This qualitative research project will attempt to answer how Jasmine Guy’s Whitley Gilbert from A Different World transformed the image of Black women in modern television and film. This study explores how race, gender, and class contribute to the embodied experience of Black womanhood and how it is presented in American television and film. Black womanhood is not solely plagued by hardship, struggle, and constant trials and tribulations- all of which are often translated to television and film as the only experience Black women are allowed to have. In this study, I aim to use these themes as the basis for demonstrating how Whitley Gilbert acted as a catalyst for more positive and nuanced representations of Black womanhood on the screen. I also aim to explore the impact that past and present stereotypical depictions of Black womanhood in television and film have on Black women's lives.