You have never heard of Madalyn Murray O'Hair?

Okay, think of the movie version of The Blue Lagoon. It doesn't work as a "love story," because with only one boy and one girl on the island, they don't have any alternative. They wind up in a sexual relationship by default, not because the boy has to compete with other boys to seduce the girl.

In Madalyn's case, no one else wanted to become the country's public face of atheism, so she managed to step into that role without having to push anyone else out of the way. And she managed to draw attention to herself afterwards because she lacked social anxiety and she said and did outrageous things which made her news-worthy, like filing harassing lawsuits against local governments for alleged breaches of church-state separation. Her boldness didn't make her especially effective or look very competent. Instead many other atheists considered her a buffoon.