Durham woman creates comic with empowering message

Jazmin Truesdale graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009. When the banking industry crashed, though, she turned to her childhood love - comic books.

"I started losing interest in something I grew up reading," she said. "I said, 'Why am I losing interest in this?' Well, the characters are not reaching me."

She decided to create her own line of female super heroes. Five strong women with different powers and cultures but one message.

"The world is bigger than our little box," Truesdale said. "The world is huge, and it's colorful. People should embrace that and stop fighting it."

Her characters fight a battle of good versus evil, and knock down cultural and female stereotypes.

"When we are portrayed in entertainment and we are sexy, we are usually dumb or have no purpose other than being someone's love interest," she said. "I think that is ridiculous. Why can't you be sexy and also be amazing?"

Truesdale released her first comic, "The Keepers:Origins," in January. It is a short novel with illustrated action scenes.

"As women we like complex storytelling, the layers, the bonds, the relationships," she said.

Truesdale is also working on a video game and hopes to take her comic to the big screen.