Many people live in an echo chamber these days, and I hope platforms like Steemit will help change that. I have a dissenting viewpoint for you: if you put this art on a shirt, aren't you doing the same thing the mainstream shirt designers are doing? That thing being sending messages via kid's chests.
During my childhood, we were not expected to be message bearers for adults. Contrary to popular belief, we were free to play what we wanted and dress the way we chose (as far back as the 80s anyway.) I had a superhero costume and played with He-Mans. My little sister loved the dump truck that delivered firewood, so my mom bought a Tonka truck and my big sister and I spent the day breaking sticks into 'firewood' to fill it. My older sister had more girly tastes, but she was the one who could catch snakes with ease, and the one who got my parents' permission to clip off the tail of a roadkilled squirrel to keep as a trophy.
Our clothes didn't really carry messages, because... 1980s. Anyway, most were handmedown and some were handmade.
Your art is cute and you clearly care about the world our kids will grow up into. Parenting the next generation is fairly terrifying, so my message to you and other parents in our generation is to do what our parents did: take the cues from your child and allow life to unfold. Keep them safe and out of the battleground of whatever fights you are fighting. When they are ready, they will have their own battles to fight. It will happen all too soon.
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Hi there,
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your thoughtful comment. You might be surprised that I agree with you! I started thinking about this project a long time ago, but a recent incident that really upset my son's friend got me going. While I do detest some of the messages on kids' shirts, my plan isn't really to replace them with the opposite - I think you are right, kids shouldn't be the unwitting bearers of adult messages. I don't like advertising for companies on clothes either! Someone in the comments did suggest making tshirts and maybe for some of the designs I have in mind that would work - but I don't want to put anyone even more under the microscope with a message that says - hey! look at me! I'm different!
On the other hand, perhaps a book or coloring book that no one would be wearing would still be able to reinforce for kids who need to hear the message that they may be different, but that's ok!
I'm still in the brainstorming period, so I'm really happy to have all this feedback.
Thanks for sharing your point of view :-)