One Year of Real Belonging: Back to School with Inspiration, Hope, and Purpose
Hard to believe the Real Belonging Shop has been open for one whole year now. 🥹
It all started one day last June. I was struggling to figure out how to move forward after anti-trans laws were ending my job as a trucker with Walmart. I was sitting in the den, drawing on my laptop with a stylus. I drew this cute little hillbilly opossum in transgender pride-colored overalls.
When I was done, I stretched that laptop screen out at arm's length, took a clear look at what I'd just made, and squealed -- with all the innocent fury of Despicable Me's Agnes meeting a fluffy unicorn:
"This is adorable as f**k!"
As I soaked in the fullness of this feeling, I realized the joy, the inspiration, and the hope I felt in that moment was exactly what the world needs more of.
And it is my responsibility as a living, breathing person to create and birth it.
Thus, the Adorable AF collection was born.
I created the Transgender Opossum shirt in two versions:
12"x12" front and center for all the world to see, but still subtle enough that anyone who doesn't know what a trans flag looks like won't even notice it's anything but a cartoon opossum; and,
4"x4" on the chest, to be easily covered up at school by a layered over-shirt in the presence of unsupportive teachers, administrators, or bullies.
My very first sale was to the mother of a transgender teen in Florida, who bought the 4"x4" design for her kid, so he could wear it to school safely and not have to change shirts when hanging out with his friends in the evenings and weekends.
Then, after receiving it and falling in love with the shirt, she ordered a second one for herself the following week.
Two sales wasn't enough to pay the bills yet, but it was enough to give me a clear sign that I was onto something people really need in this moment: real belonging.
As Back To School season looms once more, I hope you and your loved ones take some time to sit down together and really explore what real belonging means to you, in your little corner of the world.
What does it feel like when you belong? How do you know?
In the coming weeks, I will soon be launching the Real Belonging YouTube channel where we'll discuss exactly this:
What is belonging really?
How can we create belonging in social spaces that feel divided and often stacked against us?
Where do we find micro-moments of leverage to cultivate belonging, and how do we find the resolve to keep watering those good seeds in rocky soil, especially when it sometimes seems like nothing good can grow there?
This is a season for both new beginnings and also reaping what we sow. As we move into shorter days and longer stretches of wondering when the light will return to our lives, I hope you'll invite a friend or two to come join us along this Real Belonging journey of repairing the world. Reach out to someone you haven't talked to in too long.
The connection that creates belonging is in the pause, and it is a choosing.
And if you know someone feeling anxious about the school year? Maybe buy them an Adorable AF shirt for their back to school fashion without triggering the snowflake bullies to have a meltdown over the pretty colors.
See you soon, friend.
Love,
Brandyn
(they/them)