She first became popular in 2001 as the self proclaimed "Bad Girl of Pop," when she released her debut album, Willa Was Here. Outside of music, Ford has hosted several reality television shows.

Ford was born and raised in Ruskin, Florida. As a young girl, she studied opera and began pursuing a singing career at the age of eight, when she started with the Tampa Bay Children's Choir. By the time she reached age 11, she had moved on from the children's choir to the Tampa-based Children's Performing Arts Troupe Entertainment Revue. This group consisted of 20 girls ages five to 16, who toured the area and sang at such places as Walt Disney World Resort and Busch Gardens. Ford moved her way up from a chorus member to the role of featured soloist. When she was 15, she left the troupe and landed spot with a local foursome called FLA. She didn’t stay long with the group before deciding to head out to Los Angeles, California. Ford graduated from East Bay High School with a 4.25 GPA, maintained the Honor Roll throughout high school, and was in Honor/Advanced Placement classes.

In 1999, Ford, then performing under the stage name Mandah, was signed to MCA. With MCA, she released a song called "Lullaby" on the double-platinum soundtrack Pokemon: The First Movie. She also landed a spot as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys, which not only brought her attention for her performances, but for her relationship with Nick Carter, one of the group's members, as well. Soon Ford's label had her change her stage name to Willa Ford, to avoid confusion with Mandy Moore, and tried to promote her as a beautiful singer with a "good girl" image. After some negative publicity that tainted their clean-cut image for Ford, MCA decided to drop her, letting her move on to a label that would embrace her "bad girl" image.

While during a mall tour for Nautica Kids, Ford was noticed by Lava/Atlantic Records. It wasn't long before Lava/Atlantic would give Ford a deal and put her into their recording studio with a diverse variety of writers and producers. Unlike some other teen singers at the time, Ford preferred to write most of her lyrics herself.

On July 17, 2001, Ford released her debut album Willa Was Here. The album contained the single "I Wanna Be Bad." The album used pop/R&B grooves, dance beats and vocoders. Despite the hit single, the album only reached No. 56 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Also that year, Ford served as the spokesperson for Pantene Pro-V's "Pro-Voice" campaign, and appeared on the in-concert cable special Teensation. Ford also hosted MTV's Total Request Live and Say What Karaoke. MTV was impressed by Ford's hosting and she received a contract with them.

In 2002, Ford co-wrote and sang a duet with South Korean pop star Park Ji-yoon entitled "Nastified," which appeared on Ji-yoon's fifth album, Man. Also, Ford hosted The Morning After, which lasted throughout 2003, along with her debut reality series – I Bet You Will. Ford's song, "I Wanna Be Bad," became the theme song for Six Flags theme parks and was also used by 7 Up for one of their campaigns. Ford also became a model for Bongo clothing ads. On August 14, 2006 on Good Morning America it was announced that Willa would be performing in the third season on Dancing with the Stars.

Ford released a dance song in 2003 called "A Toast to Men," which featured guest rapper Lady May. The single was from her unreleased sophomore album Sexysexobsessive, which Ford originally wanted to call Porn Poetry, "...but [Willa's record label] wouldn't let [her] because that's not something that Wal-Mart will put on [their] shelves." "A Toast to Men" did well, but because of some legalities at her label, her album wasn't released. This caused Ford to leave the label and go in search of a new one. While fans wait for her sophomore release, Ford has kept herself busy outside of music. In 2005, she hosted the first season of the reality television show, The Ultimate Fighter. After the show's finale, Ford got a shot at being the 2005 summer guest "doll" for The Pussycat Dolls' Las Vegas show.

In 2006, Ford was one of the four celebrity quarterbacks for the Dallas Desire in the third Lingerie Bowl, which was shown on pay-per-view during halftime of Super Bowl XL. In February, Ford posed nude for the March 2006 issue of Playboy and for Saint Valentine's Day, Ford joined Nicollette Sheridan, Cindy Margolis, and DJ AM for the special Valentine's Day show. In mid-April, Ford became one of the celebrity poker players in Calvin Ayre's Poker Wild Card. In the May issue of Stuff Magazine, Ford ranked No. 48 in the "101 Sexiest Online Women." Also in May, Ford hosted and starred in the Love Jones Lingerie Fashion Show at Body English.

Mario Lopez favored to win Dancing with the StarsLisa Rinna announced on the Monday August 14, 2006 edition of Good Morning American the star-studded lineup of the third season of "Dancing With The Stars" set for a two-hour season premiere on Tuesday September 12, 2006 on ABC. Willa Ford was announced. Some of the contestants were already rumored to be on this season days before the announcement. Just a day or two before the announcement questions regarding whether Willa would star in the show circulated due to do an article about close friend and former boyfriend UFC champ Chuck Liddell.