You don’t want to be on the other side of Representative Maxine Waters (D–Calif.). The veteran lawmaker has long wielded her unapologetically laser-sharp tongue—surgical in its precision, devastating in its impact—in service of her progressive politics. When legislators propose policy that would turn back the clock on civil rights, dash progression on reproductive legislation, or take affordable housing away? There’s Waters, speaking truth to power.

And damned if that isn’t fun to watch right now, particularly through the eyes—and memes, GIFs, and hashtags—of a new generation of followers. During a long, hot summer full of rage over everything from the President’s anti-immigration policy to his support of Nazi marches, Waters pulled no punches: She called out cabinet officials under investigation for ties to Russia and fought Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ plans to reinstitute mandatory sentencing for drug offenses. After former FBI director James B. Comey testified that he told Sessions he deliberately avoided one-on-one time with Trump, Waters tweeted this jewel: “So Comey told Jeff Sessions he didn’t want to be alone with Trump. Women across the country can relate.”

Sitting Strong “One of the things I’ve discovered is that when people get to know that you mean business, they don’t mess with you.”

And then came this. When at a hearing, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared to be trying to run out her allotted five minutes of queries rather than answer her questions about Trump’s financial ties to Russia, Waters shut him down. “Reclaiming my time,” she snapped repeatedly, citing a standard House procedural rule. Those three words became a hashtag—and call to action for women to stand up for themselves.

“Her truths are pithy and punchy, for Generation Quick Takes, she’s the perfect expresser of our feelings,” says Luvvie Ajayi, social media pundit and New York Times best-selling author of I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual. “I think Maxine Waters speaks with the heart we want in those who represent us, and for young voters, that matters.”

Waters is amused that her remarks have been embraced by a new generation of young women. “They have not seen or heard elected officials openly defy the order of things and speak directly in the way that I have done,” Waters says. “I am speaking very directly, and aggressively, without apology. It’s my dislike for bullies who get away with making other people’s lives miserable—that compels me to act.”

When it comes to being both outspoken and concerned about the human condition, “Auntie Maxine,” as her Twitter followers have come to call her, comes by it honestly. She is the fourth of 13 children raised in St. Louis by Velma Lee Moore, a mom who, Waters says, “taught us to speak up for ourselves.” Her mother also implored her children to “try to have a decent quality of life not only for yourself but for those around you.”