Tara Ijai
Location: Phoenix
Age: 43
Profession: Founder, Love Glasses Revolution; mother of two
Mission: To encourage people to see the world with love
More information: www.loveglassesrevolution.com
Read a Q&A with Tara Ijai discussing what she thinks it means to be an American.
Each week, this series will introduce you to an exceptional American who unites, rather than divides, our communities. To read more about the American profiled here and more average Americans doing exceptional things, visit onenation.usatoday.com.
What does it mean to you to be an American? “It’s what makes me me. It’s what makes it OK to be me. You can be you. I can be me. We can all be American.”
What moment touched and motivated you to launch this effort? She pushed on her first pair of heart-shaped glasses. “I realized I had a choice. I had a choice how I wanted to show up in the world. And I had a choice of how I wanted to see the world. I would see the world with love.” After that, it wasn’t one single moment but countless interactions with people after she began wearing her heart-shaped glasses that prompted her to launch Love Glasses Revolution. People wanted to do something. Ijai has reveled in the stories and pictures people who bought glasses send to her. They sign up to be love advocates and advocate for equality. “We decided love is just bigger,” Ijai said.
What gives you hope? “All of a sudden people were in Ireland wearing love glasses, in Australia, Canada, all over. We have a team of doctors in Colorado who were wearing love glasses after a woman’s hip surgery.” People of all races, of all religions. And when she shows up at marches with a “Love for all” banner, people flock to it. At an immigration march in Tempe, instead of “Down with Trump,” they chanted, “Love for all.” “That’s the thing that makes me so excited, that we can actually change the message,” Ijai said.
What do you hope to accomplish through your efforts? She hopes people will focus on what makes us the same instead of our differences. So she will keep showing up, wearing her hijab. “I know it changes the narrative. They want me to be scary. They want me to be foreign.” “I’m just going to keep showing up in love.”