Hillary Rodham Clinton is the guest-editor of our Volume IV issue, on newsstands nationally December 5. She will keynote at the first-ever Teen Vogue Summit in conversation with actress, scholar, and activist Yara Shahidi. The Teen Vogue Summit will take place on December 1 & 2 in Los Angeles. Tickets and information are available here.

On November 9, 2016, the day after the election, the world watched Hillary Clinton deliver a concession speech that spoke of the “deeply divided” nation the presidential race had left in its wake. Observing from the sidelines, eyes filled with tears, were her heartbroken campaign staffers, who had spent the previous year imagining a very different outcome.

Courtesy of Tylah Gantt : tylahgantt

“On Election Day, I was in charge of all of the hotel logistics,” says Opal Vadhan, a former member of Hillary’s national advance team and currently the executive assistant to both Hillary and her chief of staff, Huma Abedin. “I was with her all Election Day and had a team of three. So at 2 or 3 in the morning, when the results came in, I had to tell these phenomenal women, ‘We can’t cry; we cannot be upset. We need to make this as easy as possible for this woman on what is possibly the toughest day of her life.’”

This is just one example of the overwhelming resilience, strength, and professionalism exhibited by Opal, 24; Iran Campana, 27; Mariam Ehrari, 25; Tylah Gantt, 23; Kate Offerdahl Guy, 25; Lauren Collins Peterson, 30;Paola Ramos, 30; Ella Serrano, 26; and Lisa Vedernikova, 23—a handful of the many women (and men) who dedicated themselves to helping get the first female president elected. While we didn’t see the glass ceiling shattered, these women all agree that the long days, late nights, and love shared created a bond that will last a lifetime. “The way we would decompress is just by being friends with each other,” says Kate, who assisted campaign manager Robby Mook and is now the policy program manager at the Truman National Security Project. “We were never catty. We loved each other deeply—[from] the most senior staff to the once-a-week volunteer. We all got to know each other. And without that bond, I think it would have been hell.”