	Cynthia Bailey was born on February 19, 1967, in Decatur, Alabama and raised in Tuscumbia. Her father, Elijah, worked at an auto factory and her mother, Barbara, worked at a sewing factory. Barbara was 18 when she was pregnant with Cynthia, and had another daughter, Malorie, roughly a year later. While growing up, Bailey was inspired by her grandmother, Mae Frankie Ford. who worked in a sewing factory, sold hotdogs and hamburgers, cleaned houses, and volunteered to care for an elderly woman. She described Ford as "the first female black entrepreneur in [her] life".