She's widely known for making pregnancy chic with her wildly popular "high-end" approach maternity wear. But just as her booming business was kicking off in the late 1990s, fashion designer Liz Lange found out she had cervical cancer.

"At the time I had a two-and-a-half-year-old, and an almost one year old. I was one of those women. I mean, here I am, I'm Ivy League educated, I live in New York City. And thankfully I was going for regular screenings but to be honest I didn't know why. I didn't really understand what they screened for. I didn't understand the connection between HPV and cervical cancer. I really didn't know much about HPV in general," said Lange.

A new survey from the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation shows Lange wasn't alone in not knowing about human papilloma virus, commonly known as HPV and its link to cervical cancer. According to the survey, nearly 89 percent of women don't think they are at risk or are unsure of their risk of contracting HPV, a sexually transmitted disease which can lead to cervical cancer.

"That really goes back to the fact that we need to learn more, that we need to be spreading the word better to women about the risk of HPV or human papilloma virus when the reality is that 80 percent of women will have an exposure at some point in their lifetime," said said Dr. Ginger Gardner, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. "Sometimes the body will clear HPV, but in other situations, high risk HPV can linger and many years later develop into a precancerous or cancerous lesion."

To help raise awareness, Lange is teaming up with the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation with a specially designed website, allaboutcervicalcancer.org.

If you go to the website, not only can you find out more about HPV and cervical cancer, but just for taking a short quiz to test your knowledge you get a free health journal with a calendar created by Lange to keep track of annual doctor's appointments and screenings.

Lange is a survivor today because her condition was caught by routine pap smear where the cancer was caught early. The hope is more women will be moved to learn more because of stories like hers.

"One of the reasons I think so many women think it can't happen to them is that there really are no signs and symptoms for HPV so it is understandable they might think that. But it is unfortunately inaccurate and it is important women do understand everything they need to know about HPV and about cervical cancer," said Lange.