“I know that I’m built for this job.”
Kellee Stewart
Living and working with a purpose. That’s certainly Kellee Stewart. She’s a passionate actress who has been in the entertainment industry for 20 years. Stewart was only eight years old when she fell in love with acting. It all began during a mother-daughter trip in New York as she sat in the audience mesmerized during “Cats,” the Broadway musical.
“That’s when I knew that there was some magic on the stage and I wanted to be a part of that magic,” said the Philly born actress.
Stewart’s hard work and determination led her to a number of television and movie roles. Her credits include All American, Cherish the Day, Love by the 10th Date, The Soul Man which starred Cedric the Entertainer and Niecy Nash as well as Guess Who that featured Bernie Mac.
However, her purpose reaches far beyond the screen. In fact, her growing fan base is heavily populated with women in the fertility community. Over the past few years, Stewart has been on a mission to educate and encourage women to be proactive about their reproductive system.
“I think we often wait until the 11th hour to do something about our fertility health,” said Stewart who calls herself an egg advocate. Stewart became drawn to her fertility well-being and egg reserve after a long term relationship ended with a past love-interest.
“After seven years, I realized I gave him the best baby-making years of my life,” Stewart exclaimed. I’m a woman of belief and I heard God tell me to go freeze my eggs and I called a doctor and went to a fertility specialist and I froze them.”
At the time, she was 37 years old, an age when doctors say a women’s reproductive health enters a challenging phase. Fortunately, Stewart was blessed with 32 eggs in one cycle and as a result 29 of the embryos were successfully frozen. Her hope is that women don’t wait until there’s a problem or later reproductive years to see a specialist. She encourages women to get fertility diagnostic testing done by a gynecologist, in order to get an understanding of their egg reserve.
“We are born with as many eggs as we are ever going to have and our eggs are actually four months older than we are,” Stewart said. “When a female is in the womb at four months, that’s when the eggs are formed. So when we are born our eggs are actually four months older. We know being in the fertility community the age of the eggs are important so getting ahead of this thing is paramount for so many women.”
To date, Stewart’s embryos are still frozen. Although she doesn’t have plans to unfreeze her eggs any time soon, she decided to document her fertility experience. Stewart is currently working on, “Twenty-nine Eggs,” a made-for-tv movie that’s in development with a major network. She considers her journey a blessing filled with many lessons.
“I’m purpose driven and with any painful situation, I think the direct path to healing is to find purpose in it,” Stewart expressed. “If I had found a man, and if I had gotten married, then I wouldn’t have this story to tell.”
In essence, Stewart isn’t giving up on her dream of motherhood.
“I always wanted to be a mother and I often ask myself why,”the actress shared. “It really is because of the bond I have with my mother. It’s the most trusted love that never betrayed me, never left me and pushed me forward in my life and I feel like I want to replicate that for myself.”
Below, Kellee shares more encouragement for women. Take a listen:
