Founder’s Journey
Meet Cilla Harding
Cilla Harding is a wife, mother, and passionate advocate for women’s health, currently pursuing medical school after graduating with first-class honors in Clinical Science. Her journey into health advocacy was shaped by deeply personal experiences—witnessing illness, struggling with reproductive health, and navigating cultural silence around women's well-being.
From a young age, Cilla saw the devastating impact of illness firsthand. Her grandmother battled chronic sickness for years, an experience that left a lasting mark on her. She also survived a near-fatal malaria infection and watched her brother come close to losing his life due to excessive bleeding from an injury. A visit to an orphanage deeply moved her when she realized that, for many children, access to healthcare was more urgent than even food or clothing. These experiences ignited in her a passion to make a difference in health and science.
Despite her growing interest in medicine, Cilla faced her own personal struggles. At 13, she experienced months without a menstrual period, leaving her confused and fearful. In her Ghanaian culture, conversations about reproductive health were taboo, and missing a period was often misunderstood. Though she had never been sexually active, she lived in silent anxiety, with no safe space to ask questions or seek clarity.
When she moved to Italy, the struggle continued. In a culture where reproductive health was not openly discussed, she had no one to guide her. Desperate for answers, she convinced her father to take her to a doctor, pretending she had a stomachache just to get a consultation. The doctor’s observations changed everything—he noticed signs of excessive hair growth and linked them to her irregular cycles, suggesting hormonal imbalance. His solution? Birth control pills. Her father, horrified at the thought of a "virgin" using contraceptives, refused. Left with no other choice, she secretly saved money and bought the pills herself. For the first time in years, her cycle became regular, but when she could no longer afford them, she was forced to accept the irregularities and self-consciousness as her fate.
As she grew older, Cilla continued to struggle in silence. Even as a medical student, she ignored the warning signs from her body out of fear of what she might discover. It wasn’t until she got married and struggled to conceive that she was forced to confront the truth. Medical tests revealed conditions she had never heard of—hormonal imbalance, fibroids, and PCOS. The doctor offered little hope, saying there was no cure and recommending weight loss as the only solution. Desperate for answers, she pushed herself to extremes, becoming unnaturally thin in an attempt to take control of her health.
Eventually, through prayer, self-care, and persistence, she conceived. This life-changing moment gave her a new purpose—not just to fight for her own health, but to empower other Black women with knowledge and resources. She realized that many of the products marketed to Black women were filled with harmful chemicals that could disrupt hormones and impact fertility. She began researching endocrine disruptors and was shocked to discover how little awareness existed around their dangers.
This realization became her calling. She founded Melanin in Balance to educate and empower Black women about the hidden dangers in beauty and personal care products. Her mission is to break the silence around reproductive health, provide safe alternatives, and fight for transparency and policy changes in the beauty industry.
Cilla’s journey is one of resilience, faith, and purpose. Through Melanin in Balance, she is determined to ensure that no woman has to navigate her reproductive health in fear or isolation.