She was raised in exile on foreign soil. Her family was taken captive by invaders and removed from their homeland a couple of generations before her birth.  She was a female, in her culture she was considered expendable.  She became an orphan at a very young age.  As a teenager she was taken into a hoard of women who were made available for the pleasure of a powerful man.  As a young adult she was told that she must keep her ethnic identity hidden.  She had so many strikes against her.  Alone, insignificant, disposable, disregarded, she seems the least likely candidate for someone who would change the world.  Yet that is exactly what Esther of the Old Testament did.