Sydney Drossel is a multitalented entrepreneur. Not only does she own and operate her own business, Gray Pony Gifts, she also creates the business’ natural body care products and organizes orders inside and out of Pickerington.
Photos courtesy of Shelli Drossel
But the business also serves an important purpose: celebrating inclusion. Drossel has autism and, since the business’s inception in January, she has worked side by side with her mom, Shelli, to create products and sell them on Etsy, the business’ website and at farmers’ markets. Gray Pony Gifts offers all-natural body products such as bath bombs, lip balm and sugar scrubs. Drossel’s bio on the Gray Pony Gifts Etsy page perhaps says it best: “It’s about your abilities, not your disabilities!”
Although Shelli provides some operational assistance, Drossel is the brain behind the products from concept to creation, thinking up exfoliating sugar scrubs, relaxing bath soaks and even bug-bite itch relief sticks. In Pickerington, supporting local is easy – especially when the business’ inventory is all-natural.
“I use essential oils for most of my stuff,” Drossel says. “Except for the coconut vanilla, I use vanilla extract.”
Drossel learned about using essential oils to create delicious and calming scents from her grandma, Judy. Gray Pony Gifts utilizes scents ranging from a seasonal cozy autumn spice to a summery ruby red grapefruit.
Shelli says that, aside from the occasional bump in the road, Drossel runs the business smoothly – the same as any entrepreneur.
“I know what her strengths are, and I know what her weaknesses are,” Shelli says. “I do help her with this business, I do the marketing and I do all the label making. In terms of the production, we kind of work on that together.”
However, she and Drossel have overcome struggles of their own before Gray Pony Gifts was even an idea.
Drossel’s dad and Shelli’s husband, Steve, passed away from ALS in 2016. After Drossel’s brother, Seth, graduated from high school in 2020, she and Shelli moved from the Toledo area to Pickerington to be closer to family, as Shelli is originally from Baltimore, Ohio.
Before the move, Drossel thoroughly enjoyed her time working at a coffee shop. Relocating meant she would need to find a new job.
“We had pursued job coaching. She did have a job outside of the home for about two months, but, unfortunately, it didn’t work out,” Shelli says. “It is a little difficult to find people accepting of others that have social difficulties.”
Undeterred, Drossel took matters into her own hands. Using some holiday money, she purchased a laptop and supplies to make several batches of coconut vanilla sugar scrub. It was an immediate hit.
“She only made 15, and she sold out in one day,” Shelli says. “Then she started thinking of other scents.”
Gray Pony Gifts is deliberately named, inspired by a shared passion between Shelli and her late husband.
“When my husband and I met, I had a gray Mustang, an ’88, and then the year that he died, he bought a gray Mustang Cobra,” says Shelli. “People call them ‘ponies,’ and they were both gray, so that’s how we came up with the name. It’s just in honor of him.”
Drossel says she plans to keep creating new products, such as essential oil rollers and seasonal bath bombs, and of course continue to make the products her customers already know and love, including sugar scrubs, her favorite.
“(Sugar scrubs are) easy to make, and they moisturize your skin and exfoliate your skin,” Drossel says.
To learn more about Gray Pony Gifts, visit www.grayponygifts.square.site.
Tess Wells is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
