YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — For Youngstown native Carmella Williams, from faith to family, community outreach and work, life has always been a balancing act.

But to no one's surprise, the Youngstown State graduate and serial entrepreneur wanted to give back more to local business owners in the Mahoning Valley. 

Inspired by the social change movement brought about by George Floyd's death, she created a new venture— Black Periodt.

“When we saw the video of George Floyd, and then we heard about Breonna Taylor, then we heard about Ahmaud, and we're sitting indoors, right, and it's like you have nothing but time to sit and think about that kind of stuff. I was like, what can I do to mobilize myself?” said Williams. 

Black Periodt focuses on community, business, health and wellness and continuing the conversation on race relations.

50 percent of profits from three types of T-shirts —  each with a powerful message — are being shared with fellow African American-owned businesses in the community. 

“We have, 'I stand against racism,' which is a really powerful shirt, that if you wore it to work, if you wore it while you walked in your neighborhood, you wore it to the grocery store, it would invoke something in someone else. Or you know, hey, have a conversation about it,” said Williams. 

Williams runs Carmella Marie Hair & Beauty Products as well, and is also the director of diversity and inclusion at the Youngstown Business Incubator. 

She also volunteers a lot of time with two charities, and on many occasions gives out of her own pocket. She has assembled more than 30 volunteers to be a part of her team to help find areas of need in the community.

The Youngstown native says her community has handled itself well over the past two weeks with peaceful protests and she commends young folks who lead the movement for change. 

“Young people who've been organizing these protests are amazing. I think we're seeing a shift in leadership. When you look into a crowd and you see all nationalities, all ages, regardless of sex, gender, religion, they're all in the crowd, we're all standing in this together. I look at these videos online in some of the larger cities and it literally brings tears to my eyes,” said Williams. 

Williams hopes her efforts will continue to inspire others to give back to their respective community.

More information can be found on her website.