Hello! My name is Danielle and I’m the owner and maker behind Firelands Wax, a seasonal soy candle company borne from the fires of a life lived with undiagnosed ADHD. Here’s a bit of my story and how I came to be a full time candle maker.

From a young age I knew I was different and struggled to make sense of the world around me. I was angsty and creative with a deep empathy for animals and underdogs and a moral outrage over the injustices of the world that didn’t seem to cut my peers the same. Still, I succeeded in school and thrived socially until our family moved from CT to OH when I was a freshman in high school. The trauma of the move combined with my confused inner narrative turned out to be a disastrous combination which set off a nearly 30 year journey of losing myself to drugs, alcohol, and poverty before stumbling across some Tik Tok content in 2023 that turned it all around.

While undiagnosed and still confused, I struggled to find value in myself and to commit to any one line of work. I constantly cycled between interests for reasons I didn’t understand and would burn out on jobs within just a few years, leading to an ever deepening spiral of shame. Despite a college degree, I lacked the self trust and connections to pursue well paid positions and so I settled for minimum wage jobs, two to three at a time. I knew I would have to work for myself if I ever wanted to live a middle class life, and so I saved for a startup.

In my 30’s I met a like minded coworker at a restaurant and we launched a locally themed seasonal gift crate business.  It was during this time the first Firelands Wax candle was made when I couldn’t find one that fit my clean, minimalist vision – by this time I was a chronic DIYer (ADHD) and so it wasn’t unusual to experiment like this. The candles were a success and quickly outsold the gift crates, leading me to teach my sister Lauren how to make them so I could buy them from her and free myself up for other aspects of the crates.

Lauren carried on the original candle recipe, initially selling just to me, and then eventually forming as Firelands Wax a couple years later. The name is a nod to the region in Ohio where we live and the candles were first made, and also to family history – the “Firelands” refers to a tract of land along the shores of Lake Erie that was designated in 1792 by the Connecticut legislature for its citizens whose land had been burned by the British during the American Revolution. This area was referred to as the Fire Suffers’ Lands and eventually shortened to the Firelands. The fact our family was also displaced along the same route from CT to OH lent an additional personal layer of meaning.

When Covid hit, I closed my business and Lauren decided to pursue nursing, which created an opportunity for me to take over Firelands Wax a couple years later. While trying to grow the business I started exploring Tik Tok and it was there in 2023 that  I was first met with content that described what I had been experiencing internally everyday since childhood. 

The flames of confusion that had always licked at my back, driving me blindly forward in a desperate state of fear and failure, were quenched by a flood of tears I did not know I had. The patterns of my life came into focus. The foundation of shame began to crumble. A new fire was lit.

A fire to also be the light for someone else. A fire to loudly support and be inclusive of marginalized society, and to not fear my own authenticity. A fire to share the deep importance of what you’re really buying – not just a candle, but a true encapsulated moment of peace for both of us. A fire to drive home how important your own mental health is, and that seeking comfort through the beauty of a burning candle is valid. 

And so while it’s been a ride, I feel lucky to have arrived at this place where I have a creative business that honors the most consequential events in my life, creating a product specifically meant to transport you to a place of calm and comfort. The fact that my own move to the Firelands all those years ago catalyzed the unfolding of my ADHD in ways that ultimately led to the creation of this business, which then opened the door to the self discovery I’ve always sought, is personally meaningful in ways I can’t put words to. My candles have become a simple spot of light and beauty when the world feels dark and ugly, and I couldn’t be prouder of how they have evolved. Their meaning and purpose have grown through my own self knowing, and for that I am so grateful.

If you would like to learn more, I wrote a more detailed story that requires trigger warnings and will be posted with a link here soon. That said, thank you for reading and for being here. Your support means the world. I look forward to many more years of candle making and can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Here’s to not just making fire, but walking through it. I hope you’ll stick around.

With Love,

Danielle