parks.

Amos earned a political science degree in three years, and graduated from law school at 23.

Her quick rise hasn’t always gone smoothly. A judge, also a woman, once refused to believe Amos was a lawyer, not a paralegal, because she was so young.

“A lot of times in meetings, I’m the only female at the table, and I am always the youngest person,” she says. “You have to work a little bit harder, dress a little bit nicer, be a little more prepared than everyone else in the room, because you’re going to be discounted because of your age and because you’re a woman.”

Read about the Women in Government program and the rest of the honorees.

*CORRECTION: A previous version of this stated that Amos has worked for the city's law department for four years. She is only in her third year on the job.