This 27th day of Women’s History Month, I found myself thinking about that kind of impact. Not just the women we celebrate publicly—the pioneers, the trailblazers, the ones whose names are etched into history—but the women whose influence is personal. The ones whose presence didn’t just pass through your life… It stayed. It shaped. It settled into who you became.

Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker grew up in extreme poverty, navigating a world shaped by segregation and racial violence. Her early life was marked by instability, survival, and limited opportunity—circumstances that could have easily defined her future.