After losing her father to a stress-induced heart attack, Devin McGhee, overcome with grief, found she was unable to function properly. She was losing sleep, overwhelmed with stress and sadness and couldn’t find relief. She decided to delve deep into the natural wellness space, through which she discovered adaptogens and their benefits, including improved sleep and stress reduction. This ultimately lead McGhee and her fiancée Brit Kirkland to found the Deon Libra brand.
In researching adaptogens and the effects of stress, McGhee learned more about how Black people are disproportionately affected by stress. “Everything that had happened to me stress-wise and what had happened to my dad, it finally clicked for me,” McGhee said. With this and her new found stress relief in mind, McGhee knew she had to get Kirkland to try adaptogens.
Related Articles
Kirkland, who is a CrossFit athlete and former SoulCycle instructor, found adaptogens supplied her with the same energy as coffee and helped clear the persistent breakouts she was dealing with. “My experience was more related to the health and wellness side,” Kirkland said. “I was faster. I could breathe. My endurance was a lot longer. That’s really what I was focused on, being able to function better as a human being physically, and it worked.”
However, the duo found there wasn’t a wellness brand geared toward the Black community. “Where’s the Black brand that teaches Black people this? If these ingredients are so beneficial to life.…why isn’t anybody teaching Black people?” McGhee asked. She began developing Deon Libra products in her kitchen in memory of her father, as Deon was his middle name and Libra was his zodiac sign. However, she knew this wasn’t a sustainable business model. After the murder of George Floyd, McGhee and Kirkland decided to officially develop the Deon Libra brand to spread the benefits of adaptogens.
The duo raised $111,000 from friends and family to fund the brand. “No one we asked said no,” McGhee said. “If I was going to give what I consider a piece of my legacy, a piece of my dad’s legacy, to anybody, why wouldn’t it be my friends and family first?” The brand was one of 16 Glossier grantees in 2020, through which Kirkland and McGhee received $10,000. Rob Dyrdek’s venture studio Dyrdek Machine also invested $800,000.
The brand, which is expected to do $865,000 in sales its first year according to industry sources, will launch direct-to-consumer on its own website with two products on Friday: Big Up, $63, an adaptogen-based oil body serum, and Unbothered, $54, an ingestible adaptogenic powder that the duo describes as a “chocolate chai” drink.
While McGhee was unable to save her father, she hopes Deon Libra will save someone going through a similar struggle. The brand, which Kirkland always describes as “wellness meets hip-hop,” was developed to empower the Black community, while offering accessible products that provide solutions. “I’m tired of feeling like we always have to fight for the things that we want when there’s access to everything. What I want to see is that people, Black people specifically, believe that everything that’s available in the world can also be ours,” Kirkland said.