Queer Spawn design

Our newest design, Queer Spawn, is up! I am really excited about this one. I want to give kids from queer families a way to show their pride and connect with others.

I worked for several years at Camp Ten Trees, a summer camp for queer youth and kids from LGBTQ families. It was truly an amazing experience. I loved watching - and being a part of! - developing a strong queer community during the weeklong sessions. Being surrounded by others with similar families seemed to make such a difference in the youths' self-esteem and pride in their families. In the outside world, their family was unusual and a point of difference (granted, that can be a wonderful thing, but to a lot of middle schoolers, anything that makes them "different" is bad). And then, they would come to camp and be surrounded by others in similar situations. Suddenly their "difference" wasn't a big deal. And once it stopped being such a big deal, it was much easier for the youth to develop pride in their family and its uniqueness.

I live in a city where many kids from queer families are surrounded by a strong community and have at least a few queer spawn friends. Their pride in their families often isn't something they question. That's not always the case, though - and while working at camp, I watched many youth from less accepting areas become proud queer spawn. Some came in all but hating their LGBTQ parent, but left with a new sense of pride. It was beautiful to see.

So where did this design come from then? I loved seeing the community that developed during those summer weeks - and would love to help it continue throughout the year. And, thus, the Queer Spawn design was born.