Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon wants women to be more ambitious without feeling guilty Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Reese Witherspoon has no plans to wear just one hat and has proved it from her extensive Hollywood career. From playing the rich girl-turned-lawyer in Legally Blonde or the lovable Melanie Smooter in Sweet Home Alabama, to the alpha-female in Big Little Lies, the actress is out to prove that no one can hold her back.

The 41-year-old recently shared a stunning photo from her shoot for Glamour magazine in which she poses in a black bodysuit courtesy Wilfred Free for Aritzia and a Miu Miu faux-fur coat. While the age-defying look combined with the powerful stance had fans dishing out the praise, it was Witherspoon's essay on women's ambition for the fashion magazine that really made the impact.

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"What the heck is wrong with being ambitious? I have been ambitious all my life," she starts off, recalling her powerful speech at Glamour's 2015 Women of the Year gala at Car­negie Hall. "Ambition is simply a drive inside of you—it's having a curiosity or a new idea and the desire to pursue it."

In her inspirational op-ed, the actress celebrates the major milestones Hollywood has crossed when it comes to female-driven and female-centric projects (like Rogue One and Wonder Woman). "Those are the kinds of movies I wanted to see as a little girl. Stories with powerful women at the center," she said.

Despite the recent wins for women in the film and TV industry, Witherspoon acknowledges that on a larger scale the fight is still on and things are slow-changing. "In the past two years, there have been days when I've seen what's playing out in the news for women and felt completely hopeless," she opined. "I get defeated when I see news that major corporations are paying top male executives significantly more than top female executives, or that women are marching for the same rights they were marching for 45 years ago.

“When I asked Mindy Kaling, ‘Don’t you ever get exhausted by always having to create your own roles?’ she said, ‘Reese, I’ve never had anything that I didn’t create for myself.’ I thought, Wow, I feel like a jerk for asking that; I used to have parts that just showed up for me. I can’t imagine how hard it is to write your own parts and simultaneously have to change people’s perceptions of what a woman of color is in today’s society.” Reese Witherspoon opens up about what keeps her up at night, like the lack of representation of minority women in American TV and film. Click the #linkinbio to read her full essay. (📷: @emmasummerton; styling: @jilliandavison)

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"It definitely feels backward for women to be fighting for fundamental health care. I mean...really? If our representatives value women's health in this country as much as they claim they do, how can they even contemplate denying women access to cervical or breast cancer screenings?

"You can't help our kids, our country, or our future if you don't take care of women. That feels pretty simple to me," she added.

The Home Again actress is attempting to change her own playing field with her production company, Pacific Standard, and new multimedia company, Hello Sunshine. "I think it's worth noting, I self-funded my production company for years. I think there's this fallacy that because I've been an actor, people are going to hand me stuff," she said.

"Nobody hands me anything. I'll wake up earlier; I'll stay up later. I will put my money where my mouth is. I have to read faster, and I respond quicker than other producers. I have to call and call and call executives until they say yes to my projects."

Witherspoon's latest release Home Again is currently in cinemas and her next film project A Wrinkle in Time is set to release on 9 March, 2018.