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
RELATED
So, we handpicked one hundred It Girls who embody that palpable It Factor moving through us as young Black women, the kind of motion lighting up the world both IRL and across the internet.
It Girl 100 became xoNecole’s most successful program, with the hashtag organically reaching more than forty million impressions on Instagram in just twenty-four hours. Yes, it caught on like wildfire because we celebrated some of the most brilliant and influential GenZennial women of color setting trends and shaping culture. But more than that, it resonated because the women we celebrated felt seen.
Many were already known in their industries for keeping this generation fly and lit, but rarely received recognition or flowers. It Girl 100 became a safe space to be uplifted, and for us as Black women to bask in what felt like an era of our brilliance, beauty, and boundless influence on full display.
And then, almost overnight, it was as if the rug was pulled from under us as Black women, as the It Girls of the world.
Our much-needed, much-deserved season of ease and soft living quickly metamorphosed into a time of self-preservation and survival. Our motion and economic progression seemed strategically slowed, our light under siege.
The air feels heavier now. The headlines colder. Our Black girl magic is being picked apart and politicized for simply existing.
With that climate shift, as we prepare to launch our second annual It Girl 100 honoree list, our team has had to dig deep on the purpose and intention behind this year’s list. Knowing the spirit of It Girl 100 is about motion, sauce, strides, and progression, how do we celebrate amid uncertainty and collective grief when the juice feels like it is being squeezed out of us?
As we wrestled with that question, we were reminded that this tension isn’t new. Black women have always had to find joy in the midst of struggle, to create light even in the darkest corners. We have carried the weight of scrutiny for generations, expected to be strong, to serve, to smile through the sting. But this moment feels different. It feels deeply personal.
We are living at the intersection of liberation and backlash. We are learning to take off our capes, to say no when we are tired, to embrace softness without apology.
And somehow, the world has found new ways to punish us for it.
In lifestyle, women like Kayla Nicole and Ayesha Curry have been ridiculed for daring to choose themselves. Tracee Ellis Ross was labeled bitter for speaking her truth about love. Meghan Markle, still, cannot breathe without critique.
In politics, Kamala Harris, Letitia James, and Jasmine Crockett are dragged through the mud for standing tall in rooms not built for them.
In sports, Angel Reese, Coco Gauff, and Taylor Townsend have been reminded that even excellence will not shield you from racism or judgment.
In business, visionaries like Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye and Melissa Butler are fighting to keep their dreams alive in an economy that too often forgets us first.
Even our icons, Beyoncé, Serena, and SZA, have faced criticism simply for evolving beyond the boxes society tried to keep them in.
From everyday women to cultural phenoms, the pattern is the same. Our light is being tested.
And yet, somehow, through it all, we are still showing up as that girl, and that deserves to be celebrated.
Because while the world debates our worth, we keep raising our value. And that proof is all around us.
This year alone, Naomi Osaka returned from motherhood and mental health challenges to reach the semifinals of the US Open. A’ja Wilson claimed another MVP, reminding us that beauty and dominance can coexist. Brandy and Monica are snatching our edges on tour. Kahlana Barfield Brown sold out her new line in the face of a retailer that had been canceled. And Melissa Butler’s company, The Lip Bar, is projecting a forty percent surge in sales.
We are no longer defining strength by how much pain we can endure. We are defining it by the unbreakable light we continue to radiate.
We are the women walking our daily steps and also continuing to run solid businesses. We are growing in love, taking solo trips, laughing until it hurts, raising babies and ideas, drinking our green juice, and praying our peace back into existence.
We are rediscovering the joy of rest and realizing that softness is not weakness, it is strategy.
And through it all, we continue to lift one another. Emma Grede is creating seats at the table. Valeisha Butterfield has started a fund for jobless Black women. Arian Simone is leading in media with fearless conviction. We are pouring into each other in ways the world rarely sees but always feels.
So yes, we are in the midst of societal warfare. Yes, we are being tested. Yes, we are facing economic strain, political targeting, and public scrutiny. But even war cannot dim a light that is divinely ours.
And we are still shining.
And we are still softening.
And we are still creating.
And we are still It.
That is the quiet magic of Black womanhood, our ability to hold both truth and triumph in the same breath, to say yes, and to life’s contradictions.
It is no coincidence that this year, as SheaMoisture embraces the message “Yes, And,” they stand beside us as partners in celebrating this class of It Girls. Because that phrase, those two simple words, capture the very essence of this moment.
Yes, we are tired. And we are still rising.
Yes, we are questioned. And we are the answer.
Yes, we are bruised. And we are still beautiful.
This year’s It Girl 100 is more than a list. It is a love letter to every Black woman who dares to live out loud in a world that would rather she whisper. This year’s class is living proof of “Yes, And,” women who are finding ways to thrive and to heal, to build and to rest, to lead and to love, all at once.
It is proof that our joy is not naive, our success not accidental. It is the reminder that our light has never needed permission.
So without further ado, we celebrate the It Girl 100 Class of 2025–2026.
We celebrate the millions of us who keep doing it with grace, grit, and glory.
Because despite it all, we still shine.
Because we are still her.
Because we are still IT, girl.
Meet all 100 women shaping culture in the It Girl 100 Class of 2025. View the complete list of honorees here.
Featured image by xoStaff
Then there were those who gave up their zip code altogether and found a permanent home in the skies. After years spent recruiting students for a university, Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare became a full-time travel influencer and founded her travel company, Shakespeare Agency. And she's not alone.
These stories mirror the experiences of women across the world. For millions, the pandemic induced a seismic shift in priorities and desires. Corporate careers that were once hailed as the ultimate “I made it” moment in one's career were pushed to the back burner as women quit their jobs in search of a more self-fulfilling purpose.
xoNecole spoke to these three Black women who used the pandemic as a springboard to make their wildest dreams a reality, the lessons they learned, and posed the question of whether they’ll ever return to cubicle life.
Answers have been edited for context and length.
xoNecole: How did the pandemic lead to you leaving the cubicle?
Randi: I was becoming stagnant. I was working in mortgage and banking but I felt like my personality was too big for that job! From there, I transitioned to radio but was laid off during the pandemic. That’s what made me go full throttle with entrepreneurship.
Gabrielle: I moved around a lot for work. Five times over a span of seven years. I knew I needed a break because I had experienced so much. So, I just quit one day. Effective immediately. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew I needed a break and to just regroup.
Lisa-Gaye: I was working in recruiting at a university and my dream job just kind of fell into my lap! But, I never got to fully enjoy it before the world shut down in March [2020] and I was laid off. On top of that, I was stuck in Miami because Jamaica had closed its borders due to the pandemic before I was able to return.
Randi O
xoN: Tell us about your journey after leaving Corporate America.
Randi: I do it all now! I have a podcast, I’m an on-air talent, I act, and I own a public relations company that focuses on social media engagement. It’s all from my network. When you go out and start a business, you can’t just say, “Okay I’m done with Corporate America,” and “Let me do my own thing.” If you don’t build community, if you don’t build a network it's going to be very hard to sustain.
Gabrielle: I realized in New York, there was not a lot to do for Black lesbians and queer folks. We don’t really have dedicated bars and spaces so I started doing events and it took off. I started focusing on my brand, Raw Honey. I opened a co-working space, and I was able to host an NYC Pride event in front of 100,000 people. I hit the ground running with Raw Honey. My events were all women coming to find community and come together with other lesbians and queer folks. I found my purpose in that.
Lisa-Gaye: After being laid off, I wrote out all of my passions and that’s how I came up with [my company] Shakespeare Agency. It was all of the things that I loved to do under one umbrella. The pandemic pulled that out of me. I had a very large social media following, so I pitched to hotels that I would feature them on my blog and social media. This reignited my passion for travel. I took the rest of the year to refocus my brand to focus solely on being a content creator within the travel space.
Gabrielle
xoN: What have you learned about yourself during your time as an entrepreneur?
Randi: [I learned] the importance of my network and community that I created. When I was laid off I was still keeping those relationships with people that I used to work with. So it was easy for me to transition into social media management and I didn’t have to start from scratch.
Gabrielle: The biggest thing I learned about myself was my own personal identity as a Black lesbian and how much I had assimilated into straight and corporate culture and not being myself. Now, I feel comfortable and confident being my authentic self. Now, I'm not sacrificing anything else for my career. I have a full life. I have friends. I have a social life. And when you are happy and have a full quality of life, I feel like [I] can have more longevity in my career.
Lisa-Gaye: [I'm doing] the best that I've ever done. The discipline that I’m building within myself. Nobody is saying, ‘Oh you have to be at work at this time.’ There’s no boss saying, ‘Why are you late?’ But, if I’m laying in bed at 10 a.m. then it's me saying [to myself], 'Okay, Lisa, get up, it's time for you to start working!’ That’s all on me.
xoNecole: What mistakes do you want to help people avoid when leaving Corporate America?
Randi: You have to learn about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. You have a fast season and a slow season and I started to learn that when you're self-employed the latter season hits hard. Don't get caught up on the lows, just keep going and don't stop. I’m glad I did.
Gabrielle: I think everyone should quit their job and just figure it out for a second. You will discover so much about yourself when you take a second to just focus on you. Your skill set will always be there. You can’t be afraid of what will happen when you bet on yourself.
Lisa-Gaye: When it comes to being an influencer the field is saturated and a lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome. There is nothing wrong with being an imposter but find out how to make it yours, how to make it better. If you go to the store, you see 10 million different brands of bread! But you are choosing the brand that you like because you like that particular flavor.
So be an imposter, but be the best imposter of yourself and add your own flair, your own flavor. Make the better bread. The bread that you want.
Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare
xoNecole: Will you ever return to your 9 to 5?
Randi: I wouldn’t go back to Corporate America. But I don’t mind working under someone. A lot of people try to get into this business saying, “I can't work under anyone.” That’s not necessarily the reason to start a business because you're always going to answer to somebody. Clients, brands, there’s always someone else involved.
Gabrielle: I went back! I really needed a break and I gave myself that. But, I realized I’m a corporate girl, [and] I enjoy the work that I do. I’m good at it and I really missed that side of myself. I have different sides of me and my whole identity is not Raw Honey or my queerness. A big side of me is business and that’s why I love having my career. Now I feel like my best self.
Lisa-Gaye: I really don’t. For right now, I love working for myself. It's gratifying, it's challenging, it's exciting. It’s a big deal for me to say I own my own business. That I am my own boss, and I'm a Black woman doing it.
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Featured image courtesy of Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare
Originally published on February 6, 2023