A friend asked me the other day where I got the idea for this shop and I couldn't really give a straight answer. It just happened, somehow. I was feeling powerless about the state of everything around me. What can I do? I'm just one person. I have a chronic illness which likes to flare up at the worst possible time (though is there ever really a good time to barely function?). I have too much social anxiety to leave the house on some days. Everything feels overwhelming. How am I supposed to make a real difference?

Obviously, I am not the only person who struggles with this notion. There are eight billion people on Earth and I'd be willing to gamble that the majority of us have asked the same question. And I'm sure that it's not that big of a stretch to assume that a lot of those folks are looking for a similar outcome: a fair world, free of greed and suffering. I refuse to believe that the majority of the population is okay with watching the world burn.

For the last year or so, I've been idly drawing a character that I call Mommy Longlegs. She's literally just long legs ending in a short torso with eyes. Drawing eight billion mommies wasn't really a viable option so I settled for a couple dozen, surrounded by the same phrase that already plagued me: What can I do? I'm just one person.

So why the store? I wanted it on a t-shirt. And I wanted to allow others to wear it, should they want to. While I was at it, I created a few more products with the same character. If I had a lot of money, I'd give them out for free. I make only a tiny profit - literally a few dollars per item - most of the cost goes to manufacturing. To avoid waste, everything is made on demand.

And yeah, I fully realize that this is probably the worst possible time to be launching a merch shop in the U.S. Once the tariffs fully kick in (and the impending recession, let's be real), nobody is going to want to pay an absurd amount of money for a hoodie, no matter how soft or inspirational it might be. But hey, the shop is here, I might as well share it.

Special thanks to Paige Baxter who agreed to model the clothes for me, and to every friend who supported this idea along the way - especially those who already made orders! This is my small act of soft rebellion. Thanks for coming along.

I was sad and I made t-shirts out of it.