Alexis De Veaux: Hello. My name is Alexis De Veaux. And I got my first name from a movie actress of the late 1940s, early 1950s. My mother was a huge fan and would go to the movies all the time, and there was an actress by the name of Alexis Smith with whom my mother was well taken. And this particular actress always had roles as a kind of tough broad. Back in the day that's what she was called, a "tough broad." She was very streetwise, very smart, a very capable, powerful woman. And my mother named me after her. And I believe that I inherited that history of this movie star who was a woman who was quite the feminist herself in her time. And I'm very grateful to my mother for naming me Alexis.

De Veaux is my mother's maiden name. So I have this remarkable name, and I wear it with pride.