Reese Witherspoon Beats the Odds

Reese Witherspoon Beats the Odds

Part of being a celebrity is helping those less fortunate with your time, talent, and pocketbook. And Reese Witherspoon is making a difference for The Children's Defense Fund.

The "Legally Blonde" actress showed up at Thursday's Beat the Odds Awards at the Beverly Hills Hotel. As it turns out, Reese has quite a history with the CDF.

Back in college, she picked up a copy of "The Measure of Our Success," a novel published by the Children's Defense Fund. And when she was struggling to find a job in between filming "Election" and "Legally Blonde," she revisited the book for inspiration.

She told press, "(During that time) I was going though a little bit of a rough patch. It was before Legally Blonde, and I was having a hard time getting a job. There were all these questions about my weight, and I was asking myself, 'Why am I an actress? What is life about?' So I started reading the book again, and I called the Children's Defense Fund to see if I could help."

And she's been helping them ever since, with both financial gifts and lending her celebrity to their cause.