How Audrey Gruss Founded Hope Fragrances To Shine Light On Mental Health

HealthBeauty and FashionMental HealthSTEM

Feb 11

Who/what inspired you to start Hope Fragrances and HDRF?

My mother Hope inspired me to start Hope For Depression Research Foundation (HDRF) and to create the Hope Fragrance Collection. She was a very talented and creative woman who had extraordinary life qualities, but in the late 50’s she also had what was then called a “nervous breakdown.” We now know that was major depressive disorder, which she struggled with for decades. I was very influenced by her and was bereft when she passed away in 2005. I started researching more about depression and wondered why my mother never had total relief of her symptoms when there were so many antidepressants on the market to supposedly help her. I found out after talking to numerous psychiatrists, psychopharmacologists, and neuroscientists that in fact, most of the popular antidepressants were actually a version of the serotonin and norepinephrine category of medication. I found out that nine or ten of the major pharmaceutical companies had stopped doing brain research because of the high cost.

I realized that private funding was non-existent for depression and its related mood disorders such as bipolar, postpartum, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. In fact, these illnesses represented over 95% of non-psychotic brain illnesses. I realized that depression research was on the back burner and was still misunderstood and very underfunded. I founded Hope for Depression Research Foundation in memory of my mother Hope and with a mission to undertake the most advanced depression research by having neuroscientists work in a collaborative manner. The Depression Task Force was formed in 2012 in order to bring together neuroscientists leaders in different fields who agreed to share their research information in real time with the other members of the task force in order to accelerate the research process.

I decided to start Hope Fragrances when I realized that we needed to keep the information about depression in front of people as much as possible. That was difficult to do since brain research took so long and breakthroughs that the press could write about were so slow. I wanted to create a product that appeals to women of all demographics. I remembered how much my mother loved fragrances and how she used to wear layer dabs of various perfumes until she found the right effect. She loved the essences of white flowers, so I created the first Hope Fragrance as a fusion of 4 of the most beautiful white flowers in existence: Lily of the Valley, Jasmine, Gardenia, and Tuberose. Two other fragrances recently joined the collection and they are: Hope Sport and Hope Night. The entire collection is available at Bergdorf Goodman, bg.com, and hopefragrances.com. Each Hope Fragrance product has a package insert which tells the back story of the creation of Hope Fragrances and my mothers struggle with depression. In this way, the importance of depression in today’s health arena is repeated each time a woman buys and enjoys Hope Fragrances. With the sales of thousands of packages the story is repeated and customers from all over the US can hear about depression, the need for research, and how 100% OF ALL NET PROFITS FROM HOPE FRAGRANCES GOES DIRECTLY BACK TO DEPRESSION RESEARCH AT HOPE FOR DEPRESSION RESEARCH FOUNDATION.

What moment in your career are you most proud of?

There are actually two moments that are invaluable in my mind. The first was in 2010 when I received an Honorary Doctorate in philosophy from the University of Haifa for visionary work of starting Hope for Depression Research Foundation.

The second was in 2012 when I was able to create the Depression Task Force and eight outstanding leaders in various disciplines of neuroscience agreed to join the DTF and work in a collaborative manner to defeat depression. They created an overall strategy, which reflected what is necessary and missing in the field and they each focused on a piece of that strategy and accelerated what is needed in this area of the field.

What qualities do you value in the people closest to you?

The qualities that have always attracted me to both friends and business associates are the same. They are honesty, openness, sincerity, energy, and intelligence. □