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Side-by-side, the two teenagers look like they could have been friends. They probably knew some of the same people. Or frequented the same areas. Or, they probably both liked Rihanna or jewelry.

But all we know is that they were both gunned down by bullets in the barrage of violent weeks that Chicago has experienced since the start of the year. And now, they are both permanently gone. 

The media has learned nothing about what they liked to do in their spare time. Or the grieving families they left behind. Or even how to memorialize their lives without automatically tacking on a gun-control agenda.

For Janay McFarlanean 18-year-old Chicago woman who was shot in the head and killed the same day her sister sat onstage with the president as he pushed for stronger gun control legislation, all we have is a name.

And for Hadiya Pendletona 15-year-old girl who was killed in January, we overshadow the tragedy with the fact that she had just performed for the president at his second inauguration.

But there’s more to it. These were children with dreams, lives, personalities and spirit.

We’ve failed at humanizing the children we’ve lost, and in doing so, we’re going to fail at keeping their memory and cause alive.

That’s a big problem in our community. Take it from GlobalGrind’s own Michael Skolnik.

At a panel on gun violence Wednesday at the national convention for the National Action Network, one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations, Skolnik spoke alongside Rev. Al Sharpton, Cleo Cowley (Hadiya’s mother), and Angela Blakely and Jo McFarlane (Janay’s parents). All passionately stated cases about the epidemic gun violence in America which claims many lives, some of whom we will never hear their name. And all vowed to make sure the world wouldn’t forget these young women’s names.

“When white kids are killed… so often those children’s names become part of our everyday vocabulary,” Skolnik said.

That’s something that Janay McFarlane’s father wants to make sure never happens to his daughter.

“When the politicians [were] up here talking a few minutes ago with Al Sharpton, I was just watching the room — because I was in awe. This whole wall was full of photographers and cameras. Once we got up here and we started talking about this, where did they all go,” McFarlane said.

But while the rest of the turns their heads, GlobalGrind was able to sit down with McFarlane to talk about what he remembers most about his “baby.”

“Janay was funny, caring, definitely beautiful, outgoing, and wild,” he told us. “She was my baby.”

McFarlane, who seen his own father gunned down at the age of two, wants to make sure that his daughter didn’t die in vain, and that her 5-month old son Jaden remembers her. The family has petitioned to get the street where she lost her life renamed after her. In less than 30 days, the street name will be changed to “Janay M. McFarlane Way.”

“To be in her presence, she would always do something to make me laugh and to watch her grow into this beautiful woman was amazing. And with my grandson, I got to see that same relationship he had with her,” Janay’s mother, Angela Blakely added. “He will remember his mom. I don’t ever want him to feel like he wasn’t loved.”

And for Cleo Cowley, Hadiya’s mother, she just wants people to know that her daughter was just a true “authentic” loving kid.

“I want people to remember how wordly she was. I like to affectionately refer to her as a collector because she was a collector of people. The more different you were from her, the better the grab, she just loved people! She loved to laugh and she was an individual, but I want people to remember that she embraced, she heard what her parents said. She did as I said and a little of her own! I told her to embreace being a kid, and that’s what she did. She was just a kid. I told her these are the best years of your life. The thing is, I brought her up to think for herself, to make smart decisions. But she was just an authentic kid. I want people to know that. She was Hadiya and nobody else.”

While turning these two angels into symbols has jump-started the conversation about gun violence in Chicago, the parents of these slain teens just want people to know that they loved life, and that they were people.

Not just a politicians segue into the gun-control debate. 

We’ll continue to keep the memory and spirit of both young girls alive.

As always, our thoughts and prayers are with the families.

Christina Coleman 

Christina Coleman is the News and Politics Editor at GlobalGrind. Prior to this she was a science writer. That explains her NASA obsession. She crushes on Anthony Bourdain. Nothing explains that.

Follow her on Twitter @ChrissyCole