Draya Michele and her family are living off the land. The former reality TV personality turned entrepreneur, actress, investor, and mother of three is a passionate advocate for clean living. “I’m creating a life for myself where I can live off my land and just eat things that don’t have as many chemicals and pesticides,” she shares. “I’m trying to get rid of GMOs and just trying to live a really long time because I really love life, and I really like it here on earth. So, I’m doing my part to take care of the planet.”
Michele raises 16 chickens, tends a vast garden, and takes intentional steps to control what she and her family consume, including the air they breathe.
But as she’s learned living in Los Angeles, especially during the harrowing fires in Southern California earlier this year, there are some things she can’t control—like the air quality outside. Inside her home, however, is a different story. While remodeling her house, long before the fires, she began testing a variety of air purifiers. That’s how she discovered Sereniby, a wellness technology brand known for its premium air cleansers, often used in nurseries to protect families’ most precious loved ones—their babies.
But as Michele demonstrated during our conversation, these purifiers are effective throughout the entire home. As a mother of a toddler going through important development stages, and someone who has experienced poor air quality firsthand, that awareness inspired her to become a new investment partner in the brand.
“We couldn’t be more excited for Draya to join our investor base,” said Alex Melecki, co-founder and CEO of Sereniby, in a statement. “She’s an incredibly sharp entrepreneur who has probably forgotten more about brand-building than most of us will ever learn — the kind of person who adds value and insight every time we talk. I feel incredibly fortunate that this investment allows us to formalize her role as a long-term advisor.”
We spoke with Draya Michele about aligning with this mission-driven brand to help others (young and old) breathe better, the joy of finally being a girl mom, the tribe who supports her, how she protects her peace from online critics, and why she even agrees she belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Basketball Wives stars.
ESSENCE: I know your daughter recently turned one. How has it been being a girl mom after having two sons and years of #boymom status?
Draya Michele: I’ve always wanted a daughter and I really lost hope about it. I was just like, oh, I guess I’m not going to have any more kids. I guess I’m never going to get my daughter. And then boom, I had a daughter and it has just been everything I imagined and more. Before she was born, I felt like I was going to have almost like a tomboy flair to parenting her because I’m not super girly, but here I am, everything’s pink, everything has a bow, everything is so girly and feminine, and yeah, I changed even personally.
I love that. What was it like, if you don’t mind me asking, being back on diaper duty at first, because I know you have an adult son, and then I know you also have another son who’s a pre-teen. Getting back into changing diapers and doing the early mornings and late nights can be a doozy.
Whole new ball game. I mean, even just going from changing boys to changing little girls, completely different. Whole different routine of doing it. I had to relearn everything from scratch.
How did your daughter inspire you to partner with Sereniby?
While I was pregnant, I was having to do a lot of home renovations, and I remember one specifically, I put a video on Instagram where I was remodeling stuff, and they were like, “Hey, you need to wear a mask while you’re tearing those walls down, especially if your house is older, because there could be harmful chemicals and things in there, asbestos and all that in your walls that you could be releasing into the air.” So I was like, oh my gosh. And then there’s all those California propositions and things that have harmful chemicals for women’s reproductive health, and when you are pregnant, can cause birth defects. So I was like, okay, wait, while we’re doing construction, we’ve got to get this air quality together in the house. I’m going to be breathing it, my kids are living here while we’re doing construction. So, I purchased several different air purifiers during that time to try them all out and see which ones were the best. So that’s what jump-started it, me wanting to live and breathe in clean air. That’s what prompted it, me being pregnant and doing construction in my house. And then the LA fires started to happen about a year after that, and that was a really scary time. So also we were super concerned about air quality because our city was on fire.
When you first posted about the company, there was some criticism. How did you feel about that and what were people getting wrong, would you say, about the message you were trying to deliver?
I think people thought I was getting compensated for it, but we could clear that up right away. I wasn’t being compensated. I was genuinely just trying to spread awareness that the outside air, even though your house might not be on fire and you might not be in close proximity of the fire, the air that we’re breathing, we are all still affected, and the air quality was so poor. Every day I would check the index on my phone, and it says the air quality, it was so bad that we were in the red every single day. So it was like they were telling us to stay inside, and if you’re going to be told to stay inside because the air quality’s poor outside, you’ve got to make sure the air you’re breathing inside is clean too, otherwise you’re doing the same damage. So I received some backlash, but I wasn’t worried about it because I knew what I was trying to do. And while yes, there were people who had lost everything, lost their homes, my message wasn’t geared towards them. My message was geared to the other millions of people who live in Southern California that were affected by the smoke in the air.
And how do you generally deal with the peanut gallery online? I know when you announced your pregnancy, there was a lot of talk, a lot of criticism. How did you protect your piece then, and how do you continue to protect your piece now as a public figure?
I think I’ve gotten really thick skin over the years, so this was something that I had to work on because I wasn’t always this zen when it came to social media. Now I just try to filter everything and block it out. I don’t have my comments on currently to the public, but they’re going to be on again soon. But I did that because sometimes I don’t want to see the unsolicited opinions. Sometimes I just want to post and go.
And I found that when my comments were on, I was constantly running back to my page to check them, and I was almost feeling like a prisoner of it. So now that the comments are off, I post and I go, because I know there’s not going to be anything there that I may need to respond to, that I may need to delete or filter through. So life is better without having to hear what people think, especially if I’m not asking. So sometimes it’s just posting the picture and moving on, and that’s me. So I expect my followers to see the picture and move on as well.
You created that boundary, which is important. Speaking of boundaries, how do you pour into yourself to practice self-care as a mother of three, as a busy entrepreneur, and an investor? What are the things that you like to do that kind of help you when you have time? I know you’re a plant mama, but what else do you enjoy?
Oh my gosh, I was just talking about it. I’m literally creating a homestead over here. I have 16 chickens. I don’t know how I got here. It started with four. I got four chicks because they have to have a companion. So I was like, oh, I like this white one. And then, oh, I like this black one. And then I was like, oh, I got to get two white ones and then two black ones. I started with four, then it was another four. Then I found a breed of chickens that I really, really loved. And then I was like, oh, I got to get that. Found chicks. I have 16 chickens now. They are a lot of work. So when I wake up in the morning, I have a routine now. My daughter is up first, so she is the natural alarm clock. I wake up, get her ready for the day, I have my coffee, and then I give her to my nanny and I start my chores, which first include chicken chores. I have chicks inside a brooder, which is a heated lamp setup. They really have to be cared for like babies. So I do my chicken chores, and then I go up to my garden and I do my garden chores. And then after that, I’m usually done with everything by 10:00 a.m., and then I start my work. I do my chores and I work out. I do the chores from about eight to nine, and then from nine to 10 I work out, and then I’ll start actual work. But I just try to keep my routine and that is what keeps me sane. And when I have to veer off from my routine, I don’t like that too much because I like to stay organized. I like when everything just goes right.
I know you mentioned your nanny. How else do you balance the many hats that you wear? Who is in your tribe that supports you in motherhood?
Oh my gosh. So I have a great support system. Her dad and I do everything together, so he’s super hands-on. He often takes the night duty because our daughter doesn’t sleep well. So I appreciate him for that. And now that he’s off for the summer, he can help a lot more. And my best friend, she helps me so, so much with everything, with all of my kids. And she’s just a lifesaver. So she’s here every day helping with various things around the house. And then, yeah, I have a great, great, great nanny that our family loves, and she helps us a lot.
What do you want people to know about Sereniby? You talked about the importance of good air quality. Like you said, you tried different purifiers. What sets this particular brand apart from others?
We all have heard that we should “Go outside and get some fresh air.” That is not always possible, and we’ve seen it. We’ve lived in LA for a month straight, where there were fires, and it was just major pollution and major toxins in the air, just such harmful things to the respiratory system. So if you are going to go outside and get some fresh air, you have to make sure the air is fresh. Now, if the air isn’t fresh, you’ve got to be inside. But it’s also a huge misconception that the air inside is automatically safer. The truth is they’re both pretty bad. The inside air can be really, really awful.
And people need to know that, especially for those with babies and young children, because their respiratory system is an essential part of their development. And if they are not getting good air quality, if they’re not getting good sleep, they’re not developing at the rate that they should. Our air purifier also has a light feature, a sound feature to it. So while they sleep, having clean air, having the noise of the fan running, having the light, it all improves the sleep quality. And yes, the devices was created for babies, but it can be used for everyone. And anyone elderly, the people who have autoimmune deficiencies and stuff, anyone can use clean air and everyone should have clean air. So I just think that creating awareness is what helped me align with this brand because it was super important to me.
And lastly, I just have to ask you about something. Jackie Christie was asked about the Mount Rushmore of Basketball Wives cast members, and she named you. I know you’re so far removed from that time. Your life is so much different than that period when you starred on the LA franchise, and I know you talked about things that triggered you, even just hearing the show and things like that because of the experience you had. So how does it feel to have someone from your past say you were and still are one of the greats of the series, and where do you stand with that experience after all these years?
I agree. I think that I have a lot of respect for those ladies now. I feel like the way that I’m brought up in interviews now, present day, is much different than how I was spoken about before. So I have a lot of respect for those ladies. I love Jackie dearly. She always, I notice, because I get tagged and stuff, I notice she always gives me my props in her interviews. And I love that about her. And I kind of agree with her. I think what we’re getting at is, what is my Mount Rushmore? And I definitely think Jackie is there. Evelyn is there a thousand percent. Tami is there. And I’m going to go ahead and put myself on there because I did bring something different. I think that during my season, I brought youth, I brought a little stand-up-for-yourself-by-any-means flare. And then I also think that how I just catapulted my career after, I think that because I do really well for myself in my post-reality TV life, I think that that says a lot. I think it’s admirable. So I think I deserve to be up there for those reasons alone.
Learn more about Sereniby over at Sereniby.com.