Yelitsa Jean-Charles is a successful young black woman who is busy showing the incredible influence black women can have on each other, and on the world.

Jean-Charles, an art student at Rhode Island School of Design, recently delivered a riveting TEDx talk where she confronts the serious and, sadly, all too common issues of colorism and internalized racism that plague communities of color. These are also issues Jean-Charles said she has dealt with personally, until she eventually decided to fight back.

In her speech, Jean-Charles recalled the disappointment she said she felt as a child when her parents gifted her with a black Barbie doll for Christmas.

"I instantly started crying, because to me it wasn't the real Barbie because it wasn't the 'pretty' barbie," she said. She went on to explain how she had been conditioned as a child to believe that anything "beautiful" was associated with blonde hair and blue eyes, which she said distanced her from her blackness.

However, Jean-Charles said that as she got older she began to unpack this harmful messaging and embrace her own beauty. She said she wanted to address the lack of diversity among children's toys and media so that more young girls of color could see themselves reflected among those offerings.

In doing so, she launched Healthy Roots , which is a toy company that comes with a line of dolls with natural hair and a book that teaches girls about haircare.