Born in Naszód, Kingdom of Hungary (now Năsăud, Bistrița-Năsăud County, Romania), Micle was the second child of the shoemaker Ilie Câmpeanu and his wife Ana. She was born to him posthumously: Ilie died in 1849, taking two bullets to the chest while fighting under Avram Iancu against the Hungarian revolutionaries. Her mother went to Moldavia, settling in Târgu Neamț in 1850, then to Roman, and finally in Iași in 1853.