Yoyo’s Story: How a T-shirt Project is Empowering Girls
In my yearbook, I wrote about my teacher, Ms. Jones. She taught me to be just who I am and to not hide the things I’m good at. In her class, we made T-shirts about being grateful. She said when she saw me in my shirt, standing proud and tall, it inspired her to want to get everybody to be proud of who they are.
She came up with an idea to do a workshop called “As We Are”, which I got to participate in. It was a great experience. In the workshop, we started by looking at T-shirts with bad messages about women. For example, one said “Allergic to Algebra.” That offended me because I really like math. It upset me to see a girl wearing that and thinking she’s not allowed to be good at math because it’s “for boys.”
I never used to be what you’d call an outspoken person. In high school, when my English teacher suggested I read one of my poems aloud in class, I said, “No way!” Early in my career I wrote a well-received research report, but at the press conference I actually hid behind a colleague. At dinner parties, I dreaded the prospect of someone raising a controversial subject. I had strong opinions, but not the nerve to say them out loud.
What happens when you put girls in charge of the messages on their clothing?
