An actress who was one of the first to star in daytime soap operas now owns her own cosmetics line.

Vera Moore has been a trailblazer for most of her life - from being one of the first Black actresses with a contract role on a TV soap opera to setting up the first Black-owned business in Green Acres Mall.

"We came from a very poor family. My mother was a domestic worker, she went to third grade education. My father was a porter, he couldn't read. But I always knew that I could because she always said, 'You want to do it? Go for it, you can do it,'" Moore says.

Moore says her strong family foundation led to her going on to study singing and acting, which led to a coveted role on the soap opera "Another World."

"When I started getting letters from young ladies saying, 'I want to be a nurse, I want to be just like you, Linda Metcalf' - that was the character name - I mean I knew I was making an impact because it was all positive, these were positive things that people were seeing," she says.

Moore says she started her own cosmetics line after seeing a void in market for Black women. When she heard the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream was expanding, she was determined to be part of it.

Moore's business was in the mall for 25 years.

"Green Acres Mall was one of the biggest things that I've ever done," she says.

Moore says she hopes sharing her story will let others know that hard work and perseverance pays off.