While comments on this post continue to be welcome, the giveaway is now over.
My last giveaway of the year is sponsored by the awesome clothing company Handsome in Pink. Company founder Jo Hadley is generously offering two items of clothing from her line of elegant, gender-transcending play clothes.
Here are a few of the reasons why Jo is super-cool, why you should enter this giveaway, and why you should support her company:
1. Jo is the mama of a pink boy, and when she didn’t find clothes she liked for him, she decided to make them. And share them with the rest of us.
2. She is all about challenging gender stereotypes. She makes pink and purple clothes for girls AND boys, and shirts with rough and tumble imagery for boys AND girls (check out this pink and purple dirtbike t-shirt). She says, “Handsome in Pink is all about breaking down the female monopoly on pinks and purples and sharing it with our brothers.” And she makes a “Girly Girl” shirt that has images of fishing, playing baseball, climbing trees, strong muscles, and a book—because girls are smart as well as tough. She also makes cool grown-up clothes.
3. She was born in 1972, the year Free To Be You and Me came out.
4. Handsome in Pink is eco-friendly, using non-toxic inks and organic cotton whenever they can—making, as she says, environmentally-friendly clothes produced in human-friendly ways.
5. Jo is all open-minded and creative. When I asked her if she’d consider making a “Girly Boy” or “Pink Boy” shirt to go along with her “Girly Girl” shirt, she told me she loved the idea and got right to brainstorming design ideas. And then she told me that she’s been thinking of making a “Manly Man” shirt that would have all the great “feminine” things men do, like cook and clean and wipe kids’ noses.
6. She has a list of pink links on her website, and I’m on it!
7. And this is the reason you can start jumping up and down, if you haven’t already: Jo is giving away t-shirts to TWO of my readers!
Check out Handsome in Pink, and comment below to enter to be one of the lucky winners. Remember, you need to friend me on facebook or leave your email address in the comment section below so I know how to find you if you win.
Thanks Jo!
I love anything that supports everybody’s right to be themselves. I LOVE “Free to be you and me”! Great job breaking down barriers of the gender-specific boxes that we are all forced to conform to. It is great to send the message to everybody, especially kids, that whoever, whatever,however you are, it’s okay and should be celebrated! We all need to be proud of ourselves and not embarassed, insecure or afraid to show our true selves. Thank you Jo and Sarah!
A great idea! Would love to win one these!
I love the pink tool-belt onsie!
These absolutely kick butt!! Beyond a great message, the design are EXCELLENT, stuff I would be proud to tell all about since they WILL get looks, I am sure of it, for every awesome reason. Glad she has tough girl clothes, too! I grew up fishing, playing with drills to repair a hurricanes house, and repairing cars and my niece (we are raising her) is the same way. No makeup or Barbies, pure macho. Our other tyke, though, loves his dress up and only wants pink gameboys/laptops/jewels. I love gender blindness and wish it’d become viral. This awesome Snap Judgment piece on NPR had a lady who grew up with boy parts in a female-but-boyish body; a surgery and hormones at 10 and she didn’t learn til married 20 years that they’d offered her dad the chance to be a boy instead… I was moved when they talked about her finding out with her partner who was head over heels; they renewed vows and even said if she grew a beard, he’d love her as much. Her name I think was Sarah too–she mentioned she could be Sam; that I remember. Anyway, I am your FB friend and linked above–I can’t tell if you can see the email I typed??
Great story!
I can’t see your email address but I can click on your name and it takes me to your facebook page, so I can find you if you win 🙂
Love this & only want Jo to link to the Shadows *and* to do underwear. Because that’s a hitching point for a pink boy or a motorcycle loving toddler in training.
Sam wanted pink underwear when he was four, and I couldn’t find any pink front-fly underwear. So I bought plain white ones and tie dyed them. He wore them for years.
We did this, but just dyed them solid pink…. Plus, Hanna Andersson makes ‘girl’ briefs that are identical except for no opening in front, in 3 shades of pink…
My four year old son loves pink, but it hard to find anything pink yet fun for him. This clothing line looks fantastic!
I love how HAndsome in Pink blurs the line between girls and boys. I’m so sick of only finding boy astronaut and girl dancer clothing. I love that she has pink firetruck shirts. I wanted to get something like that for a friend Firewoman who had a baby girl, but couldn’t think of where to find one AND I WORK IN A CHILDREN’S STORE! I would love to win one of these for my son and would be sure to blog all about it on my site if I did!
Maybe you can ask your children’s store to stock the Handsome in Pink line.
I love, love, love these. My 4 (almost 5) year old loves pink. But he still loves things like trucks and tools, so these are absolutely perfect.
That’s what I like about these clothes–they let kids be different places on the gender spectrum.
Love these. I have two little boys, my 3 year old (almost 4, he would have made me write that) and loves to “design” clothes, play with My Little Ponies and pretend to figure skate. My husband and I bump heads constantly on how to “handle” (I use quotations because I don’t think there is any issue to “handle”), I think he is 100% wonderful the way he is! What a boring world it would be if we all liked and did the same things based whether we are male or female!
Love most of the stuff, though the “tickle” line just confuses me and I’d have grabbed the onesies with toolbelts for my (no longer) babies in a heartbeat if they didn’t have bottles on them.
Are you going to have the girly girl adult shirts in larger sizes? I’m afraid I won’t be able to cram into an XL anytime soon.
She means “tickled pink.”
They do make an adult Girly Girl shirt:
http://www.handsomeinpink.com/cgi-bin/hip/hipagg01.html
Sorry, I misunderstood–as far as larger sizes, you can ask Jo. She is very open to new ideas, and I imagine if she’s printing a new batch, she might be able to print on additional sizes.
Cool. Once dh has a job and I have some disposable income, I will do just that. I’d get one for myself and for my mom and sister and her wife and… ooooh.
Once again, a great find! So much better than the shirt I saw on a little boy in a store that said, “I’m two but I’m hung like I’m four”. 🙁
Eew.
i love the rockets and stars because my baby girl’s nickname is rocketship and i bet my son would love the pink shirt with the fire engine! actualy i like all the shirts but those are my favorites lol
I have a pink boy, and my husband and I are happy just to let him be who he is. Some family, unfortunately, isn’t always as good about that as we are. I’m very happy I found this blog, and I’d LOVE one of those shirts for him!
I’m happy you found my blog, too. Welcome!
I love love love that she has pink & purple with ‘boy’ stuff – I always wonder if my kiddo would have been so drawn to all the ‘girly’ stuff in the first place (not to imply that that’s bad, obviously) if he/we had just been able to find some pink/purple ‘boy’ stuff… We joked about making our own, but once he discovered he could have ‘girl’ shirts, with all their sparkle, there was no turning back… 🙂
Right–why not have pink shirts be be normal in the boys’ section? (Or better yet…how about no boy/girl sections?) Jeans and blue t-shirts are normal in the girls’ section.
Traditionally, men have had the power and Sofia status, and as culture has forced them to take the head of household roles, I know we’ve lived through millennia of little boys being forced to act masculine… As long as it took for women to have a voice (some places they still don’t)… Sigh, of is slow going, but I am SO glad to live in a place that despite having son HORRIBLE treatment for anything perceived as feminine in boys (which is stupid–just watch a wedding in India and see who looks “femme”), well, at least we are *getting* somewhere and have pockets of refuge despite a lot of conservative paranoia about losing traditions that only functioned when we were nomadic tribal groups of few… I can’t complain too much when I see what is happening overseas, but the idea that color is gendered is just stupid–the boy birds, frogs, fish, and so on are always the colorful ones! Humans are a peculiar bunch!
The “Girly girl” shirt would be fantastic for my pink yet rough, tumble, and dirty face little girl. Wonderful clothes!
I love the Purple Power Tool Belt on Blue Onesie. My son is due in late winter and this is just adorable.
Thanks!
D
dbyrne1[at]gmail[dot]com