Everyday heroes: Carol and Julianna are inspiring love— one T-shirt at a time
After a talk with her grandniece gave Carol Schilling a unique idea for spreading kindness, she started her own kids’ clothing line— and has touched the hearts of hundreds of families across the country!
Carol Schilling’s 5-yearold grandniece, Julianna, stopped and smiled up from her drawing. “I will be what I see, Aunt Carol!”
“What, Juli?” Carol asked, surprised and unsure of her meaning. “I mean, you have to follow your heart!” the little girl answered. “I will be what I see.”
Carol couldn’t believe her ears. “Does that mean that if you see someone being kind, you’ll be kind?” she prompted.
“It means that if I see a teacher, I’ll be a teacher!” she explained. “Aunt Carol, you must’ve seen a babysitter, because you’re my babysitter!”
Carol couldn’t help but smile. It was a far simpler idea than she’d thought, but still, it struck her. Juli’s right, the 66-year-old reflected. Kids will become what they see…we need to show them what love looks like and encourage them to follow their dreams.
“But how can I do that?” the retired teacher asked her friend Paulette.
“I recently heard someone made T-shirts decorated with a similar phrase,” Paulette recalled. “Maybe we should make shirts for kids with ‘I will be what I see’ on them!”
“Yes! We could also include some of Juli’s adorable stickfigure drawings of chefs, ballerinas and nurses!” Carol mused.
Inspired, they began taking steps to make the idea into a reality as Juli drew all kinds of stick-figure people, affectionately dubbed “Julidorables,” to feature on the shirts.
Soon, Carol and Paulette had launched an online store (I-willBe-what-i-see.myshopify. com), where parents and kids could customize their own shirts—with professions like astronauts and teachers, values like kindness and love and interests like sports and singing— that would be delivered to their door. Within a few months, the
“I Will Be What I See” website, Facebook and Instagram pages were thriving, with hundreds of joyful customers.
My son loves his construction worker shirt! one mom shared. It makes him smile! And with their “Chief Inspiration Officer,” Juli, at the design helm, the line soon expanded to include 180 Julidorables for kids’ tees, onesies and even adult-size shirts.
Still, Juli wanted to do more. “I want the money from our shirts to go to sick kids!” she suggested. So they donate a portion of sales to The Valerie Fund, which supports children with cancer and blood disorders.
Today, the T-shirts share the message of love and openheartedness to thousands. “With one simple phrase, Juli reminded me that everything we do has an impact on the kids watching us,” Carol says. “If they see us being kind and loving, they will too. And we love spreading that message to kids!”
We pay $250!