Our Story

 My mom and grandma  were both very creative, artistic, motivated and strong willed women. I remember watching them submerge themselves in many different projects/hobbies such as crafting, gardening, painting etc. These women most definitely inspired and instilled in me love for creative arts. In 2019 I found myself spiraling into a really deep depression. The difficult part was that for the longest time, I didn't even realize I was depressed. The symptoms were all there, but I kept brushing them off all with hopes of “staying strong” for my family. Eventually, I had fallen so deep into despair that I found myself lying on my bedroom floor with feelings of hopelessness and unable to feel joy. For the first time in my life, I felt completely empty and withdrawn as I laid there. That was the day that I decided to seek professional help. I found a therapist that I really enjoyed seeing and through multiple sessions, I was able to alleviate some of my depressed symptoms. One of the biggest things that helped me overcome my depression was me indulging in my creative side. Through this, I started making candles from a candle making kit my mom gave me for Christmas one year.. It became very therapeutic for me. Through the process of candle making, I was able to work on personal skills such as time management, planning, dealing with failure etc. All of which I believe contributed to some of my prior depressive symptoms, along with negative self talk. After completing the candle making process, which came with extremely frustrating successes, perfect accidents and at times overwhelming failures. Finally I became satisfied with my product.  I then was able to introduce these skills I learned to my children. In January of 2020, my mom taught my youngest daughter how to make a set of 40 wax melts. My daughter was so excited! She then took her wax melts door to door in our neighborhood and sold out within 40 mins! She was so proud and so was I! From there, we created Southern Tot Collection, a family ran company. Our slogan became, “Light up the dark”. It is to remind us, and hopefully others, that although life bring you to a state of darkness at times, there is always light! You just have to light up the dark, share your story and pass the torch on someone else that’s suffering their own internal battle.  

     The COVID 19 pandemic, March of 2020 left myself and millions of Americans without a job. As I stepped away from my professional career in dentistry, I used the time during the global shutdown and pandemic to invest in our business.  I worked so hard on our brand, developed different candle scents, and built a marketing plan. These efforts eventually lead to increased exposure in the local area which spurred our first drive-thru candle pop up shop. This was a contactless free way for us to showcase and sell our product during the difficult restraints covid 19 placed on social interactions. As our company continued to grow, and we found ourselves filling more and more orders. My children returned to school in what felt like a whole new world. I decided to pause production for a while as I focused on prioritizing my children’s education, however, this past April we have fully relaunched and are busier than ever! We’ve attended so many markets, festivals, filling wholesale orders, and have partnered with other small businesses since relaunching. Our goal moving forward is to inspire, show others along our journey, especially the youth, the benefits of being an entrepreneur and the joys of business ownership.