Though the women at Seattlish all hover around 30, we often look to teens to teach us things because a.) teens know a hell of a lot of stuff and everyone should listen to them, and b.) this particular generation is feminist AF and they’re going to change the world. We have a lot of faith in today’s young people.
So when NUMEROUS people sent us the links to this incredibly powerful shirt—made by local teens!—we were like “fuuuuuuuuuuck we need to ask these teens some questions.”
And we did! And they answered! And surprise: They’re really smart and powerful and we love them!
Here’s the interview.
Tell me who you are. (Name, how old, what you do, etc).
Our names are Greta (18), Alex (17), and Taya (18). We are high school seniors at the Northwest School in Capitol Hill. Greta founded the Northwest School Literary Magazine and can usually be found hanging out in a forest. Alex spends her time taking photos and talking about politics. She is a dedicated viewer of Shonda Rhimes’ TGIT shows (all of them). Greta and Alex are co-leaders of the Northwest School Feminist Interest Group (FIG). Taya is a soccer star who plays for Crossfire Premier. She loves to watch Shameless and she wants to be an OB GYN. We all have a passion for reproductive rights.
Who designed the shirt? Where did the idea come from?
We were assigned an open-ended activism project in which the only requirement was to create change within our school community. The three of us immediately realized our common interest in reproductive rights. The uterus concept was a group idea. From the start our project, we wanted to focus on depoliticizing reproductive organs. Greta drew and designed the shirt. When we discussed the text to go beneath, we discussed how we’ve felt our bodies fought over politically our entire lives, and wanted to include a message that could help to fight back against that.
On a not-so-happy note, we were also influenced by how pressing a matter reproductive rights is today. We see this in the recent Supreme Court case that threatens the rights created with Roe v Wade, the physical and governmental attacks on Planned Parenthood, and policies such as the tampon tax.
At least 15 people sent me this shirt because, like, people know what I’m into and uteruses is on the list—which means probably I imagine the response has been huge. Have you been surprised by the response?
It has come as a big surprise to us. When we ordered our first batch to sell at the school, we were worried about being able to sell all 65 shirts; however, we sold out entirely within the first day and had a waiting list 35 people long. Due to this large interest, we decided it would be most expedient to set up a website for people to order their shirts. We expected something like 30 orders, but have received about 1000 (and counting!) in the 5 days since we set up the website. We are really excited about the level of interest we’ve received––we have a folder dedicated just to nice emails people have been sending us. Big shoutout to Donald, who emailed us to let us know he bought 5 shirts “even though [he is] a MAN !!!”
What does your school think? What about your classmates?
Our school and classmates have been hugely supportive. We are so privileged to go to a school that not only prioritizes teaching students about social inequities, but that allows for us to take initiative within our activism. It is hugely telling that this started out as a school project, because this is exactly the kind of thing Northwest wants us to be able to achieve during our time at the school. As for our classmates, the fact that guys in our class bought and have been wearing the shirt just as much as the girls says a lot. It’s been a project that has spurred interest across gender lines, and our class has been great about actively participating.
Heroic teens (from left to right) Taya, Greta, and Alex
What are you doing next?
For the moment, we’re just catching up to this influx of interest. However, we’re planning on opening up our horizons more in May. We can’t commit to anything publicly just yet, but we can probably say that we’ve gotten a really remarkable number of requests for tote bags and stickers.
If you could tell everyone who’s been sharing the shirt one thing, what would it be?
We’d tell them to keep talking. Equally as much as we hope to be able to make a large donation to Planned Parenthood, we hope that these shirts can start conversations. We’re excited to say that we’ve seen this begin to happen already. We personally have had the privilege of being able to engage with anti-choice believers who have deposited themselves in our inbox, and we’ve received anecdotes from our friends and family that confirm that this shirt has been a conversation starter for them as well. One of our siblings was just informed by an administrator that the shirt was “toeing the dress code line” (this is after he had to teach the administrator what the image on the shirt depicts). If we want to see serious change in this country with how we handle reproductive rights, then we need to normalize these conversations and stop treating our bodies as taboo subjects.
Anything else we should know?
This isn’t just a women’s fight or issue. We want our customers to remember that issues of reproductive rights cross gender lines––men, women, and people outside the gender binary all suffer from the attacks on Planned Parenthood. We’d encourage people to check out the ‘resources’ page on our site to learn more!
