Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Driscoll.
Katie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
13 years ago, our 6th and final child, Grace, was born with Down syndrome. From that moment, we knew we wanted a more accepting world for her to grow up in. 2 years later, we launched a nonprofit called Changing the Face of Beauty, where we traveled the country and advocated for the inclusion of the disability community in advertising. Through our nonprofit, we have educated ad firms as well as the future of advertising through our educational PSA. We have also photographed over 1000 aspiring models with disabilities to connect them with talent firms to advocate for more inclusion in the ad voice.
As a mom of 6 when Grace was born, I realized we no longer were represented in back-to-school ads or the Christmas fliers. We knew we wanted to impact change in her lifetime, and that is when we knew we needed to capture the ad industry to help us. Since 2011 we have worked with brands like Disney, Land of Frost, Zulily, Hasbro, and Land of Nod to name a few.
We firmly believe you can’t be what you can’t see, and the most influential voice in the world remains advertising.
In 2020 when the world shut down, we knew it was time to create a brand that reflected the change we wanted to see in the ad industry. The Grace Effect was born to provide a future for our daughter Grace by allowing her to send her light out into the world in the form of a candle. Additionally, we knew it would be the perfect example of what we had advocated for since she was born. We are creating a successful brand that will show what it looks like when you hire the disability community as well as speak to them in your marketing message.
In 2021 we launched a flower farm to go with our candle line. We recognized that Grace was looking for more, and the farm was the perfect place to expand. We sell our candles and farm products on our website at thegraceeffect.com and have opened a farmstand at the farm to sell farm products, and flowers. This July there will be a u-pick flower patch.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We believe when something is meant to be it will be. The road has not been easy; lots of learning and growing. We had to start with “how do we make a candle” and then expand to how can we scale this company from a couple candles to over 5,000 a year.
The entire process has been a learning curve, but we are grateful for our amazing customers who have followed us and cheered us along the way! We are growing and look forward to seeing what might be next for our little Michigan brand.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a creative at heart and am so grateful for the birth of my daughter. Her life has given me the courage to live fuller. She has taught our family to lean into our purpose. Shortly after she came into our lives, I picked up a camera and started documenting our day to day of raising 5 boys and a daughter who happened to have Down syndrome.
From there working with production teams to tell the story of the disability community and learning the craft of creating candles and telling the story behind them. It has been so gratifying to watch our our family grow with the mission of ensuring everyone feels seen.
What’s next?
We hope to grow this brand from 30 retail partners to many more! We look forward to watching Grace’s light inspire others to embrace products created and marketed by individuals with disabilities through our nonprofit and The Grace Effect.
The sky is the limit, and we are thrilled to be inviting people to the farm to see what we have been up to and experience a little bit of what nature has to offer.
Contact Info:
- Website: Thegraceeffect.com
- Farm: 9962 Holden Road, Baroda, MI Open Friday – Sunday 10-3
- Instagram: The_grace_effect
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/graceeffect?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-grace-effect-inc/
- Other: Changingthefaceofbeauty.org
