When Ashley Harmon, founder and CEO of Mela Vitamins, was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) during her freshman year of college, she was finally able to put a name to the troubling symptoms she had been experiencing for years.
“I was constantly bloated, and my skin was breaking out,” she told xoNecole. “And I was so tired I struggled getting out of bed in the morning.”
After finding a naturopathic doctor to correctly diagnose her with PCOS and a vitamin D deficiency, Harmon began the long process of understanding her condition and learning to heal her body. “There are still many unanswered questions about why people develop PCOS and how to treat it,” she said. “The most frustrating part is that there are so many options and medications and that it takes some trial and error to find what works for each person’s body.”
Harmon spent years experimenting with prescription medications that had adverse side effects and high out-of-pocket costs and soon decided to reclaim control over her health and create supplements that were tailored to her needs. “I spent years ordering different ingredients and testing different formulas until I found a mix that worked,” she recalled.
“While I enjoyed making supplements for myself, I didn’t plan on creating a business around it,” Harmon added. But after discovering the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 had on immune-compromised individuals and those with vitamin D deficiency, Harmon was determined to launch a business that produced affordable, high-quality multivitamins with sufficient vitamin D levels and met the unique nutritional needs of Black and Brown people at large.
“The CDC and other health institutions estimate that anywhere from 76-90% of us are [vitamin D] deficient,” she said. “This can have a tremendous impact on our day-to-day health, and can also increase our long-term risk of breast cancer, dementia, and other diseases that already disproportionately impact Black women.”
Despite the common nature of this deficiency, Harmon has found that the wellness industry still has room to grow in prioritizing the health needs of people of color. With Mela Vitamins, Harmon aims to fill the gap within this supplement space with a daily essential multivitamin that caters especially to melanated women.
“My hope is that if you are struggling with an illness or just aren’t feeling well, that you empower yourself with knowledge, seek support from your healthcare team, and engage with a community that supports you,” she added. “You can and deserve to build a future where you feel like your best self.”
Harmon talked more about her business journey and her desire to fill a much-needed void in the market for Black and Brown women.
xoNecole: Could you give us some insight into your journey going from a traditional career path into entrepreneurship?
Ashley Harmon: I started my career in consulting, then transitioned into working at two different startups. With that being said, entrepreneurship is not easy at all. I absolutely love the work we are doing at Mela Vitamins, and the amazing community we have built, but it is really challenging. It is difficult to create a new path and niche in a billion-dollar industry that does not prioritize melanated people.
I do not look like most wellness company founders, and I did not start with a big financial backing. It was challenging to find business and manufacturing partners, but we pushed through. Now, we continue to grow our community of supporters while changing the narrative and making space for people of color in the wellness and supplement industries.
"I do not look like most wellness company founders, and I did not start with a big financial backing. It was challenging to find business and manufacturing partners, but we pushed through."
With Mela Vitamin, Ashley Harmon aims to fill the gap within this supplement space with a daily essential multivitamin that caters especially to melanated women.
Courtesy of Mela Vitamins
xoN: The statistics around vitamin D deficiency in Black women are striking. What were the key considerations in formulating a product tailored to the unique needs of women of color from a holistic approach?
AH: The statistics around vitamin D deficiency in Black women is an important topic that isn’t discussed enough. At Mela, we started with the nutritional deficiencies common among women of color and then built out the formula by actually listening to our community.
We spent a year doing consumer focus groups and speaking with women in our community to understand what their health and wellness goals are, and what benefits they wanted from a multivitamin. That is how we arrived at our key focus areas - stress management and mental focus, blood sugar management, digestion, and skin/hair health.
xoN: You're also a 2023 recipient of the Glossier Grant Program. How has this grant helped to fund and support the vision of Mela Vitamins?
AH: Glossier’s Grant Program has had a tremendous positive impact on our company and me personally. Glossier has provided Mela with much-needed resources to support us in launching our next product that will be out early [this] year. There are so many competing priorities, opinions from experts, and general trends in the wellness and beauty industries that I am trying to work through on a daily basis.
Glossier has supported my vision to grow Mela Vitamins to be the go-to wellness brand for melanated people. We have created a new niche within the wellness and beauty supplement industry that has been largely underserved, and I want us to continue to be the leaders driving research and innovation in this area.
"We have created a new niche within the wellness and beauty supplement industry that has been largely underserved," says the founder of Mela Vitamins, Ashley Harmon.
Courtesy of Mela Vitamins
xoN: What’s something that you’ve learned along your journey with PCOS that you would like to impart to other women dealing with this condition?
AH: Through my own journey, I have learned that you have to advocate for yourself. You know your body better than anyone, so if you know something is wrong, do not stop until you find a doctor or healthcare provider that will listen to your concerns and work with you to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan.
People with PCOS and any chronic illness really, also need products from companies that are committed to offering natural and clean solutions that are based on research and data. We are already bombarded with so much confusing and conflicting information, that we need products and companies that are honest and transparent with the solutions they offer.
I have learned that many of the products that are marketed to us are not actually made for us, or worse, they are actually harmful. While it is unfair that we have to do so much research and testing on our own, it is the best chance we have of understanding and healing our bodies.
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Featured image courtesy of Mela Vitamins
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There are some proven perks to making the shift. Aside from the fact that early rising makes it possible to have more time to get more things done in a 24-hour day, there are also studies to support that being a morning person is better for your mental health, helps to lower depression-related symptoms, can make you more energized and productive throughout the day and, some research indicates that it’s better for your overall physical health and well-being too.
For all of these reasons, I thought it would be a good idea to share some tips on how you can become more of a morning person if that’s always been a goal of yours that you happen to struggle with or if you want to try it for a while to see if it truly is a good look. With the help of the following 10 tips/hacks in just a few months (give or take a few weeks), you may find yourself wondering why you weren’t getting up with the sun and the birds years ago.
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1. Know Your Why
Something that I enjoy doing is taking personality tests, and one of the most enlightening ones that I’ve taken in a while is a chronotype one (which I talk about in the article, “Ever Wonder What Personality Traits Make Someone A 'Morning Person'?”). The general concept is we’re each a bear, wolf, lion, or dolphin. What that means is each animal speaks to the time of day when we are the most productive.
Me? I’m a lion, which means that I tend to get the most done before noon, and so when I was trying to be less of a night owl and more of a morning person during a particular season of my life, my motivation was to get enough rest so that I could get up and get more done during the time when my mind and body actually prefer to.
All of this is why I think that the first thing that you need to consider when it comes to becoming more of a morning person is to figure out why you want to do it. With a clear motive and plan in place that can inspire you to get up an hour (or more) earlier because there is a true mission in mind that can make the sacrifice (by definition, a sacrifice is giving up something good for something greater) easier.
2. Change Your Bedroom’s Window Treatments
I can tell you from personal experience that if you’ve got blackout curtains in your bedroom, it’s gonna be chal-leng-ing to try and get up in the morning, no matter how bright it may be outside. That’s because those types of window treatments are designed to keep natural light out.
That’s why, if you truly want to become more of a morning person, another thing that you should do is go with sheer curtains or opened blinds; that way, your body can start to wake up as the sun rises. As a bonus, natural light provides health benefits like a boost of vitamin D, lower stress levels, and a better night’s rest at the end of each day, so it’s kind of a win all the way around.
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3. Create a Morning and Nighttime Routine
While checking out a doctor’s blog on the benefits of creating a life routine, some of the things that he shared is it can reduce stress, make you more efficient, and even cause your life to become more meaningful. If you add to this the fact that a routine can create habits that will last for years to come, it makes a lot of sense that it’s wise to have a morning and nighttime routine.
As far as a morning routine goes, it could be that you pray and/or meditate, journal, sip some herbal tea, go through some affirmations, or take a longer shower so that you start your day off feeling truly refreshed. On the flip side, your nighttime routine can consist of things like soaking in the tub, creating a sleep schedule, reading a book, doing some stretches before getting into bed, verbalizing some things that you are grateful for and that you accomplished throughout the day and listening to some soothing music.
The bottom line here is you rob yourself of enjoying getting out of and into bed (plus, you can throw your sleep rhythm off a bit) if you only jerk yourself out of bed in the morning and/or immediately fall asleep due to sheer exhaustion at night. That said, some tips for how to create and customize your own morning and night routine can be found here.
4. Stop Consuming Stimulants Before Bedtime
Especially as I get older, one habit that I definitely need to break is to stop drinking before going to bed. Why? Because I’m the type of person who, even if I run to the bathroom with all of the lights off in the middle of the night, once I’m awake, I’m up for at least an hour — and that can be annoying as all get out when I’m trying to get back to some quality zzz’s in. If you can relate, it really is best to stop drinking about a couple of hours before turning in.
Oh, and if stimulants like alcohol or coffee are your thing, you should go even longer without those. Alcohol needs to be at least three hours prior to your bedtime, and many health experts say that when it comes to caffeine (yes, your beloved coffee), it should be a whopping eight.
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5. Prep for the Next Day
If a part of what you hate about getting up early in the morning is feeling rushed, there is definitely a workaround for that. You can easily add 30 minutes to your morning window by preparing for the next day the night before. This can include laying out (and ironing) your clothes, preparing your lunch, checking the best GPS travel route, and putting together your to-do list for the following day.
Just knowing that you’ve got your morning organized before turning in can help you to sleep more soundly and wake up in a more relaxed state of mind.
6. Prioritize Something in the Morning (Every Morning)
A part of the reason why some of us don’t consider ourselves to be morning people is because all we see is a day full of work and other obligations before us, and getting up earlier means that we have to do them sooner —and in comparison to staying all comfy and cozy in our bed, the bed is always going to win. That’s why another hack that could help is to prioritize something that you actually enjoy in the morning.
Maybe it’s watching a morning program, getting coffee and a pastry at a local donut shop, or exercising in the early am so that you can knock it out of the way. If you reward yourself for getting up (earlier), that can make it easier to do.
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7. Move Your Bedtime Up (in 15-Minute Increments)
It’s kind of unrealistic to think that you will become a morning person — pardon the pun — overnight. So, one thing that could help you out is to move your bedtime up in 15-minute increments over the next 2-4 weeks or so. In other words, if you typically go to bed at 11 p.m. and you want to start waking up at 5:30 a.m. while still getting no less than seven hours of sleep, this week, go to bed at 10:45 p.m., next week at 10:30 a.m., and so on. That way, changing your sleep schedule won’t feel so drastic, and you’ll be better able to ease into it.
8. Use a Nature Sounds Alarm Setting
Believe it or not, there’s research that indicates that traditional alarm clocks aren’t as beneficial for us as we might think. For one thing, they don’t really “ease” us out of bed; it’s more like they shock us. Plus, just knowing that the sound will go off in the morning can disrupt your sleep patterns. That’s why it’s best to either go with a digital or sunrise alarm or to set your smartphone to make a nature-related sound when it’s time for you to get up (there are also nature sound alarm clocks that you can buy). These options are more soothing to the soul while still being just as effective.
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9. Keep a Sleep Schedule (Even on the Weekends)
I once read an article that said a sleep schedule is all about prioritizing this type of rest. Well, since sleep helps to recharge and rejuvenate your system, regulate your blood sugar, boost your immunity, strengthen your cognitive abilities, reduce your stress levels, maintain a healthy weight, give you more energy, and so much more — sleep is definitely something that you should treat as a paramount practice in your life. And yes, if you want to become a morning person, a sleep schedule can help with that, too.
At the end of the day, creating a sleep schedule is all about incorporating a night routine and also making the effort to go to bed at the same time, each and every night, including the weekends (yep, a sleep schedule has no “cheat” days). If you do this consistently enough, your mind and body will treat your sleep schedule like a pattern/habit — then, before you know it, waking up in the morning will be super natural for you.
10. Choose Your Words Wisely
Last one. I once read a blog post on how to become a morning person. One of the things that it said that stood out was that it’s important to “change your story” because if all you seem to focus on — and declare — is that you are not a morning person, it’s going to be so much harder to change that reality.
You know, there is a good deal of science in these streets to back that negative words give us stress and anxiety while positive thoughts and words can literally alter our reality for the better.
So, if you really want to become a morning person, start believing and declaring that you are one — it might be the most powerful hack of all. Enjoy the shifting, sis. Ultimately, it’s worth it.
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