Chicago author showcases local Black Women History

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Women's History Month gives women the opportunity to express, love and encourage themselves.

"There are still girls who are yearning to be seen, to be validated. There are still girls everyday who look in the mirror and pray away their features, their nose, their eyes, their body shape," Author of Move Beyond The Block, La'Keisha Gray-Sewell said.

For the next few weeks, women from all around the world will be celebrated. Many of them, from our own backyard.

"Chicago breeds the most resilient, the most down to earth, the most ambitious black women of any city in this country. That's the truth," Gray-Sewell said.

She grew up on the South side and wanted other people to know exactly what kind of women can come from it.

So, she wrote a book. Move Beyond The Block entails the stories of 18 inspirational women who are Chicagoans - through and through.

"Many of them from the same neighborhoods and the same schools that are either closed at this time," Gray-Sewell said. "The same thing that our girls are experiencing today was parallel to these 18 women."

Gray-Sewell wants to remind young women and girls that they're beautiful, strong and powerful. Because sometimes, being a woman is hard.

"When we provide representation for them we also provide freedom and healing. If we can heal those girls who are hurting who are muted and erased, then we can provide healing and freedom for everybody else in the world," Gray-Sewell said.

So by seeing women like these become success stories, Gray-Sewell believes it could change how those young women see themselves.