(CNN) On her first day in Washington as a soon-to-be member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took part in a sit-in protest on climate change in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office.

In those first 48 hours in Washington -- and even before she is formally sworn in as a congresswoman -- two things became readily apparent about Ocasio-Cortez:

1) Because of her national stardom derived from her stunning upset primary victory over Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, everything she does will be watched and scrutinized to death. (And apparently everything she wears too. On Thursday, a media reporter for the Washington Examiner tweeted a picture of Ocasio-Cortez in which she is wearing a business suit with the caption "that jacket and coat don't look like a girl who struggles." His tweet provoked, um, quite the reaction on the Internet .)

2) Unlike most new members if Congress who quickly seek to adapt themselves to Washington's ways in hopes of ingratiating themselves to leaders and climbing the leadership ladder, Ocasio-Cortez represents something very different: Her roots are in activism, not politics. And she seems to have very little concern as to how her willingness to buck the Way Things Are Done Around Here will have on her career in Congress.