Teen entrepreneur uses childhood illness as launchpad to help other Black girls and women.
Eleora Ogundare was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when she was eight years old.
During the course of treatments and chemotherapy for the red blood cell disorder, her hair started falling out.
"My hair was my confidence because the kids I was around, they had like the long, nice long hair," said Eleora, who decided with her mum to cut her hair and make the change quick, hoping kids in school wouldn't make comments.
"I felt, like, naked almost because, the thing that was like giving me confidence, I didn't have it anymore. I had to cut it all off."
Strands of identity
While Eleora was battling for her health, her mum was trying to find solutions for her young daughter's hair, and with it, her sense of self.
"The struggle for them is identity, you know, trying to understand why their hair is not as silky as the next person in her class," said Eugenia Ogundare, Eleora's mother, who says hair for a Black women is "her crown."
"But then having to lose that hair was a whole different ball game altogether."
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