JULIANNA PEÑA IS one of the youngest members of a long line of Peña family members who are unbothered by judgment or criticism.
Her father, Ernie, left a small agricultural village in Venezuela when he was 12 in search of better opportunities. He eventually emigrated to the U.S. through a scholarship program and attended Seattle Pacific University. Coming from so little and changing his life so much, Ernie never had the luxury of caring what people think.
"This man does not care about any of that," Peña says. "We'd be shopping for school clothes and instead of taking us into a dressing room, he'd literally strip us down right there to see if it would fit.