Grace, Karenia, Mackenzie - Lit & Co

Being a teenager has never been easy – but a bright group of girls from Rangi Ruru Girls School in Christchurch are making things lighter for kids their age.
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Grace, Karenia, Mackenzie - Lit & Co

Being a teenager has never been easy – but a bright group of girls from Rangi Ruru Girls School in Christchurch are making things lighter for kids their age. The girls are showing that sometimes it only takes a little candle magic to make you feel all right.

Grace Whiting, Karenia Anderson and Mackenzie Bruhns created a business called Lit & Co Massage Candles for the Young Enterprise Scheme ‒ but they wish to do a bit more than that.

“We saw the Young Enterprise Scheme as a way to shape a company into our ideals of environmental friendliness, ‘charitability’ and a fun way to spend our year while giving back to the people that are affected in New Zealand,” Grace says.

They acknowledge teens deal with a lot of pressure and stress from situations around them and from themselves, sometimes making them believe there is not enough time in the day to just take a breath and feel calm.

So the Lit & Co team is busy creating change for their peers: “We have noticed that mental wellbeing is not as promoted and helped as much as it could be compared to physical issues and wellbeing. We want to change the amount of stress in people’s lives by encouraging them to take a moment for themselves and enjoy our product,” Grace says.


Creating change

Their product is a portable, calming soy wax candle made with lavender oil, designed to allow the owner to use the liquid wax as massage oil or the light as a regular candle.

“Lavender helps with problems such as muscle pains, anxiety and insomnia, which are all common problems, and, if left unresolved, can cause greater issues. Anxiety, depression, and eating disorders are three major issues that became apparent to us in our age group. We wanted to focus on offering support with our product,” Grace says.

Lit & Co. took part in the Youth Enterprise Scheme’s Dragons Den early in June 2015 and came away with a Highly Commended in Business, Practice and People.

“Our goal is to raise awareness and to help those we sell to, to find a calming escape, but also to succeed in our own goals of completing the Young Enterprise year,” Grace says.

Lit & Co. candles are on sale for $15 each with 10% of the proceeds going to the Mental Health Foundation. To buy the product in support of the girls and the Mental Health Foundation please email them at litandco@outlook.com.

Grace, Karenia, Mackenzie - Lit & Co